You're Breakin' My Heart

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Swiss picture sleeve

"You're Breakin' My Heart" is a song by American singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson, appearing on his 1972 album Son of Schmilsson. It is notorious for the opening line, "You're breakin' my heart / You're tearin' it apart / So fuck you".[1]

Recording

The song was written by Nilsson about the then-recent separation from his wife Diane; the lyrics contain self-blame for the break-up, as well as several unpleasant diatribes towards his former partner. Biographer Alyn Shipton speculated that at least one line was a coded reference to Nilsson's relationship with his close friend Ringo Starr.[2]

During recording, Nilsson had begun to drink heavily and started to record more experimental and controversial material; producer

B-side of the album's first single, "Spaceman".[3]

Personnel

The backing track features George Harrison on slide guitar[4] and a horn section comprising Bobby Keys, Jim Price and Klaus Voormann.[2] The other musicians on the recording are Peter Frampton (on electric guitar), Nicky Hopkins (piano) and Barry Morgan (drums), while Voormann also played bass guitar.[5]

Legacy

The song is listed in the book The 7500 Most Important Songs for the Rock and Roll Era, where it is simply described as "terse and to the point".[6] It was used in the 1983 teenage comedy Private School.[7]

In 1995, former

J. Geils Band frontman Peter Wolf covered the song on the tribute album For the Love of Harry: Everybody Sings Nilsson.[1]

In 2021,

Working With God, retitling it "1 Fuck You".[8]

References

  1. ^ a b c Matthew Greenwald. "Song review: You're Breaking My Heart". AllMusic. Retrieved June 13, 2016.
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  7. ^ "Harry Nilsson - biography". hollywood.com. Retrieved June 27, 2016.
  8. ^ Liner notes to Working With God, Ipecac Records, 2021.