"Brass In Pocket (I'm Special)" is a song by English–American rock band

the Pretenders Pretenders are an English–American rock band formed in March 1978. The original band consisted of founder and main songwriter Chrissie Hynde (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), James Honeyman-Scott (lead guitar, backing vocals, keyboards), Pete Fa ...

, released in 1979 as the third single from their self-titled debut album. It was written by

Chrissie Hynde Christine Ellen Hynde (born September 7, 1951) is an American musician. She is a founding member and the lead vocalist, guitarist, and primary songwriter of the rock band the Pretenders, and one of the band's two remaining original members alon ...

and

James Honeyman-Scott James Honeyman-Scott (4 November 1956 – 16 June 1982) was an English rock guitarist, songwriter and founding member of the band The Pretenders. With the band, Honeyman-Scott established a reputation, in the words of AllMusic, as "one of the ...

, and produced by Chris Thomas. Originating as a guitar lick written by Honeyman-Scott, the song features a lyric that Hynde explained to be about the cockiness that one needs to effectively perform. The song's title derives from a phrase she overheard after a show. "Brass in Pocket" became the band's biggest hit to that point, reaching number one in the UK and number 14 in the US. Its music video was the seventh video aired on MTV on its launch on 1 August 1981.

Background

"Brass in Pocket" originated as a guitar line that

played for

. Hynde then recorded the part with a tape recorder and wrote the song's lyric. Musically, Hynde described the song as "trying to be a

Motown Motown Records is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on June 7, 1958, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau of ''moto ...

song, but it didn't quite get it." Hynde got the idea for the song's title when, during an after-show dinner, she overheard someone enquiring if anyone had "Picked up dry cleaning? Any brass in pocket?" Of the song's reference to "bottle," Hynde explained, "Bottle is Cockney rhyming slang. It means bottle and glass. The way Cockney rhyming slang works is the word you're really saying rhymes with the second word. So bottle and glass rhymes with ass. In England, to say somebody has a lot of ass they have a lot of funk. So you say, 'That guy has a lot of bottle. Of the song's meaning, Hynde stated: During an interview with ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...

'' in 2004, she revealed she was initially reluctant to have the song released: "When we recorded the song I wasn't very happy with it and told my producer that he could release it over my dead body." Hynde later reflected, "Now I like that song because it's one of those songs that served me well. I didn't like my voice on it. I was kind of a new singer, and listening to my voice made me kind of cringe."

Music and lyric

The lyric describes the female singer about to have her first sexual encounter with a particular person, and is expressing her confidence that the experience will be successful. According to ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'' magazine critic

Ken Tucker Kenneth Tucker is an American arts, music and television critic, magazine editor, and non-fiction book writer. Early life and education Tucker was born in Manhattan, New York City, New York, and raised in Stamford, Connecticut. He earned a ...

, the song uses "an iron fist as a

metaphor A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are often compared wit ...

for ynde'ssexual clout." ''

The Rolling Stone Album Guide ''The Rolling Stone Album Guide'', previously known as ''The Rolling Stone Record Guide'', is a book that contains professional music reviews written and edited by staff members from ''Rolling Stone'' magazine. Its first edition was published in 1 ...

'' critic

J. D. Considine J. D. Considine (born 1957) is a music critic who has been writing about music professionally since 1977. Background J. D. Considine's work has been published in numerous newspapers and music magazines, and he has contributed to several books. ...

describes the song as "sassy" and credits the band for "putting bounce in each step" of it. Author

Simon Reynolds Simon Reynolds (born 19 June 1963) is an English music journalist and author who began his professional career on the staff of ''Melody Maker'' in the mid-1980s. He has since gone on to freelance and publish a number of full-length books on music ...

similarly describes Hynde's vocal as "pure sass" and "a feline narcissism," noting particularly her "lingering languorously" over the words "I'm special". According to

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

critic Steve Huey, the

backbeat In music and music theory, the beat is the basic unit of time, the pulse (regularly repeating event), of the ''mensural level'' (or ''beat level''). The beat is often defined as the rhythm listeners would tap their toes to when listening to a p ...

