Songfacts®:

• Here, Johnny Marr sings of empathy with a troubled loved one. He told Billboard:
  
  "It was one of the songs that just fell into my hands and mind as I was playing. The tune evoked something natural so I just followed it and it felt like I had to sing something personal, something we might all feel about someone sometime."
• Marr told Q magazine: "On each album, accidentally, there was always one song that is about romantic relationships - on The Messenger there's 'New Town Velocity,' on here that's 'Hi Hello.'"
• The chiming pop song reminded Marr of a classic Smiths number. He told Uncut: "Hi Hello is a title that I've had for a while. When I did the string part, I was aware that it sounded like 'Dancing Barefoot' by Patti Smith. But I also think it sounds like The Smiths ('There Is A Light That Never Goes Out'), I don't do that very often. I'm usually hellbent on trying not to repeat myself. But if, after 30-odd years, I play a phrase that reminds me of one of my old songs, I'm not going to flagellate myself over it."
  
  Marr added: "A song like Hi Hello is specifically about unconditional love. That, without a doubt, is me singing with somebody in mind. But that's the fantastic thing about what a song can do. Even when it's very specifically about the writer's experience, the listener can relate to it. They can either imagine themselves in that scenario or superimpose it onto an experience of their own. It's a beautiful thing."
• The video, directed by Marr and frequent collaborator Mat Bancroft shows various shots of the former Smiths guitarist performing the track solo in an otherwise empty bandstand. "Like the song, the video needed to be natural. So we went to the park, I took my guitar and it all came together on a nice Spring morning," Marr told Billboard.