The Pretenders 'Pirate Radio' album

American expatriate Chrissie Hynde formed The Pretenders in 1978 while working in London and continues to be the band’s driving force today. More than 25 years after the hard rocking quartet’s original lineup—Hynde, guitarist James Honeyman Scott, bassist Pete Farndon and drummer Martin Chambers—launched the band’s hit-making expedition, Rhino Records shivers ye timbers with PIRATE RADIO. The Pretenders’ career-spanning boxed set includes four discs and a single DVD and is available March 14.

The collection—81 tracks and 19 videos—contains more than five hours of The Pretenders’ best from all eight of the band’s studio recordings plus soundtrack contributions and live recordings. PIRATE RADIO brings together the band’s essential recordings with hard-to-find rarities and unreleased studio and live recordings. The DVD compiles the band’s British television performances along with unreleased concert recordings from 1979-1995.

The Pretenders’ musical evolution plays out over the course of PIRATE RADIO’s four discs starting with the band’s scrappy, early days in London—including a previously unreleased 1978 demo of “Precious” and the band’s first two singles, “Stop Your Sobbing” and “The Wait.” Starting in 1979, the band began a successful two-year run that included two albums and an EP—Pretenders (1979) and Pretenders II (1981) and Extended Play (1981)—that boasted some of the band’s biggest hits such as “Brass In Pocket,” “Message Of Love” and “I Go To Sleep.”

The set also chronicles the aftermath of the heartbreaking losses of Honeyman Scott, who died in 1982, and Farndon, who died in 1983. Hynde returned in 1984 with Learning To Crawl, which featured the hits “Back On The Chain Gang,” “Middle Of The Road,” “Show Me” and “Thin Line Between Love And Hate.” Two years later The Pretenders were back with Get Close, which included the hit “Don’t Get Me Wrong.” PIRATE RADIO also includes several unreleased session outtakes including “Tequila” from the Learning To Crawl sessions and “Worlds Within Worlds,” Warren Zevon’s “Reconsider Me” and an alternate version of “Hold A Candle To This” from the Get Close sessions. PIRATE RADIO also includes selections from Packed! (1990), Last Of The Independents (1994), The Isle Of View (1995), Viva El Amor! (1999) and Loose Screw (2002).

PIRATE RADIO also packs in music The Pretenders originally released on soundtracks and compilations, including the Burt Bacharach/Hal David-penned “Windows Of The World” from the 1969 soundtrack, a cover of Jimi Hendrix’s “Bold As Love” from Stone Free: A Tribute To Jimi Hendrix, a cover of Morrissey’s “Everyday Is Like Sunday” from the Boys On The Side soundtrack and a live cover of Radiohead’s “Creep.”

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The Pretenders - Pirate Radio