He Thinks He'll Keep Her

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"He Thinks He'll Keep Her" was a 1992 song written by Mary Chapin Carpenter and Don Schlitz, which provided the singer-songwriter her first number one U.S. country single. (The song reached #1 on the Radio & Records country music chart, but only #2 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. Mary Chapin's only #1 on Billboard was her 1994 song "Shut Up And Kiss Me".)

First appearing as a cut on her album Come On, Come On, the song was partially a spoof of a 1970s Geritol commercial (in which a man points to his wife's many accomplishments and attributes, and then concludes with "My wife...I think I'll keep her"). [[1]] In Carpenter's song, describing the many duties and demands of a seemingly perfect wife, the phrase is first seems to be intended to echo the sentiments of the Geritol spot, but when the woman throws her husband out of the house during the third verse of the song, it become apparent that Carpenter intended the phrase to be taken literally ("he thinks he'll keep her").

The song was nominated for a Grammy, and was accompanied by a live performance music video where Carpenter was accompanied by Emmylou Harris, Kathy Mattea, Patty Loveless, Trisha Yearwood, Suzy Bogguss and Pam Tillis. None of these singers appeared on the actual recording of the song.