"I Say A Little Prayer" for Media Myths About Love

“I Say A Little Prayer,” according to SongFacts.com, was originally produced and released in 1967 with Dionne Warwick singing lead vocals. The version that is arguably more well-known today is sung by Aretha Franklin, who recorded it just a short year later in 1968. Both times the song made top 5 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 pop singles charts. The song focuses on the unwavering, never ending love a woman has for her significant other, singing,  “Forever, and ever, you’ll stay in my heart and I will love you,” with lyrics like this continuing throughout the entire song (Bacharach & David, 1967).

When I first stumbled upon this song, I interpreted it as a song full of myths about what love and relationships are: this dependent woman clearly spends way too much of her time praying and professing her undying love for her husband/significant other. But, after further research, I learned that this song was actually written with the idea of women praying for their significant others fighting in the Vietnam War in mind (songfacts.com). This contextual knowledge helps to raise an interesting question about our Anne Bader reading “’Love Will Steer the Stars’ and Other Improbable Feats: Media Myths in Popular Love Songs.” Can media myths about love actually have a positive impact on viewers and listeners? This question, while discussed a little in class, resounded more with me after hearing a song that has more than a few very prevalent myths, but also possibly had a positive impact for the listeners who heard it when it came out in 1967.

Before I get to the possible positive impacts, let me briefly explain the media myths I found in “ I Say A Little Prayer.”

11)   “Your perfect partner is cosmically pre-destined, so nothing/nobody can ultimately separate you” (Bader, 2007, p. 149). I found evidence for this with lyrics like “Forever, and ever, we never will part” (Bacharach & Hal, 1967).

22)   “To attract and keep a man, a woman should look like a model or a centerfold” (Bader, 2007, p. 149). While this myth could definitely be debated, I thought the opening lines about “wondering what dress to wear now,” “before I put on my makeup,” and about combing her hair, definitely supported the notion that women should care about what they look like (Bacharach & Hal, 1967).

33)   “The right mate ‘completes you’- filling your needs and making your dreams come true” (Bader, 2007, p. 149). This was definitely supported by lines like “for me there is no one, but you” and “together, together, that’s how it must be.” Lines about how heartbreak if they weren’t together also support this myth (Bacharach & David, 1967). 

These myths are the most prevalent love myths I found in the song, but there could be cases where others would code for more or less than these.

women peacefully protesting the Vietnam War, Google images

While all of these myths could have potentially negative affects on listeners, such as assuming that you have to look like a model to keep a man or that one person should fulfill every single one of your needs, which is just an unrealistic look at what healthy relationships look like, this song could also have a positive impact. For example, given that this song is about a woman who is praying for her husband/significant other overseas fighting in the Vietnam War, is it possible this song could have a positive impact by allowing women to express their love and concern for their soldiers overseas through popular media? It might have brought women's needs to the forefront in the public eye, assuming that women left home alone with their families were often not discussed as much as the actual soldier’s needs in media and press during the Vietnam War. It may also have kept women faithful to their relationships while men were overseas. I would like to add that I’m not saying women need/should remain with their significant others who go to war or that they won’t be able to live without their loved one, but that in committed relationships it is often agreed upon to stay monogamous with one another and this may have encouraged people to stay monogamous. (Side note: I realize this is a stretch.)  

While there are undeniable negative impacts associated with this song and its media myths,  it is important to discuss potential positive impacts of media myths and I think this song provides the grounds for such.

References

Bacharach, B. and Hal D. I Say A Little Prayer. Dionne Warwick. Burt Bacharach & Hal David, 1967. MP3

Bader, A. (2007). "Love will steer the stars" and other improbable feats: Media myths in popular love songs. In M.-L. Galican & D. L. Merskins (Eds.), Critical thinking about sex, love, and romance in the mass media (pp. 141-160). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

I Say A Little Prayer By Dionne Warwick. (n.d.). Retrieved September 19, 2014, from http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=710