| The Pretender | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | November 1976 | |||
| Recorded | 1976 | |||
| Studio | Sunset Sound (Hollywood) | |||
| Genre | Rock | |||
| Length | 35:07 | |||
| Label | Asylum | |||
| Producer | Jon Landau | |||
| Jackson Browne chronology | ||||
| ||||
The Pretender is the fourth album by the American singer-songwriter Jackson Browne, released in 1976. It peaked at No. 5 on Billboard's album chart. The singles from the album were "Here Come Those Tears Again", which reached No. 23, and "The Pretender", which peaked at No. 58.
The Pretender was released after the suicide of Browne's first wife, Phyllis Major, and one of the album's songs "Here Come Those Tears Again" (co-written by Major's mother Nancy Farnsworth) is dedicated to her. The album has production by Jon Landau and a mixture of styles.
The title track was used in the 1995 film Mr. Holland's Opus .
The album was certified as a gold record in 1976 and platinum in 1977 by the RIAA. It reached multi-platinum in 1997 and 2006. [1]
The back cover of The Pretender shows Pablo Neruda's poem Brown and Agile Child, translated by Kenneth Rexroth, in its entirety.
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |    [2] |
| Christgau's Record Guide | B [3] |
| The Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [4] |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [5] |
The Pretender was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1978, but did not win.
Record World said that "Browne's tender concerns are as insightfully expressed as has become the norm, Jon Landau's production adding a subtle broadening of the rock base" and said that "'The Fuse,' 'The Pretender,' 'Sleep's Dark and Silent Gate' and 'The Only Child' are particularly moving and beautifully arranged." [6]
In his review for AllMusic, William Ruhlmann was equivocal about the album, stating Browne "took a step back from the precipice so well defined on his first three albums, but doing so didn't seem to make him feel any better... The man who had delved so deeply into life's abyss on his earlier albums was in search of escape this time around." [2]
In The Rolling Stone Album Guide , Marc Coleman wrote, "...even when his songwriting is sharp, the mellowing trend in his music dulls the impact. Browne eerily predicts the rise of the yuppie on The Pretender's title track, only to have his point undercut by a creeping string section." [5] Music critic Robert Christgau gave the album a B grade, but explained, "This is an impressive record, but a lot of the time I hate it; my grade is an average, not a judgment" and "The shallowness of his kitschy doomsaying and sentimental sexism is well-known, but I'm disappointed as well in his depth of craft." [7] In 2012, the album was ranked number 391 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. [8] The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll says, "Its sense of despair is derived in part from the suicide of his first wife, Phyllis, in 1976, two and a half years after the birth of their son, Ethan." The single "Here Come Those Tears Again" was credited as co-written with Nancy Farnsworth, Phyllis Major's mother.
Classic Rock History critic Brian Kachejian rated three songs from the album as being among Browne's ten greatest songs – "The Fuse", "Here Come Those Tears Again" and the title track – and said that "just about every song from the album could have made this list." [9]
All tracks are written by Jackson Browne except where noted.
Side 1
Side 2
harmony vocals:
Album – Billboard (United States)
| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 1976 | Pop Albums | 5 |
Singles – Billboard (United States)
| Year | Single | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1977 | "Here Come Those Tears Again" | Pop Singles | 23 |
| 1977 | "The Pretender" | Pop Singles | 58 |
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom (BPI) [10] | Silver | 60,000^ |
| United States (RIAA) [11] | 3× Platinum | 3,000,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. | ||
Warren Zevon is the second studio album by American musician Warren Zevon. This album was recorded in 1975 and released on May 18, 1976, by Asylum Records. A remastered version of the album with bonus tracks was released in 2008 by Rhino Records.
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Lives in the Balance is the eighth album by American singer-songwriter Jackson Browne, released in 1986. It reached number 23 on the Billboard 200 chart. The title track as well as "For America" and "In the Shape of a Heart" were released as singles. The album was ranked number 88 on Rolling Stone's list of the best 100 albums of the 1980s. The album reached number 2 in Sweden.
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I'm Alive is the tenth album by American singer-songwriter Jackson Browne, released in 1993. The title track, "I'm Alive", reached No. 18 on the Album Rock Tracks chart and No. 28 on the Adult Contemporary chart. Other singles released from the album were "Everywhere I Go" and "Sky Blue and Black".
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"Running on Empty" is a song by American singer-songwriter Jackson Browne. It is the title track of his 1977 live album of the same name, recorded at a concert at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland, on August 27, 1977. A number 11 hit on the US Billboard Hot 100 when it was released as a single, it spent seventeen weeks on the chart after debuting on February 11, 1978 at position 72. Rolling Stone ranked it at number 496 on its list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" in 2010 and number 492 in 2004 and it is one of Browne's signature songs. "Running on Empty" was most popular in Canada, where it spent two weeks at number four.
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"Here Come Those Tears Again" is a song co-written and performed by American singer-songwriter Jackson Browne and included on his 1976 album The Pretender. Released as a single, it reached #23 one year to the week after the death of Browne's wife, Phyllis Major, spending nine weeks on the chart, after entering the Billboard Hot 100 on February 5, 1977, at position #64, the highest debut of the week. It also reached #15 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart. The single was the eighth-highest charting of his Hot 100 career. It was also released as a single in the United Kingdom, Germany and Japan.
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