Movie

In Collection
#32

Seen It:
Yes

Music

USA / English

The Pretenders
Billy Bremner
Martin Chambers

Director

Don Letts

The Pretenders Greatest Hits is a selection of 20 songs and their variously successful videos. Chrissie Hynde arrived in the UK in 1973, and after a period as the "Loud Yank" NME journalist, she realised her dream of putting a band together. "Stop Your Sobbing" was a terrific first single for The Pretenders, debuting a voice that defied comparison or description. Naturally it's included here. Chrissie hated the early videos for her songs, especially "Brass in Pocket", which was one of the very first shown on MTV. She relays this sort of information to camera in the terrific documentary, "No Turn Left Unstoned", featured on this DVD. Comments come in from Rosanna Arquette, ex-managers, Elvis Costello, Bono, and her oldest friend. The overall opinion of the singer-writer that comes across in these interviews is one of an irreverent genius, not afraid to speak her mind (as in her passionate standing for animal rights through the organisation PETA ("People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals"). The band's turbulent history is chronicled through drug-related deaths, firing and re-hiring, motherhood, and the controversial use of the F word on stage, back when such things were shocking. There have been Pretenders greatest hits collections before, but this is expanded with "Human" and "Popstar" from the 1999 Viva El Amor album. --Paul Tonks

Edition Details
Video details	Region 2
Packaging	Jewel Case
Screen Ratio	4:3
Subtitles	English
Audio Tracks	Dolby 5.1 Surround Stereo - English
Layers	Single Side, Single Layer
Nr of Disks/Tapes	1

Personal Details
Purchase Date	05.9.2005 г.
Got from	arenabg.com
CD Label	Digital One

Tracks Listing:

01 - Introduction
02 - Brass In Pocket
03 - Message Of Love
04 - Don't Get Me Wrong
05 - Kid
06 - Human
07 - I Go To Sleep
08 - I Got You Babe

(UB40 & Chrissie Hynde)
09 - Night In My Veins
10 - Spiritual High (State Of Independence)

(Moodswings & Chrissie Hynde)
11 - Talk Of The Town
12 - Stop Your Sobbing
13 - Hymn To Her
14 - 2000 Miles (Isle Of View Version)
15 - Breakfast In Bed

(UB40 & Chrissie Hynde)
16 - Popstar
17 - Sense Of Purpose
18 - Middle Of The Road
19 - Thin Line Between Love And Hate
20 - Back On The Chain Gang
21 - I'll Stand By You
22 - Closng Credits

Includes "NO TURN LEFT UNSTONED", a 45-minute documentary containing interviews
with Chrissie Hynde and many of her collaborators and friends, including Nick Lowe,
U2's Bono, actress Rosanna Arquette, Kate Pierson of the B-52's, Motorhead's Lemmy,
and video director Don Letts.

From the liner notes by Julie Burchill:

"In the dog days of punk's wimpy cousin "New Wave", when popular music was drowning
in a sea of skinny ties and anorexic melodies, the Pretenders were quite astounding from the word go, not least for the vast and supple armoury of references they
brought with them, while at the same time seeming utterly and perfectly themselves;
the yowl and growl of Fifties rock and roll, the shimmer of Sixties pop, the brashness and flash of Seventies Glam and the attitude of punk. They were an ambulatory archive of all that had been great about pop music, with a dirty great dose of original splendour added for good measure."

"Damaged, vain, reckless, talented and obdurately loveable, she (Chrissie Hynde) is one of the long line of classic Americannes that goes all the way back to Aimee Semple, Zelda Fitzgerald and Edie Sedgwick and lives on, and not only did she have The Look, but she had the voice, the songs, the spirit. As pop packages go, this one has rarely been bettered."