Hymn To Her by Pretenders

Album: Get Close (1986)

Charted: 8

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"Hymn To Her" is about a woman carrying on through the pain with persistence. Bad things happen, but she remains strong.

The title, which doesn't appear in the lyric, is a play on the phrase "him to her." The song is like a hymn in that it's a form of praise, but unlike a traditional hymn that praises God, it's for this woman, which really can be womankind in general.
This song was written by Meg Keene, a friend from Pretenders frontwoman Chrissie Hynde's school days in Akron, Ohio. As teenagers, they had been close, but life took them in different directions, and they lost touch for over a decade. One day, someone handed Hynde a tape - not a polished demo, just Meg Keene playing piano and singing. The songs on it floored her. Hynde tracked her down and asked if she could record one of them. That tune became "Hymn to Her."

It's one of the few Pretenders songs from the '80s that Hynde didn't write.
Many Americans aren't familiar with this song, but it was a substantial hit internationally, reaching #8 in the UK and charting in several other countries. In America, it was issued with the title "Hymn To Her (She Will Always Carry On)," and it got hardly any attention. Gentle songs about the inner strength of a woman weren't exactly trending there in 1986, when dance pop from Madonna and Janet Jackson ruled the charts.
"Hymn To Her" is part of the fourth Pretenders album, Get Close, produced by Jimmy Iovine and Bob Clearmountain. The biggest hit from the album was "Don't Get Me Wrong," which went to #10 in the US. The band didn't release another album until 1990 with Packed!, which didn't go over very well. On their next album, Last of the Independents in 1994, they got some help from the outside writing team of Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly, resulting in the hits "I'll Stand By You" and "Night In My Veins."
"Hymn To Her" got a music video that shows the band performing in a warehouse on a winter night. By this time the Pretenders weren't getting much airplay on MTV but there were plenty of outlets in other parts of the world that played it.

Comments: 4

Bob from Oakland, CaThe title plays off of a song title from Lerner & Loewe's "My Fair Lady," "A Hymn to Him," which asks "Why can't a woman be more like a man?"
Alyson Black from London, EnglandYes indeed, this song is about the Goddess. Ms Hynde is said to be a Pagan. It's a beautiful song.
Christina from Staten Island, NyI fully agree Ceci it's a beautiful song dedicated to her as well.
Ceci from Kansas City, MoThis is a song for the Goddess, hence the maiden, mother and crone reference. Also, "I dress as your daughter, when the moon becomes round" referring to full moon ritual. It is pagan, Thank Goddess.

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