Pretenders – Stop Your Sobbing

After watching the Pretenders on the Concert for Kampuchea I’ve been listening to Pretenders lately. The original band was something special. The original band was James Honeyman-Scott (lead guitar, backing vocals, keyboards), Pete Farndon (bass guitar, backing vocals), and Martin Chambers (drums, backing vocals, percussion)…and of course Chrissie Hynde.

Following the drug-related deaths of Honeyman-Scott and Farndon, the band experienced numerous subsequent personnel changes. Hynde has been the band’s only consistent member.

Written by Ray Davies and recorded for The Kinks’ 1964 self-titled debut album, this was later covered by The Pretenders as their first single. The Pretenders’ recording of the song led to the relationship between Davies and the band’s frontwoman Chrissie Hynde.

In order to convince guitarist James Honeyman-Scott to join The Pretenders, Chrissie Hynde hired one of his favorite recording artists, Nick Lowe, to produce this song.

This song peaked at #65 in the Billboard 100 and #34 in the UK in 1980.

 

From Songfacts

In his autobiography, Ray Davies writes of a girlfriend who may have been the subject of this song: “Her sobbing was making me feel guilty and I told her to stop… there was something so desperately lonely about her.”

The Pretenders covered another Ray Davies penned track a couple of years later, “I Go To Sleep,” for another single release.

Stop Your Sobbing

It is time for you to stop all of your sobbing
Yes it’s time for you to stop all of your sobbing oh oh oh
There’s one thing you gotta do
To make me still want you
Gotta stop sobbing now
Yeah yeah stop it stop it

It is time for you to laugh instead of crying
Yes it’s time for you to laugh so keep on trying oh oh oh
There’s one thing you gotta do
To make me still want you
Gotta stop sobbing now
Yeah yeah stop it stop it

Each little tear that falls from your eyes
Makes, makes me want
To take you in my arms and tell you
To stop all your sobbing

There’s one thing you gotta do
To make me still want you
And there’s one thing you gotta know
To make me want you so
Gotta stop sobbing now
Yeah yeah stop, stop, stop, stop
Gotta stop sobbing at all
Stop, stop, stop, stop
Gotta stop sobbing at all
Stop, stop, stop, stop
Gotta stop sobbing at all
Stop, stop, stop, stop
Stop, stop, stop sobbing
Stop, stop, stop, stop
Gotta stop sobbing
Stop, stop, stop, stop
Gotta stop sobbing at all
Stop, stop, stop, stop
Gotta stop sobbing at all

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player.

23 thoughts on “Pretenders – Stop Your Sobbing”

  2. This is the first version of Stop Your Sobbing I remember hearing, and the first I ever heard of the Pretenders. I loved them instantly. This is one of the rare instances where I like the cover better than the original. I didn’t know Nick Lowe produced it, and that makes me like it even more. I do like the Kinks’ version too.

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    1. Same here also. I don’t know if I ever heard the Kinks version which is odd. They were a truly great band…it’s a shame what happened.

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    1. The band was special….I’m not discluding Chrissie but she always talked about how great it was…I’m really seeing that now. They all did have a chemistry.

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  4. One of their solid singles….I think somewhere along the line I noticed Davies wrote it (and I knew he and Chrissie were an item) I didn’t know the Kinks had recorded it. May try to go give a listen to them doing it

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  6. You already know how much I love this song. The words, the lyrics, the melody, the guitar (kicks butt), and of course how Chrissie sings it. One of my favorites (of many) of The Pretenders.

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  7. Too band dope ruined this band but they moved on
    Chrissie is one tuff bird I tell ya
    I was scared a few decades back when Chambers was considered for the drummer slot in Guns N Roses lol
    I could not picture him smashing about on the drums to Its So Easy

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  8. I remember this! I haven’t heard it in YEARS. I read about her band falling apart, practically. It really knocked her off balance. Broke her heart. She worked very hard to put a good band together.

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  10. Pingback: Pretenders – Stop Your Sobbing — PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture – Musical Musings of a Mangled Mind

      2. Yes he is…I grew up at the same time he did…for some reason I was closer to older music than I was music in my generation… but I did like it.

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