Out now: The Pretenders' special LP reissue of 'Learning to Crawl' for 40th Anniversary

With The Pretenders winding down its current U.S. tour (as headliner and special guest at select Foo Fighters stadium dates) this month, it’s a good time to remind fans about the new LP reissue of Learning to Crawl.

Released via Rhino/Warners to mark its 40th anniversary, the new edition is available in crystal clear and standard black variants HERE. This pressing features the 2018 remastered audio by original producer Chris Thomas on vinyl for the first time. The album jacket has concert shots on the front and back.

The rock band’s third full-length studio effort, Learning to Crawl is one of its best, emerging after the untimely 1982-83 deaths of co-founding guitarist James Honeyman-Scott and bassist Pete Farndon.

Singer/guitarist Chrissie Hynde and drummer Martin Chambers were joined by guitarist Robbie McIntosh and bassist Malcolm Foster, who would soon join the group. Guests included Tony Butler of Big Country on bass, Squeeze/Ace keyboardist Paul Carrack, Billy Bremner of Rockpile and others.

A smashing success in America, Learning to Crawl went to #5 on the Billboard 200 chart (the band's highest chart placing to date) and was certified platinum here. Hit singles on the magazine’s Hot 100 tally included “Back on the Chain Gang” (#5), “Middle of the Road” (#19) and “Show Me” (#28). Meanwhile, major Album Oriented Rock radio airplay greeted those tunes as well as “My City Was Gone” and “Thumbelina.”

As for the music, five of the 10 tracks are still a regular part of the band’s live set, which is fairly rare these days. The album opens with the frantic harmonica-fueled classic “Middle of the Road” and some pointed Hynde lyrics such as “When you own a big chunk of the bloody Third World/The babies just come with the scenery” and “I can’t get from the cab to the curb without some little jerk on my back.”

Other standouts include “Back on the Chain Gang,” a wistful song dedicated to Honeyman-Scott, complete with hammer sounds and a gang chant in a nod to Sam Cooke’s 1960 hit “Chain Gang”; “Show Me,” the loving midtempo ode to Hynde’s newborn daughter, with memorable chiming guitars; the chugging, bluesy rocker “My City Was Gone,” inspired by a trip Hynde took to her native Akron, Ohio after living in London for years and being shocked at the deterioration; a gorgeous cover of R&B vocal group The Persuaders’ 1971 song “Thin Line Between Love and Hate” and what became a Christmas perennial appearing on countless holiday album compilations, “2000 Miles.”