The success of their
1979 debut album created a great demand for more material from the fledgling band; however, a lack of songs precluded the quick release of a follow-up album. In the UK, the band released two hit singles in 1980 and early 1981, "
Talk of the Town" followed by "
Message of Love". In the US, where standalone singles had become rare, these tracks were combined with three others for a stopgap
extended play release in March 1981 simply titled
Extended Play.
Pretenders II was released two months later to mixed critical reception arguably because many of the songs were viewed as too similar to (though not quite as groundbreaking as) the band's debut. Nevertheless, several of the album's songs became hits and the album has increased in critical stature with time. As on their previous album, the band includes a song by
Ray Davies of
The Kinks, although in this case "
I Go to Sleep", written by Davies in 1965, was not recorded by the group. Band leader
Chrissie Hynde and Davies were in a relationship at the time of the album's recording, and would eventually have a daughter, Natalie Rae Hynde, in 1983. "
Talk of the Town", though rumoured to be about her relationship with Davies, was inspired by a fan Hynde had encountered on the band's first tour and whom she regretted not speaking to at the time. The album also includes the sexually-forward tunes "Bad Boys Get Spanked" and "The Adultress", with perhaps the album's most ambitious track, "Day After Day" spinning a common second-album narrative of unaccustomed celebrity, with the band rushing from gig to gig, hotel to hotel, head-spun from the swiftness of it all. The single version of the song ends with a guitar solo that gradually fades out; the album edit ends suddenly, mid-solo, with the sound of a crashing fighter plane. The album's final track, "Louie, Louie", is an original composition and not a version of the
identically titled and often covered song by
Richard Berry. In 2000 it was voted number 403 in
Colin Larkin's
All Time Top 1000 Albums. The following year, twenty years after its release, it was certified gold in the United States. ==Reissues==