Chrissie Hynde once mentioned her dislike of this song, as she felt she wrote for hit instead of from the heart. I understand the frustration but I quite like the song. It’s sad but uplifting at the same time, and it’s a feeling we all have gone through in our lives.

Sure, it’s not a straight rocker like Tattooed Love Boys (the finest song from the impressive Pretenders debut album), but it’s a well-crafted ballad.

With that said, yeah, after listening to every Pretenders song before writing this, I can understand the frustration of Bon Jovifying her music for a hit. And what a hit it was. I remember this song was everywhere in 1994, and people in my high school cafeteria discovered the magic button on the back of the record player to skip a track.

That button came handy in 1995, when Zombie by The Cranberries was on constant programming. It became a joke, I guess, to pay one peso to play it Zombie (AGAIN) and someone else skipping the song and sometimes giving a peso back to the person who requested it. Nice grift. A zero sum at that too.

I’m fond of the song but I don’t have any particular memory attached to it, and that’s odd. I usually write about songs that were integral to a point in my life, but I’ll stand by you is just there as a general reminder of an era, of a good year, sometimes the one I’m fondest off, because it was the year I started writing, hoping to improve my craft. I’m still hoping.

-Sam J. Valdés López