Songfacts®:

• Written by Gary Barlow, this anthemic pop song is sung from the perspective of someone who spends their nights praying to be reunited with their ex-lover. It was Take That's first single to peak at #1 in the UK, where it stayed at the top of the chart for four weeks.
• "Pray" was the first of a string of chart-toppers for Take That, with subsequent singles "Relight My Fire," "Babe," and "Everything Changes" also peaking at #1 in the UK. Unfortunately, the run was broken in 1994 when "Love Ain't Here Anymore" entered the chart at #3.
• Directed by Gregg Masuak, the music video for this song was shot in Acapulco, Mexico. The clip sees the bronzed band members dancing alongside goddesses representing The Four Elements, with Robbie Williams coming paired with Earth, Mark Owen with Air, Jason Orange with Fire, and Howard Donald with Water. Barlow, meanwhile, appears alone on a beach in black and white.
  
  Speaking to Songfacts in 2017, Masuak – who also directed the videos for "Babe," "Everything Changes," and "Sure" – talked about how much he loved working with Take That on this clip: "I'm happiest and proudest when people just trust and back off a bit and let me do my creative thing, so videos like 'Pray' and 'Babe' for Take That were brilliant experiences as they really let me run with ideas – especially something as abstract as 'Pray' which was just creative playing with very little notice, building ideas along the way and having a great team and things just coming together with a band who can perform the pants off anyone."
• "Pray" was the final song performed by Take That on their hugely successful Beautiful World Tour in 2007. Footage of the tour was subsequently released as a DVD, Beautiful World Live. It became the fastest-selling DVD in the UK, shifting 64,000 copies in the first week of its release. This was more copies than Amy Winehouse's Back to Black, which was the #1 album at the time, making it the first DVD to outsell a CD.
• Barlow sang this song with The Late Late Show's James Corden as part of his televised Gary Barlow and Friends concert in Manchester in 2013, with the pair even recreating the famous dance routine performed by Take That. Corden is a massive fan of the boy band, and in 2017, filmed a special edition of Carpool Karaoke with them for the British telethon Comic Relief.
• This song won British Single of the Year and British Video of the Year at the BRIT Awards in 1994. Take That celebrated by performing a medley of Beatles songs at the ceremony while dressed in the Fab Four's signature blue suits.
  
  "Pray" also won Best Contemporary Song at the prestigious Ivor Novello Awards in 1994, with Barlow scooping Songwriter of the Year at the same event.
• "Pray" was the second single released from Take That's sophomore studio album, Everything Changes, after "Why Can't I Wake Up With You." The song is certified Gold in the UK, where it's shifted over 438,000 copies.
  
  A stripped-back version of "Pray" was also released as the lead single from Take That's greatest hits album, Odyssey, in 2018, although this rendition failed to chart.