An Album/Song A Week: Pretenders - s/t

 At age 16, and thanks to a part-time job,  I started to buy more albums.  I also started relying more on reviews from magazines I subscribed to like Rolling Stone, Billboard, and others that I browsed through at the library.  Often, I would hear a song on the radio first and then buy the album as soon as it was released.  

  The Pretenders debut album in 1980 was one of those.  My recollection of buying it revolves around early reviews calling it one of the best debut albums in a long time.  But in looking at my Billboard chart books, the album appeared on the chart before the single.  But only by a month.  Regardless of how I purchased it, it was one of the first albums that I bought without hearing anything other than the first single.  The debut albums by the Cars and Dire Straits also fit that description.

  The Pretenders is now rightly considered a classic album.  It's their best album, with 1984's Learning to Crawl coming in second.  Chrissie Hynde was a Rock and Roll original.  Definitely an influence on many future Rock women.  It played a big part in my record buying life.  What I heard in "Brass In Pocket" was indeed the real thing.