Synopsis

Chrissie Hynde plays a solitary waitress in a roadside diner, where she serves the three male members of The Pretenders after they arrive in a large pink American car. The band's customers sit over menus and drinks while Hynde moves through the cafe with a restrained, watchful confidence that matches the song's flirtatious self-assurance. Their female companions eventually join them, and the group leaves together, leaving the waitress alone with the song's unresolved sense of longing and frustrated attention.

Factoids & Trivia

• "Brass in Pocket" was released as The Pretenders' third single in November 1979. It became the band's first major hit, reaching No. 1 in the United Kingdom for two weeks in January 1980 and No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100.

• The video was the seventh music video aired when MTV launched in the United States on August 1, 1981.

• The song began with a guitar figure written by James Honeyman-Scott. Chrissie Hynde then developed the lyrics around a deliberately cocky performer determined to attract attention.

• Hynde took the title from a phrase she overheard after a show. In British slang, "brass" means money, giving the title both a literal meaning and a suggestion of confidence or nerve.

• Hynde later said that the video's ending did not follow the original plan. Her idea was for the men to arrive on motorcycles, break into the diner, and take her away; the finished version instead leaves her behind after the customers depart.

• Hynde was initially unhappy with the song and reportedly resisted releasing it as a single. Its success eventually made it one of The Pretenders' defining recordings, despite her reservations.