“Message of Love” by The Pretenders

"Message of Love" was a 1981 Pretenders single that turned up on the Extended Play EP before landing on Pretenders II later that year. Hynde wrote it, but the song took shape as a band effort, pieced together mostly in the studio with Chris Thomas producing.

And you can hear four people pushing in the same direction. James Honeyman-Scott and Hynde lock their guitars into a jagged, chiming groove, Pete Farndon's bass struts underneath and Martin Chambers pounds away like he's got something to prove, while Hynde sings with that mix of tough talk and tenderness that was already her calling card.

It was a radio hit and climbed to number 11 in Britain, and critics have since singled it out as one of the high points of Pretenders II.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.