Song · The Pretenders
“2,000 Miles” by The Pretenders
From the album Learning to Crawl (1983)
“2,000 Miles” by The Pretenders appears on 4 radio countdowns from 4 stations between 1983 and 2023. It was first released in 1983 on the album Learning to Crawl. Its best result is #40 on the 91X Top 91 Songs of 1983. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #94 alternative song of 1983 and #6,968 alternative song of all time.
Chrissie Hynde wrote "2000 Miles" by herself, and the Pretenders issued it in November 1983 as the second single off Learning to Crawl, their third album, with Chris Thomas producing. She wrote it a year after guitarist James Honeyman-Scott died of a drug overdose in 1982, and she has said she believes the distance the song keeps circling is about him. Otis Redding's "Thousand Miles Away" helped show her the way.
Hynde sings it and shares the guitars with Robbie McIntosh, while Malcolm Foster plays bass and Martin Chambers drums. The UK took it to heart, sending it to No. 15 that December, while in America it hid on the flip side of "Middle of the Road", seven-inch and 12-inch remix alike. It has since been adopted as a Christmas song, a regular on holiday compilations and one of the season's more quietly mournful guests.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
Indie & Adult Alternative
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1983 | 40 | 91X San Diego, CA / Tijuana | 91X Top 91 Songs of 1983 | 91 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | 1797 | Fred (XM 44) | Fred XM Top 2044 Songs of All-Time (July 2003) | 2044 |
| 2022 | 842 | WYEP | WYEP Countdown to Fall 2022 | 603 |
| 2023 | 687 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 850 Songs of the 1980s | 850 |
Also listed as: 2000 miles; 2000 Miles.
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