"meshes very nicely with Hynde's unshakable confidence, and the song never gets aggressive enough to break its charming spell or make her self-assurance seem implausibly idealized." Huey also points out a

harmonic A harmonic is a wave with a frequency that is a positive integer multiple of the ''fundamental frequency'', the frequency of the original periodic signal, such as a sinusoidal wave. The original signal is also called the ''1st harmonic'', the ...

shift in the music for the portion of the song where the singer lists the various attractive qualities she will use to make the encounter a success. ''Ultimate Classic Rock'' critic Bryan Wawzenek rated it one of drummer Martin Chambers' top 10 Pretenders songs, praising the relaxed groove and saying that "The beat is weighty but soft, and it allows plenty of room for Chrissie Hynde to side-step her way through the single." Dave Thompson suggests that the song is actually about the Pretenders' first live concert rather than a sexual experience. ''

Cash Box ''Cashbox'', also known as ''Cash Box'', was an American music industry trade magazine, originally published weekly from July 1942 to November 1996. Ten years after its dissolution, it was revived and continues as ''Cashbox Magazine'', an online ...

'' said the song shows why Hynde was "quickly emerging as one of the bright new singer/stylists of 1980," highlighting "her sly, sexy warbling and tremendous control." ''Ultimate Classic Rock'' critic Matt Wardlaw rated it the Pretenders best song, saying that it is the song "all of the elements really came together – a cool groove and an especially sultry vocal from Hynde." "Brass" is a Northern English expression for money, harking back to the days when non-silver coins, or " coppers", were worth something. The reference for the term "Detroit leaning" in the lyric is unclear.

Release

"Brass in Pocket" was released as the band's third single. It was their first big success, scoring number one on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

for two weeks in January 1980 (making it the first new number-one single of the 1980s), number two in Australia during May 1980 (for three weeks), and number 14 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart in the United States. It was listed at No. 389 on Rolling Stone's "Top 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" in 2021. In the video for the song Hynde plays a lonely waitress in a backstreet cafe. The rest of the band arrive in a large pink American car driven by Pete Farndon. The three men peruse the menus but are soon joined by their female partners. All six then leave the restaurant. Hynde commented on the ending of the video, "The 'Brass in Pocket' video got hijacked by the director, because the idea of that was that these guys were going to break in on motorcycles and I was going to get on the back and ride out of there. And he had different ideas, and he left me in there crying. That wasn't my script." The video was filmed in the North Kensington area (north of Notting Hill district and south of Kensal Green area). The cafe's location was at the intersection of Middle Row and Southern Row, but the cafe has since been replaced with a four-story residential building (50 Middle Row).

Chart performance

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Covers

The song has been

covered Cover or covers may refer to: Packaging * Another name for a lid * Cover (philately), generic term for envelope or package * Album cover, the front of the packaging * Book cover or magazine cover ** Book design ** Back cover copy, part of co ...

Suede Suede (pronounced ) is a type of leather with a fuzzy, napped finish, commonly used for jackets, shoes, fabrics, purses, furniture, and other items. The term comes from the French , which literally means "gloves from Sweden". The term was fir ...

for ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

''s charity compilation ''

Ruby Trax ''Ruby Trax - The NME's Roaring Forty'' is a compilation album released by the 'rock inkie' (newspaper) NME (New Musical Express) in 1992 to commemorate 40 years of publication. The album features 40 cover versions of classic Number 1 songs by p ...

''. It also features in its expanded debut album edition released in 2018.

References

{{authority control 1979 songs 1979 singles 1980 singles The Pretenders songs Irish Singles Chart number-one singles Number-one singles in South Africa Number-one singles in Sweden UK Singles Chart number-one singles Sire Records singles Song recordings produced by Chris Thomas (record producer) Songs written by Chrissie Hynde Songs written by James Honeyman-Scott