For all of the rock cred that Chrissie Hynde established with The Pretenders’ legendary debut album, she and her band weren’t exactly averse to cranking out pop hits. Though The Pretenders scored five Top-40 entries from their first four albums—two of which (“Back on the Chain Gang” and “Don’t Get Me Wrong”) reached the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100—they were known as a rock band first and hitmakers second.
So when The Pretenders released the piano-driven “I’ll Stand by You” as the lead single from their 1994 album Last of the Independents, it seemed to signal a change in the band’s direction. If you were one of the fans who were uncomfortable with the new sound on display on “I’ll Stand by You,” you weren’t alone. Hynde herself had reservations about the song, which she co-wrote with a pair of prolific hitmakers.
“I’ll Stand by You” became a bona fide comeback hit for The Pretenders, and Hynde herself came around on the song pretty quickly. Here’s how she wound up writing this song with a duo responsible for hits by Madonna and Cyndi Lauper, and why she eventually felt good about releasing the song.
A Match Made in Chart Heaven
Hynde penned “I’ll Stand by You” with veteran songwriters Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly. The pair had penned Madonna’s “Like a Virgin,” Cyndi Lauper’s “True Colors,” and Heart’s “Alone,” and they teamed up with Susanna Hoffs on The Bangles’ “Eternal Flame.” The odd pairing of Steinberg and Kelly with Hynde was not initiated by either party. They needed a matchmaker to get them together.
As a song placer, Jason Dauman (who subsequently founded the dance music label Dauman Music) had already found success with matching songwriters with performers. Before connecting Steinberg and Kelly with Hynde, Dauman had already placed the Allan Rich and Jud Friedman song “I Don’t Have the Heart” with James Ingram, resulting in a No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. In an interview for Songwriter Universe, Steinberg said Dauman offered to connect Kelly and him with a well-known recording artist. Steinberg aimed high and named Prince, Bob Dylan, and Hynde as artists he would want to collaborate with.
Dauman then arranged for Steinberg and Kelly to meet Hynde and discuss a possible collaboration. The timing was perfect for Hynde, who up until this point had rarely co-written Pretenders’ songs. She was not only ready to work with collaborators but was eager to write a hit. Hynde told Songfacts in a 2017 interview “I’ll Stand by You” was her “cold-blooded attempt to write something to get on the radio.” On The Pretenders’ previous album Packed! the band had three Alternative Airplay hits in “Never Do That” (No. 4), “Hold a Candle to This” (No. 18), and “Sense of Purpose” (No. 23), but the album whiffed in terms of Hot 100 hits.
Short-Lived Misgivings
In working with Steinberg and Kelly, Hynde knew she was working with a team that had hitmaking credentials. Though she set out to give them—and herself—another hit, Hynde had cold feet about releasing “I’ll Stand by You.” She told Mojo she initially thought the song “was s–t.” She explained she later had a change of heart, adding, “I played it for a couple of girls who weren’t in the business and by the end of it they were both in tears. I said, ‘OK, put it out.’” Noel Gallagher of Oasis further allayed her doubts, telling her he wished he had written the song himself.
Steinberg had some misgivings about the song as well. In a Songfacts interview, he said that he felt “a little sheepish that we had written something a little soft, a little generic for The Pretenders.” Steinberg noted that writing “I’ll Stand by You” for Last of the Independents and releasing it as a single worked out in the end, given that “when [Chrissie] plays it live, it’s one of the songs that gets the strongest response. It’s done really well for her and for us.”
Steinberg, Kelly, and Hynde also co-wrote four other songs for Last of the Independents, including the No. 2 Alternative Airplay hit “Night in My Veins.” For his part, Steinberg did not have any angst around the follow-up hit, telling Songfacts the song “really felt like a great Pretenders rocker.”
The Impact of “I’ll Stand by You”
After a seven-year absence, “I”ll Stand By You” marked a return to the Hot 100 for The Pretenders. It rose to No. 16 and also peaked at No. 21 on both the Alternative Airplay and Adult Contemporary charts. With more than a quarter million streams, “I’ll Stand By You” is The Pretenders’ most popular song on Spotify. It has been covered by dozens of artists, including Rod Stewart, Carrie Underwood, and Girls Aloud.
Along with “Night in my Veins,” “I’ll Stand By You” helped Last of the Independents to become a comeback album. It was The Pretenders’ first Gold album since Get Close (1986), and it went to No. 41 on the Billboard 200. However, it would be the last of The Pretenders’ big-sellers, as no subsequent album has been certified Gold or Platinum.
“I’ll Stand by You” marked the end of an era for The Pretenders, as they would never have another Top-40 pop hit again. However, it began a new relationship for Hynde, as she would collaborate with Steinberg and Kelly again on The Pretenders’ next two studio albums, ¡Viva El Amor! and Loose Screw. When Hynde sat down with Steinberg and Kelly to consciously write a hit, The Pretenders didn’t necessarily need one. Nonetheless, she proved that with a little help, she could write a huge hit if she tried to.
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