Customer Reviews

The Pretenders - Greatest Hits

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm rating this CD with 5 stars for one reason: Pretenders. Chrissie Hynde is rock-and-roll. However, note the title of this collection : "Greatest Hits." This is definitely not "Best Songs" or even "Representative Songs." This is about the radio hits. Any Pretenders fan will tell you a true "Greatest" collection will include: "Mystery Achievement," "Tattooed Love Boys," "English Roses," "Bad Boys Get Spanked," "Louie Louie," "Pack it Up," "My City was Gone," "Thumbelina," "Roomful of Mirrors," "Cuban Slide," "Love Colors," "Dragway 42," and, most recently, the great cover of Neil Young's "Needle and the Damage Done." (Another recent cut also highly recommended: Chrissie Hynde and Pretenders guitarist Adam Seymour performing Bruce Springsteen's "Nebraska" on the tribute CD "Badlands.") All this being said, every Pretenders fanatic will need to add this to their collection. And hey, you will never get tired of hearing "Talk of the Town."

Sorry, for me this collection doesn't do Chrisse Hynde and The Pretenders justice as the great ... rock n roll band that they are. I'm not surprised or anything. These "Greatest Hits" packages are almost always geared towards making a band look like easy going sellouts.
The hard facts are that THE PRETENDERS had enough kutzpah and swagger to hang with the likes of AC/DC and The Stones.
Unfortunately, this collection (although containg a number of fine songs), completely misses the point of THE PRETENDERS as the great ROCK band that they are.
Please, opt to buy the first few studio albums and listen to Chrissie's ... attitude on gems like "PRECIOUS", "THE WAIT", "MYSTERY ACHIEVEMENT", "MY CITY WAS GONE" or "THE ADULTRESS." These great songs not only feature Chrissie's bid as one of rock n roll's very finest female artists but they also feature some of the best angst riddled guitar riffs, energized melodies and pounding rhythms in rock history.
To anyone not familiar with THE PRETENDERS and who considers themselves a "ROCKER", please avoid this collection and purchase those wonderful studio albums: PRETENDERS, PRETENDERS II & LEARNING TO CRAWL. You'll have a much more clear picture of this great band after listening.
If you just want some nice, safe radio songs then I guess this collection is for you.
Personally, I would "WAIT" for a better set(one that really shows the band's swagger as well as their pop craft) and I think Chrissie would agree.
M.L.

This is similar to the "Singles" cd but contains more songs and is remastered. It focuses on their more radio friendly songs, so the more thumpy or punkish songs are not here. Thats good for me as this has the Pretenders sound that I want.

the pretenders are a great band. they are a great album band and such, any greatest hits album will not do them justice. however, they do have lots and lots of great singles which are worth listening to, in and of themselves. i am not going to give this record a great rating, but i am going to recommend it highly simply because all the songs on here are worth listening to, on their own merit. very good stuff. it's the pretenders, for god's sake.

Hey, when I was 18, and the Pretenders first album came out, I thought it was the coolest album in the world, and I played it to death. Now, almost 30 years later, this collection is the Pretenders sound for me, a more mellow, older, wiser sound that suits Chrissie Hynde just fine. Chrissie's sound has matured into middle-age with grace and class, and the music here represents that more mature sound very well. Truthfully, as a middle-ager myself, at this point in my life I can relate to a song like "I'll Stand By You" a lot more than I can a song like "Precious" anyways. I'll bet Chrissie would agree.

This is an updated collection from the earlier Greatest Hits collection and conatins some of their 90's hits. All Pretenders CDs not equal as their first was just SO good that you'd like to see more from that disc like "Mystery Acheivement" and "Stop Your Sobbing" and less from some later discs. What's here is great music , though, and it's probably a sign that a great band like the Pretenders need 2 discs to squeeze in all their hits, key album tracks, and concert favorites.

After hearing a radio show on the Pretenders I realized the huge hole in my music library caused by having no album from this prolific band. I signed in to Amazon and spent much of the evening listening to samples and reading reviews of each album. I ordered this album even though many music snobs stated that doing so is selling out to the punk roots of the Pretenders; I respectfully disagree. What this album does is serve as an exemplar of the many stages that this great band has gone through during their long and fruitful career. It creates a complete picture better than most one album sets and is cheaper than buying six different albums. For most people this is the best value and thus the best buy from the Pretenders.

I guess writing a review on a CD is odd for me. I don't buy a CD unless there is something about it that I like to begin with....a certain song I've been looking for or maybe I'm addicted to the artist no matter what they play.

The Pretenders are one of those bands that I knew I liked, but never really got around to buying their CD. All I can say is, if you have any appreciation for music, you'll like The Pretenders. Not only does the band know how to present a song, but the lyrics are insanely great. If you are hemming and hawing...just buy it. You won't be disappointed.

Thank you very much for the quick service & quality product. I will be sure to shop with your company again in the future and recommend you to anyone !

I was not what you would call a fan "back in the day". But my maturity has me turning back to the "classics". The Pretenders are hot on my playlist. This collection covers all of the songs I remember -but did not appreciate- from the days when music still had some quality to it. There are also some tunes I had not heard that are quite amazing.