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"Break It Up"
"Break It Up"
Single by Foreigner
from the album 4
B-side	"Head Games (Live)"
Released	April 1982
Recorded	Early 1981
Genre	Hard rock
Length	4:11 (album version); 3:25 (single version)
Label	Atlantic
Songwriter(s)	Mick Jones
Producer(s)	Robert John "Mutt" Lange; Mick Jones;
Foreigner singles chronology

"Break It Up" was the fourth single taken from the album 4 by the band Foreigner. The song was written by Mick Jones and the first to feature a B-side that was not available on one of their albums, a live version of their hit, "Head Games."

Background

The song has a more melodic, slightly ballad-oriented sound mixed with their traditional hard rock. Rolling Stone contributor Kurt Loder described the song as a "classic cruncher."^[2]

Cash Box called it "another dose of bluster from the band that, along with Queen, virtually created pomp rock" but said that there is "nothing here that the band hasn’t done before," specifically comparing it to "Cold as Ice."^[3] Billboard described it as a "melodramatic mid tempo rocker forceful enough for the band's earliest AOR allies and melodic enough for pop formats."^[4] PopMatters critic Evan Sawdey said that it "tries so hard to recreate the ornate nature of 'Cold As Ice' but ends up turning into AM meat-rock."^[5]

Producer "Mutt" Lange wanted to use a click track for timing the drum part. Foreigner drummer Dennis Elliott got fed up about that so eventually he and Jones recorded the basic track themselves with Elliott on drums and Jones on piano. According to Jones "Then we turned round to ‘Mutt’ and said, ‘Okay? Happy now?!’ We wanted to prove the point that this band could play and keep time, too."^[6]

Chart performance

"Break it Up" reached number 26 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.^[7]^[8]

Cover versions

Norwegian hard rock/heavy metal singer Jørn Lande has covered this song on his first album Starfire.^[9]

References

^ Strong, Martin Charles (1995). The Great Rock Discography. ISBN 9780862415419.
^ Loder, Kurt (October 15, 1981). "Foreigner: Mass-Appeal Rock in a Post-Golden Age". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2018-05-04.
^ "Reviews" (PDF). Cash Box. May 8, 1982. p. 8. Retrieved 2022-07-07.
^ "Top Single Picks". Billboard. May 8, 1985. p. 67. Retrieved 2022-07-29.
^ Sawday, Evan (November 26, 2014). "Foreigner: The Complete Atlantic Studio Albums 1977-1991". PopMatters. Retrieved 2023-02-05.
^ Jeffries, Neil (July 2, 2016). "The Strange And True Story of Foreigner 4". Classic Rock. Louder Sound. Retrieved 2022-06-17.
^ "Foreigner Hot 100". Billboard. Retrieved 2020-06-08.
^ Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955-1990 - ISBN 0-89820-089-X
^ "Starfire". Allmusic. Retrieved 2022-06-17.