The Pretenders - Cuban Slide - Non-Album Tracks (1978-1980)

There are a lot of musical artists I want to post about but haven't gotten around to yet. The Pretenders/Chrissie Hynde are a big one. I've been surprised at just how much good non-album material there is. This is the first of at least nine stray tracks albums I have from her and her band.

A lot of people think the Pretenders were at their best during the era of their first three albums, and I'm one of them. Arguably, the Pretenders were only a real band for their first two albums, because two of the four band members died between the recording of the second and third albums. It became Hynde plus backing musicians after that. Happily, all of the songs here are from when all four original members were still in the band.

This album is definitely a mixed bag. There are some great songs. For instance, "Cuban Slide" is one of my favorite Pretenders songs of all time, which is why I've named this album after it. There are a handful of other very nice originals. But there also are some slight instrumentals and unremarkable cover versions. But still, I consider anything from these early years to be pretty great.

The first song is a version of the famous 1960s Troggs hit "Wild Thing," except it's sung in French. It's credited to "Chrissie Hynde and the Strangeways." I don't know the full story behind this, but apparently the Strangeways weren't a real band, but a bunch of musicians who came together very briefly just to record this, right before the Pretenders were formed.

The next three songs are some demos recorded by Hynde with or without the other Pretenders. I actually have an entire album of demos from the band's early years to post. But I've put these three songs here instead because these are songs not done elsewhere, while the other demos are all versions of well-known Pretenders tunes. "Do I Love You" is a cover of a 1960s hit by the Ronettes, while the other two are originals that sound good enough to me to have fit on the first Pretenders album.

Most of the rest of the songs are originals also. One exception is "Sabre Dance," a 1960s hit that's a guitar-based instrumental, with Hynde strangely and occasionally singing some of the lyrics to "Stop Your Sobbing" on top of it. "Counterfeit" is a song by Chris Spedding that wasn't officially released by him until 1986.

Unfortunately, the sound quality on that one, plus "Tequila" (a Hynde original and not the 1960s instrumental hit) are rougher than all the rest. That's because they come from an audience bootleg. But still, I think they sound good enough for inclusion. However, the Pretenders' cover of "Girl Don't Come," a 1960s hit by Sandie Shaw, is even rougher. So I've only included that one as a bonus track.

01 Chose Sauvage [Wild Thing] (Chrissie Hynde & the Strangeways)
02 Do I Love You [Demo] (Chrissie Hynde & Steve Jones)
03 I Can't Control Myself [Demo] (Pretenders)
04 Suicide [Demo] (Chrissie Hynde)
05 Sabre Dance - Stop Your Sobbing [Live] (Pretenders)
06 I Need Somebody (Pretenders)
07 Swinging London [Instrumental] (Pretenders)
08 Nervous but Shy [Instrumental] (Pretenders)
09 Cuban Slide (Pretenders)
10 Porcelain (Pretenders)
11 Whatcha Gonna Do about It (Pretenders)
12 Counterfeit (Pretenders)
13 Tequila (Pretenders)

Girl Don't Come (Pretenders)

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I based the cover art on the cover of the "Extended Play" EP, since "Cuban Slide" and a couple other songs here come from that.  But I changed the photo and most everything else, while keeping the general look. I called the band "Pretenders" instead of "The Pretenders" because that's what was written on the EP cover.