I Wish I Could Break Your Heart

"I Wish I Could Break Your Heart"
Single by Cassadee Pope
from the album Frame by Frame
ReleasedMarch 17, 2014 (2014-03-17)
StudioBlackbird Studio, Nashville, Tennessee
Length
  • 3:41 (album version)
  • 3:24 (radio edit)
LabelRepublic Nashville
Songwriter(s)Gordie Sampson, Ashley Monroe, Jon Green
Producer(s)Dann Huff
Cassadee Pope singles chronology
"Wasting All These Tears"
(2013) 		"I Wish I Could Break Your Heart"
(2014) 		"I Am Invincible"
(2015)

"I Wish I Could Break Your Heart" is a song by recorded American country music singer Cassadee Pope, written by Gordie Sampson, Ashley Monroe and Jon Green. It was released as the second single from Pope's debut solo studio album Frame by Frame on March 17, 2014.[1]

Background and recording

The song was written in 2012 as a creative collaboration between Nashville songwriters Gordie Sampson, Ashley Monroe and Jon Green at the former's writing room, The Shack, with no particular artist in mind. According to Green, the song was written and demoed within 90 minutes, with all three "immediately latching onto" the idea.[2] The song's title came from Monroe early in the process, providing the writers a premise and emotional angle to work with.[2]

When the song was pitched to The Big Machine Label Group, the recently signed Cassadee Pope connected with the song and put it on hold for her forthcoming debut album. "I'd felt that before in past relationships," Pope revealed to Billboard, "Weird emotions came over me when I first heard it, and I loved it right away."[2]

Composition

"I Wish I Could Break Your Heart" is a mid-tempo ballad with a duration of three minutes and forty-one seconds. The song features drums and steel guitar, played by Chris McHugh and Paul Franklin, respectively.

According to songwriter Ashley Monroe, the song is told from the perspective of someone who loves their partner too much to actually want to hurt them but still wishes they "had the power to".[2] This concept led her to the song's title, which became both the first line and the chorus's hook. Pope also explained her interpretation in an interview with Radio.com: "It’s not a heartbroken song where the world’s going to end but it’s a song about loving somebody. [...] You’re happy but you know that they could break you so easily and you feel so vulnerable [...] and you wish you could see if you could break them..."[3] She described "Break Your Heart" as a positive song, with a "silly, playful" undertone.[3] The chorus is purposely pitched higher than the surrounding verses to give the titular lyric a sense of desperation.[2]

Music video

The music video for "I Wish I Could Break Your Heart" was directed by Wes Edwards and premiered February 18, 2014 on CMT, before being released onto Vevo the following day.

Chart performance

"I Wish I Could Break Your Heart" debuted at No. 49 on the Billboard Country Airplay chart for the week ending April 5, 2014.[4]

Chart (2014) Peak
position
US Country Airplay (Billboard)[5] 32
US Hot Country Songs (Billboard)[6] 35

Release history

Country Date Format
United States[1] March 17, 2014 Country radio
United Kingdom[7] May 9, 2014 Digital download

References

  1. ^ a b "Country: Going for Adds March 17, 2014". Radio & Records. Archived from the original on July 19, 2014. Retrieved March 3, 2014.
  2. ^ a b c d e Roland, Tom. "Cassadee Pope Brings Back a Big Voice With Second Single". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved April 1, 2014.
  3. ^ a b Reuter, Annie. "Cassadee Pope Drops 'I Wish I Could Break Your Heart' Video". Radio.com. CBS Radio. Archived from the original on February 28, 2014. Retrieved April 1, 2014.
  4. ^ Trust, Gary. "Chart Highlights: Passenger, Pharrell Williams, Dierks Bentley Score New No. 1s". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved July 31, 2014.
  5. ^ "Cassadee Pope Chart History (Country Airplay)". Billboard.
  6. ^ "Cassadee Pope Chart History (Hot Country Songs)". Billboard.
  7. ^ "I Wish I Could Break Your Heart - Single by Cassadee Pope". iTunes Store Great Britain. Apple Inc. January 2014. Retrieved May 14, 2014.