Learning to Crawl | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | 13 January 1984 [1] | |||
Recorded | Mid-1982 to late 1983 | |||
Studio | AIR Studios (London) | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 39:21 | |||
Label | Sire | |||
Producer | Chris Thomas | |||
The Pretenders chronology | ||||
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Singles from Learning to Crawl | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
The Austin Chronicle | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Chicago Tribune | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Mojo | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
PopMatters | 10/10 [6] |
Rolling Stone | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
The Rolling Stone Album Guide | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Spin Alternative Record Guide | 8/10 [9] |
Uncut | 8/10 [10] |
The Village Voice | A− [11] |
Learning to Crawl is the third studio album by British-American rock band the Pretenders. It was released on 13 January 1984 by Sire Records after a hiatus during which band members James Honeyman-Scott and Pete Farndon died of drug overdoses. The album's title of "Learning to Crawl" was given in honour of Chrissie Hynde's then-infant daughter, Natalie Rae Hynde. She was learning to crawl at the time that Hynde was trying to determine a title for the album.
Learning to Crawl was a critical and commercial success, reaching number 11 on the UK Albums Chart. In the United States, it peaked at number five on the Billboard 200, making it the band's highest-charting album in the US.
After Farndon's dismissal from the band and Honeyman-Scott's death, Chrissie Hynde and Martin Chambers initially recruited Rockpile's Billy Bremner and Big Country's Tony Butler to fill in a caretaker line-up of the band in 1982. Bremner played guitar and Butler played bass on the band's September 1982 single "Back on the Chain Gang" and its B-side "My City Was Gone", both songs which were later included on Learning to Crawl. As the album sessions got underway, Bremner, Graham Parker's bassist Andrew Bodnar, and Paul Carrack (formerly of Squeeze, Ace and Roxy Music) played guitar, bass and piano respectively for the track "Thin Line Between Love and Hate".
Finally, Robbie McIntosh (guitar) and Malcolm Foster (bass guitar) were recruited to join Hynde and Chambers, and the band was now officially a quartet. It was this line-up that recorded the rest of the tracks featured on Learning to Crawl.
The November 1983 single "2000 Miles" was the newly reconstituted foursome's first release, followed shortly by the full Learning to Crawl studio album in January 1984.
Hynde noted in the booklet for the expanded edition of Learning to Crawl that guitarist Robbie McIntosh came up with the opening guitar riff for "2000 Miles". She stated that she probably should have credited McIntosh as co-writer of the song. [12]
"2000 Miles" became a popular Christmas song in the UK. The lyrics are a tale of two lovers apart during Christmastime. [13]
In "I Hurt You", dubbing was used to overlap two lead vocal parts with conflicting melodies and emotional pitches in order to express the narrator's tangled emotions. [13]
"My City Was Gone" is largely an autobiographical song written about the changes that Hynde observed when she went back to her native city of Akron, Ohio. [12] The instrumental introduction of the song would later be adopted as the theme of the EIB Network radio brand, originally Rush Limbaugh and later Clay Travis and Buck Sexton.
"Thumbelina" is a country rock song about a mother and daughter traveling across America, with the last line suggesting that the mother is leaving her husband. [13]
"Watching the Clothes" was an older song written before the band's debut album. Hynde was inspired to write the song after a close friend died. [12]
All songs written by Chrissie Hynde, except where noted.
2007 re-release
The Pretenders
Additional personnel
Chart (1984) | Peak Position |
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Australia (Kent Music Report) [14] | 18 |
UK Albums Chart [15] | 11 |
Billboard 200 [16] | 5 |
Chart (1984) | Position |
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US Billboard 200 [17] | 30 |
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
United Kingdom (BPI) [18] | Gold | 100,000^ |
United States (RIAA) [19] | Platinum | 1,000,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |
The Pretenders are a British-American rock band formed in March 1978. The original band consisted of founder and main songwriter Chrissie Hynde, James Honeyman-Scott, Pete Farndon and Martin Chambers. Following the deaths of Honeyman-Scott in 1982 and Farndon in 1983, the band experienced numerous personnel changes; Hynde has been the band's only consistent member.
