Pretenders

The Pretenders broke a lot of ground when they emerged in the late '70s. Not only were they one of the first and few new wave bands to really break big with mainstream rock audiences, they were one of few high-profile groups of the era with a female leader. American expat Chrissie Hynde, who had done a bit of music journalism, was in London immersing herself in the blossoming punk scene in the mid '70s. Amid the constant shuffle of tentative bands forming and splitting, she ended up playing alongside the likes of Clash guitarist Mick Jones and The Damned's Captain Sensible. In 1978 she finally formed The Pretenders with guitarist James Honeyman-Scott, bassist Pete Farndon, and drummer Martin Chambers. Their first single, released at the beginning of '79, was a cover of The Kinks' "Stop Your Sobbing" that underlined the '60s pop influences Hynde would combine with a modernist edge. The band's homonymous first album, released right after Christmas that year in the U.K. and a month later in America, was a major success on both sides of the Atlantic, putting The Pretenders at the front lines of the new wave. And with a persona that boasted both toughness and sex appeal, Hynde became an important role model for female rockers. 1981's Pretenders II solidified the band's standing, with the pop-savvy singles "Talk of the Town" and "Message of Love." But The Pretenders' fate soon took a drastic downturn. Two days after Farndon was kicked out for drug-related issues, Honeyman-Scott took a fatal blast of cocaine that caused his heart to give out. And on April 14, 1983, Farndon drowned in his bathtub after a heroin overdose. Hynde and Chambers soldiered on, making Learning To Crawl with guitarist Robbie McIntosh and bassist Malcolm Foster. Featuring the hit "Back on the Chain Gang," the album became the band's biggest ever. In 1985, Hynde fired Chambers, and Foster quit in protest, so 1986's Get Close featured T.M. Stevens on bass and ex-Haircut 100 drummer Blair Cunningham. By the time 1990's Packed! was rolled out, The Pretenders was a band in name only, with Hynde backed by a raft of session players. Things took a commercial dive around this time too, but in 1994 "I'll Stand By You," a lushly produced power ballad penned by pro songwriters Tom Kelly and Billy Steinberg, briefly revived Hynde's fortunes, and Last of the Independents went Gold in the U.S. Chambers returned to the fold in 1999, and while The Pretenders never reproduced the success of their '80s heyday, they kept on working through 2012, with Hynde finally releasing her solo debut two years later.