He Will Break Your Heart - Jerry Butler
- unclestylus
- Nov 14
- 3 min read
After Butler's departure from the Impressions in 1959, he struggled to maintain the success he had with the Impressions - his first few solo singles were US R&B Chart hits but didn't make the US Hot 100 - until his old schoolmate and fellow Impression, Curtis Mayfield, teamed up with him as songwriter, guitarist and harmony singer. Mayfield was the only Impression that hadn't held Vee Jay's singling out of Butler as the group's lead singer against him (see last post). Their first post-Impressions collaboration was his 1961 single "He Will Break Your Heart".
It's a wonderful listen, Mayfield's guitar picking out a palm wine shuffle against a back beat of brush drumming, while Butler has never cut a more soulful vocal. Their exquisite harmonies on the chorus is a reminder of what could have been had the the pair stayed together in the Impressions.
In Dave Marsh's wonderful book "The Heart of Rock and Soul" he quotes Butler explaining the origins of the song to music journalist Vince Arletti in 1969, saying saying that he based the song on his experiences touring the US:
" "You go into a town; you're only gonna be there for one night; you find a girl; you blow her mind. Now you know this girl hasn't been sittin' in that town waiting for you to come in. She probably has another fellow and the other fellow's probably in love with her; they're probably planning to go through the whole thing, right? But you never take that into consideration on that particular night. You're lonesome, you want company; you're available and she's there and, you know..."
It hardly would have served Butler and Mayfield's purpose to write an overt apology. Instead they wrote "from the standpoint of the guy that's in town all the time and that's been lovin' this girl for years and years." The resulting essay on innocence wronged has the sad-eyed lilt of a male girl group record." - "The Heart of Rock and Soul" by Dave Marsh, Penguin Books, 1989.
Sad indeed and, no doubt, reprehensible by today's standards, but beyond this recurring small town tragedy, the song has a universal theme that resonates with many a young man's angst upon losing out to a another guy, one who perhaps has a car, has more money or in fact is just smoother than he is. Those guys - and most of us remember them - always seemed to sweep the objects of our adoration off their feet, and we convinced ourselves that the girl would be cast aside pretty soon, and come running back to us. They never were and they never did, but singing along to songs like Jerry Butler's "He Will Break Your Heart" made us feel a whole lot better at least.
"He don't love you like I love you
-if he did, he wouldn't break your heart.
He don't love you like I love you
-he's trying to tear us apart
Fare thee well, I know you're leaving
for the new love that you've found
-the handsome guy that you've been dating
woh-ho I got a feeling he's gonna put you down, 'cause
He don't love you like I love you
-if he did, he wouldn't break your heart.
He don't love you like I love you
-he's trying to tear us apart
Now he uses all the great quotations,
he says the things I wish I could say,
woh, but he's had so many rehearsals
Girl, to him that's just another play - but wait
and when the final act is over
and you're left standing all alone,
when he takes his bow and makes his exit,
I'll be there to take you home....."
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