Christine Ellen Hynde is an American-British musician. She is a founding member and the lead vocalist, guitarist, and primary songwriter of the rock band The Pretenders, and one of the band's two remaining original members alongside drummer Martin Chambers. She is the only continuous member of the band, appearing on every studio album.
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Pretenders II is the second studio album by British rock band the Pretenders, issued on Sire Records in August 1981. It incorporates two songs that had been released as singles in the UK and placed on an EP in the US. It peaked at #7 on the UK Albums Chart and #10 on the Billboard 200, and has been certified a gold record for sales by the RIAA. It is the final album by the original line-up, as the following year bassist Pete Farndon was dismissed and guitarist James Honeyman-Scott died in the same week. Farndon died in 1983, and a new line-up would make the band's next album, Learning to Crawl.
"My City Was Gone" is a song by the rock group The Pretenders. The song originally appeared in October 1982 as the B-side to the single release of "Back on the Chain Gang"; the single was the first release for the band following the death of founding bandmember James Honeyman-Scott. The song was included on the album Learning to Crawl, which was released in early 1984, and it became a radio favorite in the United States. It is sometimes referred to as "The Ohio Song" for its constant reference to the state.
James Honeyman-Scott was an English rock guitarist, songwriter and founding member of the band the Pretenders.
Martin Dale Chambers is an English musician, best known as a founding member and drummer of the rock band the Pretenders. In addition to playing the drums with the group, Chambers sings backing vocals and plays percussion. He was part of the original band line-up, which also included Chrissie Hynde (vocals/guitar), James Honeyman-Scott (guitar/vocals/keyboards) and Pete Farndon. Hynde and Chambers are the only two surviving original members, and he has served two separate tenures with the group.
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Loose Screw is the eighth studio album by rock group the Pretenders, and was released in 2002. It was the first time that the Pretenders had the same credited band line-up on three consecutive studio albums.
Extended Play is a 1981 EP released by new wave band The Pretenders. "Message of Love" and "Talk of the Town" featured on this EP were also included on their second album Pretenders II released later the same year. "Porcelain" and "Cuban Slide", outtakes from their Pretenders debut album, were included on disc two of the 2006 and 2021 remastered editions of their debut album and on the Pirate Radio box set. The live version of "Precious" on this EP, recorded at their New York Central Park performance on 30 August 1980, was finally released on CD on November 5, 2021. The booklet for disc one of the Pretenders debut album from the 2015 UK Edsel/Rhino Records box set 1979–1999 incorrectly states "Precious" is from that Central Park performance. Instead, the box set version is from their Boston performance of 23 March 1980; it is also included on disc two of the 2006 remastered edition of Pretenders.
"Back on the Chain Gang" is a song written by American-British musician Chrissie Hynde, originally recorded by her band the Pretenders and released as a single by Sire Records in September 1982. The song was included on The King of Comedy soundtrack album in March 1983 and was later included on the Pretenders' third album, Learning to Crawl, in January 1984.
"Where Has Everybody Gone?" is a song by English-American rock band the Pretenders. It was one of two songs recorded by the band for the 1987 James Bond film The Living Daylights, the other being "If There Was a Man". "Where Has Everybody Gone?" peaked at number 26 on the United States Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.
"Middle of the Road" is a song by the Pretenders, released as the third single from the album Learning to Crawl. The single was released in the US in November 1983, then in the UK in February 1984.
"2000 Miles" is a song by British-American rock band Pretenders. Written by lead vocalist Chrissie Hynde and produced by Chris Thomas, it was released on 18 November 1983 as the second single from their third studio album, Learning to Crawl (1984). It was most popular in the UK, where it peaked at No. 15 on the UK Singles Chart in December 1983. In the US, it was released as the B-side of both the 7-inch single and 12-inch single remix of the band's hit "Middle of the Road".
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