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Break 4 Love
by Peter Rauhofer + Pet Shop Boys = The Collaboration

Writers - Vaughan Mason
First released - 2001
Original album - (none)
Producer - Peter Rauhofer
Subsequent albums - (none)
Other releases - single (US Sales #51, US Dance #1, UK Dance Club Play #5); bonus track with the single "Home and Dry"; bonus disc with the U.S. "special edition" of Release

Despite the credit to Peter Rauhofer and the Pet Shop Boys, Chris had little involvement with this 2001 release—a cover of a 1988 dance hit by Raze—though he was present when Neil recorded his lead vocal. The recording sessions actually took place during the first half of 2000, originally with the intention of providing one or more new tracks for a possible "best of" anthology that was subsequently canceled. And as it turned out, neither "Break 4 Love" nor the other as yet unreleased tracks that they worked on at the time made it onto the 2003 release of PopArt.

"Break 4 Love" is further distinguished by a remarkable number of "officially released" mixes (at least 17 to my knowledge, scattered across two CD singles, five somewhat elusive 12-inch vinyl discs, and a few other releases) by Richard Morel, Michael Moog, Ronen Ben Horen and Yuval Urik (aka Friburn & Urik), Mike Monday, Ralphie Rosario, Haim Laroz and Assaf Amdursky, Sunshi Moriwaki, and Rauhofer himself. And there are just as many "official but unreleased" remixes.

I love hearing Neil sing such lines as "Baby, don't you worry, I want to be the man you want me to be," but lyrically—and some might say musically as well—this is a rather unexceptional song. The deep "spoken male vocal" that repeats the title at strategic points throughout is by one Thomas Frenes. An interesting anomaly to watch out for on one of the vinyl discs is that the "Tribeca Dub" plays correctly at 33 rpm, despite the fact that the label says 45 rpm. (The other sides are, however, correctly played at 45.) The collaboration paid off, with the resulting single proving a major U.S. dance hit. One mix even made a prominent appearance on TV during a climactic scene of a second-season episode of the U.S. version of Queer As Folk. It wasn't, however, given similar treatment in the U.K., instead being relegated to the role of bonus track with the "Home and Dry" single.

Mixes/Versions

Officially released

Official but unreleased

List cross-references

 

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