Breaking Hearts [Import, Original recording remastered]

Elton John | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 12, 2003)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import, Original recording remastered
• Label: Universal I.S.
• ASIN: B00008ZPDI
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #53,360 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Remastered reissue of 1984 album for Geffen that's out-of-print domestically. Ten tracks including three Top 40 hits, 'Sad Songs (Say So Much)', 'Who Wears These Shoes?' & 'In Neon'. Features new sleevenotes. Rocket. 2003.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars breaking hearts, June 30, 2004

By 

brad niland (ft. dodge, iowa United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Breaking Hearts (Audio CD)

the breaking hearts album was integral in elton's 1980's. it has some strong selections that rock like "restless" and "lil frigerator" and some great ballads that never were released as singles, like "in neon" and "burning buildings". the remastered cd is much better than the original cd release.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars EJ Says So Much...Breaking Hearts, July 10, 2003

By 

Keith T. Pells (Fort Myers, FL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Breaking Hearts (Audio CD)

In 1984, a year after the success of his "Too Low For Zero" album, Elton John continued his resurgance with this album. And while the former album was picture-perfect in it's arrangements and tight production values, "Breaking Hearts" went in the opposite direction, aiming more for a rock and (at times) country-esque feel. It was his most consistently rocking album since 1975's "Rock Of The Westies", as evident by the opening notes of the first track, "Restless".

The country-tinged lead single, "Sad Songs (Say So Much)", rocketed to the Top 5 that Summer was all over the airwaves and media (thanks to a linkage of the song to Sassoon products). The video, like the one for his anthemic "I'm Still Standing" was memorable, with Elton in full video-mugging-for-the-camera mode.

The follow-up single in America was "Who Wears These Shoes" (again with a country-tinge to it). It did nearly as well, peaking at #16. "Passengers" was released as the follow-up in the rest of the world. A percussive-reggae track dealing with racial tensions ("Deny the passenger, who wanna get on"), it was an oddity on the album, but hit the top of most European music charts.

Other highlights include "Li'l Frigerator", which is easily his best straight-out rock track since "Street Kids" on "Rock Of The Westies". The title track is stripped down to EJ's voice and piano and drives the loneliness of the lyrics dead home. A modest third single in America was "In Neon", which is actually one of the few radio singles (that I can remember) to be written in a 3/4-waltz style and tempo. Again, very country-esque.

But as with the other recently remastered albums from 1979-1984, this re-issue of "Breaking Hearts" would have been even better with bonus tracks (as done with his "Classic Years" re-issues). They could have added B-sides like "A Simple Man", "Lonely Boy" and "Tortured", thus giving the consumer (and the hard-core fans) more bang for the buck. *sigh*.

But all in all, this is a strong, straight-ahead album, with the remastering enhancing the sound immencely. The packaging is also superb. Though still a "singles" artist during this time, "Breaking Hearts" is a worthy album in the piano-man's illustrious catalog.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another fine effort from Elton, May 28, 2009

By 

Peter Durward Harris "Pete the music fan" (Leicester England) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Breaking Hearts (Audio CD)

It was always going to be hard to follow his hugely successful 1983 album, Too low for zero, which is regarded as something a comeback album. Not that Elton had ever been away, but his albums during the period 1977 to 1982 aren't generally held in such high regard as most of his early albums released between 1970 and 1976. Actually, Elton's albums from that period aren't all as bad as some would have you believe. I enjoy some of them, particularly Blue moves and 21 at 33, but it would be fair to say that Elton made some mistakes during that period, the biggest by far being the album Victim of love. So the 1983 comeback (if that's what it was) surprised a lot of people who had written Elton off as a has-been. But with this album, Elton proved that Too low for zero was no fluke. While Breaking hearts doesn't quite match the brilliance of its predecessor, it comes close. With basically the same people involved, and the same recording studio in Montserrat (some years before the volcanic eruption that devastated the island), the sound and style is similar to Too low for zero, the difference being in the songs.

Four of the songs here became British hits (though only two were big hits), while there were three hits in America, although only two hits were the same songs in both countries. The standout track on the album is Sad songs say so much. It made the American top five and the British top ten. The second and biggest British hit (where it made the top five) from the album was Passengers. The lyrics are difficult to understand, but the liner notes to this re-mastered CD suggest that it is actually about South African apartheid, so the train and its would-be passengers are metaphorical. Passengers never became an American single, for whatever reason. The third British single and the second American single was Who wears these shoes?. It made the top twenty in America but was only a minor British hit, perhaps because most people who wanted the song bought the album. The third American single, In neon, became a top forty hit there. In Britain, that song was relegated to the B-side, with the A-side being the album's title track, but it was only a minor hit. Again, any Brits who wanted it probably already had the album.

The five tracks already mentioned provide reasons enough to buy the album, but the other five tracks (Restless, Slow down Georgie she`s poison, Li'l 'frigate, Burning bridges, Did he shoot her?) are all worth a listen. Perhaps the pick of them is Burning bridges, but there's not a lot to choose between them quality-wise.

Buying this album shouldn't take precedence over Too low for zero or Elton's classic albums of the early to mid-seventies. Nevertheless, every self-respecting committed Elton John fan should buy this album eventually.