Songfacts®:

• Wilson Phillips is a trio of singers from prominent musical families. Chynna Phillips is the daughter of John Phillips and Michelle Phillips of The Mamas & The Papas, while Carnie Wilson and Wendy Wilson are the daughters of Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys and Marilyn Rovell of The Honeys. This song was their breakout hit, and it was a huge one, peaking at #1 on June 9, 1990 (25 years earlier, "Help Me, Rhonda" by The Beach Boys was in its second week at #1). Their next single, "Release Me," also went to #1, as did another song from their debut, "You're In Love."
  
  Despite their privileged upbringing, Wilson Phillips came off as very down-to-earth, wearing jeans instead of runway fashions. Their accessible image made them very relatable and earned them legions of female fans.
• This is a song of encouragement addressed to a person who is going through some rough times. There's some tough love in there ("No one can change your life except for you"), but also plenty of compassion ("Things'll go your way if you hold on for one more day").
  
  Chynna Phillips wrote the lyrics about her drug and alcohol addiction.
  
  Producer Glen Ballard had been working with Wilson Phillips when he handed Chynna a cassette tape with some music that needed words. Phillips took it home to work on the lyrics, but inspiration struck before she even got to the front door.
  
  Sitting in her car with her mother Michelle inside the house, she wrote about the pain of a lost love and the substance that surrounded it. "I thought to myself, 'Well, AA tells me, just hold on, just one day at a time,'" Phillips told Rolling Stone. "I thought, 'OK, if I can just hold on for one more day, then I can do this.'"
• "Hold On" was Wilson Phillips' first single. They honed their skills singing together in Wendy Wilson's bedroom; when they were ready, Michelle Phillips got them a meeting with producer Richard Perry, who was at the controls for Carly Simon's "You're So Vain." Perry introduced them to Glen Ballard, who took them on. Ballard was an up-and-coming songwriter/producer whose biggest success was co-writing Michael Jackson's "Man In The Mirror," a #1 hit in 1988. He would later co-write and produce Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill album.
  
  Wilson Phillips recorded a 4-song demo with Ballard that included "Hold On." With harmonies honed from years singing together, an impressive musical pedigree, and a set of songs overseen by Ballard, they seemed like a sure thing but struggled to get a record deal. They signed with SBK Records in 1989 and released "Hold On" in February 1990, three months ahead of the album. SBK sent them on a promotional tour that found them answering endless variations of the question "What's it like having famous parents?" and the song took off on radio, eventually knocking Madonna's "Vogue" from the top spot.
• The audience for this song skewed much older than the singers, who were in their early 20s when it was released. "Hold On" was a #1 hit on the Adult Contemporary chart, as was their next single, "Release Me."
• Joe Walsh, the man who gave us "Funk #49" and "Life's Been Good," played guitar on this track as well as another song from the album, "Impulsive."
  
  This may seem out of character for Walsh, but the rocker has a serious mellow side - he produced Dan Fogelberg's 1974 album Souvenirs. He's a great guy to have in the studio, whether he's playing for the Eagles or Wilson Phillips. In a Songfacts interview with "Hold On" producer Glen Ballard, he talked about the session:
  
  "We were at Cherokee recording studios on Fairfax in L.A. He came in at 10 o'clock in the morning. He didn't even have an amp - we had to borrow an amp from somebody. The song was 'Hold On.' We already had a lot of stuff on it, and I don't even know how he got involved with it, but I was just thrilled to have him in the studio, so I just said, 'Do your thing.'
  
  I started my career working for Quincy Jones, who would get the very best musicians in and just let them do their thing, and then edit it and figure out how to integrate it into what he already had. It's a wonderful way of empowering really talented people rather than trying to micromanage it."
• Glen Ballard and Chynna Phillips are listed as the songwriters on this track, with Carnie Wilson credited for "additional lyrics." In addition to Joe Walsh, other personnel include:
  
  Keyboards: Glen Ballard, Randy Kerber
  Guitar: Michael Landau
  Percussion: Paulinho Da Costa
• The video looks like a pharmaceutical commercial, with shots of an empowered Wilson Phillips singing it on beaches and mountaintops. It was directed by Julien Temple with the mountain scenes shot at the San Gabriel Mountains in California.
• This song plays a big role in the 2011 film Bridesmaids, where Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph's characters fondly remember the song from their teen years. At the end of the movie, Wilson Phillips shows up to perform the song at the wedding.
• This song is the basis of an ad for Progressive insurance where Carnie Wilson calls in a claim after a tree falls on her car. She is asked by an automated voice to "hold on." The company spokeswoman, Flo, appears and quotes the song: "I know there's pain. Why do you lock yourself up in these chains?"
  
  She then explains how things would be so much better if Carnie had Progressive, and says, "Someday, somebody's gonna want to make you turn around and say goodbye."
• This was prominently featured on TV series Chuck as the favorite song of the smarmy Buy More manager Emmett Milbarge, particularly in the Season 3 premiere "Chuck Versus the Pink Slip."