Friday, January 10, 2020

Musical Interlude: Don't Get Me Wrong (1986)

Pretenders singer-guitarist Chrissie Hynde must've been a fan of The Avengers growing up in Ohio.

How else to explain the video for "Don't Get Me Wrong", the first single from the Pretenders' 1986 CD, "Get Close"? Hynde assumes the part of Emma Peel, even though there's also classic footage of Diana Rigg (Emma), along with Patrick Macnee.

"Wrong" peaked at #10 on the Hot 100.

Edit, 9/29/22: Had to change the video. No sign of Diana Rigg in this video.



4 comments:

magicdog said...

I remember this video from back in the day, and I KNOW there is an alternate edit. The one I remember had less Emma Peel clips (essentially making Chrissie Hynde the sole female agent in this romp), and the very end had a (badly) edited split screen to make it appear that Chrissie was meeting with Steed in the same room.

I think it would have been better if Patrick Macnee had been able to appear in the video for real (don't know if he was asked or refused) since he still had plenty of charisma to spare. He had been in The New Avengers just a few years earlier with Joanna Lumley (of all people!).

My father was a great fan of this show (watched it when it was first introduced to American audiences in the late 60s) and continued to watch whenever it was broadcast in the US. I even bought him the DVD collection (the Emma Peel years naturally!). He had it bad for Diana Rigg. Whenever he would talk about when she chose to leave the show to go back to the stage, he said it like a man in mourning! I even asked him, if he ever had the chance to meet her, how would he react? He said he'd probably faint!!! This from one of the most unflappable men I've ever known!

hobbyfan said...

I remember that other edit being in heavy rotation, but this was the version that was accessible.

And, yes, Joanna Lumley did New Avengers before Absolutely Fabulous turned her into an icon. Got to see an episode or two on the CBS Late Movie while in high school.

magicdog said...

You ROCK hobbyfan!

Thanks for the shout out and the addendum!

hobbyfan said...

Glad to be of service.