Greg Kihn Band – The Breakup Song (They Don’t Write ‘Em)

This song burst through the radio in 1981 like an old friend coming to visit. I loved it from the first hearing. It’s pure power pop candy, jangly guitars, handclaps, and that chorus that just sticks with you. Ah ah ah, ah ah ah ah ah. That guitar hook at the beginning won me over without hearing a word. 

Greg Kihn earned this spot in the sun. By the time this song hit, Kihn and his band had been grinding it out in the Bay Area scene for years, signed to Beserkley Records, the indie label that also gave us Jonathan Richman and The Rubinoos. They specialized in no-frills rock with clean riffs, catchy hooks, and no gimmicks.

The song is also 100 percent relatable. Who hasn’t been through a tough breakup? When I did, I would play The Temptations, but I would slip this one in as well. He was both talking about the end of a relationship and paying tribute to the golden era of pop songwriting. Kihn’s voice isn’t flashy at all, but it’s just what the song needs. 

The Breakup song was released in 1981 and peaked at #15 on the Billboard 100 and #25 in Canada. He had his most successful release in 1983 with the album Kihnspiracy, which peaked at #15, and the smash single Jeopardy, which peaked at #2. His albums were a mix of original and cover songs. He covered Springsteen (Rendezvous and For You), Buddy Holly, Curtis Mayfield, and many more. Kihn was a good songwriter as well. Kihn had 7 songs in total in the top 100.

The song was from the album RocKihnRoll. The album peaked at #32 on the Billboard Album Charts. 

Greg Kihn: Oh, yeah. There are times in your life that the way is clear. I remember coming home from a gig with the guys. We were in a van, and we pulled up to where I used to live. All of my stuff was piled up on the lawn, and it was raining.

I thought, “Oh, God. My first wife had done it.” We pulled up to the house, and I remember Steve, the bass player, looked at me and just went, “Well, you might as well just keep on going. You’re not going in there.”

There was a Japanese restaurant. I went up there with Stevie, and we were pounding down hot sake. I didn’t know where else to go. It was a cold, rainy night, and we were getting toasted. There was an old Japanese dude there at the sake bar, and he kept saying, “They don’t write ‘em like that anymore.” I thought, Yeah, damn. They don’t, do they? So we got the idea, we wrote that song probably in 15 minutes. All of the great songs are written quickly, by the way.

You have to take a lesson that the stuff that’s real, it’s in you and it’s got to come out like that song. I’d really broken up that very day. It wasn’t like I was trying to feel like what’s a guy like when he’s broken up. I was living it. When things are real, they’re always better than when they’re fiction, if you can dig what I’m saying.

The Breakup Song

We had broken up for good just an hour before
Ah ah ah, ah ah ah ah ah
And now I’m staring at the bodies as they’re dancing ‘cross the floor
Ah ah ah, ah ah ah ah ah
And then the band slowed the tempo and the music took me down
Ah ah ah, ah ah ah ah ah
It was the same old song, with a melancholy sound
Ah ah ah, ah ah ah ah ah

They don’t write ’em like that anymore
They just don’t write ’em like that anymore

We’d been living together for a million years
Ah ah ah, ah ah ah ah ah
But now it feels so strange out in the atmosphere
Ah ah ah, ah ah ah ah ah
And then the jukebox plays a song I used to know
Ah ah ah, ah ah ah ah ah
And now I’m staring at the bodies as they’re dancing so slow
Ah ah ah, ah ah ah ah ah

They don’t write ’em like that anymore
They don’t write ’em like that anymore
Oh

Hey
Now I wind up staring at an empty glass
Ah ah ah, ah ah ah ah ah
‘Cause it’s so easy to say that you’ll forget your past
Ah ah ah, ah ah ah ah ah

They don’t write ’em like that anymore, no
They just don’t write ’em like that anymore
They don’t write ’em like that anymore
They just don’t write ’em like that anymore
They just don’t, no, they don’t
No, no, uh-uh

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

34 thoughts on “Greg Kihn Band – The Breakup Song (They Don’t Write ‘Em)”

  2. There are relatively few lyrics in this song, but it tells a great story. This is a melancholy tune about a recent breakup and how the world seems to be moving on without him in it as people are still listening and dancing to music.  The singer and his partner just broke up an hour ago, and he feels left behind.  He feels like he is standing still while he is listening to a classic breakup song that he knows by heart and brings back some nostalgic memories for him.  This breakup music was therapeutic for him, and he needed in his life as a way to cope with the loss of someone who is missing in his life.  When someone pours out their feeling in a breakup song, this has a way of making us realize just how vulnerable we are and how much better life can be when you have a partner.  He is trying to move on, but the pain has caused him to start drinking and now he is looking at an empty glass, but this is not helping him to forget the past.

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  4. Pingback: Greg Kihn Band – The Breakup Song (They Don’t Write ‘Em) – MobsterTiger

    1. Oh I posted about a song that he made called Roadrunner that was a cover…he had some cool music other than this one and the other hit.

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  6. yep that’s a good one that brings back some good memories of that summer, perhaps because it’s not overplayed to death. I would have guessed it slid higher than #25 in Canada, seemed quite a big and frequently-played song then. I find it fascinating (I’m weird) that he shares a birthday with Kim Michell who like Kihn was a big deal in one big city (Toronto), did OK across his land now and then and then, in the ’90s basically left performing to become a successful radio DJ. Unlike Kim, Greg’s also written a few books since too

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    1. I meant to email you about that chart position…I found it in two places but one could have copied the other but that surprised me.
      There were similarities which is cool…yea Kihn’s books got some high praise from what I remember. I liked this one better than Jeopardy…

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  7. I remember these guys but they did not get a place in my regular listening routines. But you are right the Break-up Song is totally relatable. Actually, I was going through one myself in 1981!

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      2. Oh yea! You could guess the one I heard the most in the south. It was years before I could even listen to Free Bird again.

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  11. I was introduced to Kihn with Chinatown…and that album, and was pleasantly surprised when the Breakup Song and Valerie (not to be confused with the Monkees song of the same name)….my favorite ending to any song was the firecrackers at the end of Chinatown!

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  13. It’s a great break-up song. No BS, let’s make a song out of this.

    What an image as well; All your belongings, turfed out on the sodden lawn, getting rainier and soggier by the moment. Sounds like an inspiration for a bust-up song to me…

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      1. It’s one I’m putting in my ‘ideas’ file.

        (I can just imagine his angry spouse throwing out his clothes onto the pile outside muttering ‘That Greg, he’s so far Kinh outta here.’

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  14. The first song that came to mind when I read Greg Kihn Band was “Jeopardy.” I knew “The Breakup Song” as well, but I didn’t recall the title. I agree it’s a great song. While “Jeopardy” undoubtedly is catchy, I definitely prefer “The Breakup Song.”

    Also, when I hear “Jeopardy”, I keep thinking of Weird Al Yankovic’s hilarious parody “I Lost On Jeopardy.” The line our love’s in jeopardy really can be easily misheard as “I lost on Jeopardy!” 😂

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    1. Yea…the title gets lost at times because it’s not in the song really. Yea I like this one because it’s more guitar based…I’m glad he got those hits.
      Well thank you Christian! Now I will LOL

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