Annie Ayres Ayres1

English Composition ll

Professor Waggoner

6/28/30
You Keep Me Hangin’ on

“Why do you keep coming around playing with my heart” was part of the lyrics in The

Supremes original song “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” and later reused by Kim Wilde when she

sang the song. This specific line shows the emotions felt by the person writing the song and the

central message of both songs. While both songs use very similar lyrics, Kim Wilde's cover of

“You Keep Me Hanging” provides a different perspective of the original version of the song sung

by The Supremes. Both songs share a similar claim of the pain people go through after a

relationship ends when one person keeps coming around, but Kim Wilde's version expresses

the song in a more emotional, aggressive and passionate way.

In the original song by the supremes, the video and lyrics portrayed a story of a

relationship between two people. The main characters are the 3 girls who call themselves The

Supremes, to me those 3 girls were kind of like all best friends trying to help each other through

a breakup. In the song it talks about a relationship that has ended but the one person keeps

coming back around showing up in the other person's life while the other wants to be set free

and move on with their life. In the cover version by Kim Wilde, the main character is Kim Wilde

and she is portraying her emotions and how she feels about what she has gone through. The

story that is being told in the video is about Kim, who is distressed about a past relationship and

just wants to move on in life but can’t because the person keeps coming back around.

In The Supremeoriginal song the main claim and purpose of the song was to write about

how people in relationships just keep people around for no reason and by doing this it messes

with their heart. This main claim was shown through multiple lines in the song, one of which

would be, “Why do you keep coming around playing with my heart.” This specific line shows

how after couples break up when one person keeps trying to come back in their life it gives the

person false hope and ends up hurting them more. Another example of how the main claim of
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people coming back to their exes messes with people's hearts is, ”set me free why don’t you

baby, let me be why don’t ya”. This line expresses what the person is trying to say so that they

get the other person to stay out of their life so they can heal by themselves. In the cover version

by Kim Wilde the same main claim is being conveyed. Kim uses almost the exact same lyrics to

convey the message of how coming back over and over again to a relationship that is over can

really hurt people. Both the original and cover version use similar lyrics to convey the main

message that both The Supremes and Kim Wilde wanted to tell their audiences.

Additionally, both the original song “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” and the cover “You Keep

Me Hanging On” both use pathos to appeal to their specific audience. In the original version by

The Supremes the video uses pathos to appeal to the audience by showing pictures of the three

girls happy, laughing and just being funny which shows the audience what it looks like when

someone is not being kept hanging on and having their heart messed with. The lyrics are also

very deep and if you listen carefully and process what it says, it talks about the emotional pain

that a person goes through when a relationship is over and a person keeps coming around.

While the cover version of the song by Kim Wilde also uses pathos to appeal to her audience

she goes about it in a different way. The video shows Kim singing and when she starts she

doesn't seem affected but as the video goes on she puts more and more emotion into the song.

I think this shows how as time passes the emotions get worse. The dark room, her messy hair

and the gloomy flashing lights bring the effect of being distressed, angry and more emotional.

This helps show the audience the emotions the person is going through and what it does to a

person. This more emotional way of getting the main claim across was more effective and

showed the audience a more intense version of the pain people go through. While both versions

of the song use pathos to get their main claims across and appeal to their audiences they use

different methods to successfully do this.

Although both videos have similar claims and appeal to pathos they have different

audiences. The original video by The Supremes appeals more to females who are between the
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ages of 16-30. The main audience for the video is females because the video has a calm and

peaceful tone to it along with a slideshow of the pictures of girls . Females typically listen to

more music like this therefore the music video is aimed towards them. The audience would be

between the ages of 16-30 because that is the average age for when people typically go

through breakups meaning that age group could relate better to the song. The audience of the

video made by Kim Wilde could be males or females who have gone through similar situations. I

feel like the audience would also have to be between the ages of 16-30 because again, that is

the typical age people go through breakups. I think that this video being in a darker room and

showing more distressed angry emotions would appeal to both genders rather than just females

like the original.

In conclusion the original song “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” by The Supremes and the

cover song “You Keep Me Hanging On” by Kim Wilde both share a similar message about how

people in relationships just keep people around for no reason and by doing this it messes with

their heart and emotions. While both songs share a similar message they appeal to different

audiences and portray the main claim in different ways.

Work Cited:

The Supremes, “You Keep Me Hangin’ On”. Youtube, 4 August, 2013

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phhwkbD1E2c

Kim Wilde, “You Keep Me Hanging On”. Youtube, 14 May 2016

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_3gLp6k7ZE