Breaking Up Is Slow To Do

"Breaking Up is Hard to Do" was my favorite Partridge Family song when I was a kid. I played it over and over. Neil Sedaka's composition was just so peppy - how could I not like it? But wait a minute. Breaking up isn't only hard to do, it's often sad! Why am I smiling when I'm listening to a song about breaking up?!

Perhaps this is what David Cassidy was wondering when he went on his world tour in 1974. He played the song but in a much slower tempo. (Bye-bye peppiness. Hello bluesyness. I'm think I'm going cry.) It became a bluesy, achy number that seduced many fans who heard it live and many more who heard it captured on his Cassidy Live! album. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find that live version on YT (call to action, people!). However, he's recently played the slow version live. Trust me though, it gives you but an inkling of that first slow interpretation. In the live 1974 version, I swear you can hear his heart breaking.

Back to Mr. Sedaka, the song's composer. From what I understand, he liked Cassidy's slow version so much that he re-recorded the song in that tempo in 1975 and got another hit out of it.

First up is The Partridge Family's uptempo version. Second, Cassidy's recent live slow version and finally, Mr. Sedaka's slow version.

What say you? Uptempo or sloooow?

Also, does anyone know if it's really Cassidy who changed the arrangement of the song or if he discovered the slow one from Sedaka and decided to play it live that way? If Cassidy did change the arrangement (and that's how he expressed it in his bio, IIRC), he should get the credit for it on those YT Sedaka uploads. The one I embedded here mentions Cassidy but none of the others do.

Music Trivia

Can you imagine David Cassidy singing this song? Mickie Most, a very successful English record producer, apparently offered "Touch Too Much" (written by Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn), to Cassidy who passed on it, dismissing its chart-topping potential. Miffed and wanting to prove Mr. Cassidy wrong, Mr. Most then offered it to The Arrows, a band fronted by Alan Merrill whose similarity to Cassidy starts and ends with the shag. The Arrows had a British hit with the song in 1974. Check out Merrill's come-hither looks in the clip below. Another bit of trivia: Merrill wrote "I Love Rock & Roll". Yeah, that "I Love Rock & Roll", the earworm made immortal by Joan Jett & the Blackhearts. Read more about Mr. Merrill here.




Here's another link between David Cassidy and Alan Merrill: both recorded "Walk Away Renée". I hear more vulnerability in Cassidy's version. It can be found on his 2003 "A Touch of Blue" CD.





Seeing as some of you enjoy these comparisons, here's the original version of "Walk Away Renée" by The Left Banke. The voice here is as grating and unforgivable as nails on a chalkboard.