That’s My Jam: Toni Braxton – Unbreak My Heart

That’s My Jam is a weekly feature where one person from the Selective Hearing staff goes to wax poetic about music that is pivotal to their musical tastes. Whether that would be an album, a song, or anything in-between. We all had to start somewhere.

Toni Braxton Unbreak My Heart

Release Date: July 10, 1996

Track Listing

  1. Un-Break My Heart (Album Version)
  2. Un-Break My Heart (Frankie Knuckles Radio Mix)
  3. Un-Break My Heart (Frankie Knuckles Franktidrama Mix)
  4. Un-Break My Heart (Soul-Hex Anthem Vocal)
  5. Un-Break My Heart (Soul-Hex No Sleep Beats)

Review

Toni Braxton? How many of you remember her before she became one of those fleeting has-been superstars who do “exclusive engagements” in fancy Las Vegas hotels? Way back in the mid to late 90s, she was the hot shot R&B diva of the moment, and Unbreak My Heart (from her second album Secrets) solidified her status as an upper-echelon diva of that period. It also became her signature song as she progressed through her career.

The song was written by Dianne Warren and produced by David Foster. Normally that combo means “boooring” to most people, and the track in its original form is a power-pop ballad meant to tug at your heartstrings. And it sure did, as the song rose to the top of the Billboard charts and stayed there for 11 weeks. That was probably mostly thanks to the emotional vocals of Miss Braxton taking the song to another level.

I was in my last year of college when this was released and was only in the infancy of mixing dance music. I actively searched for the European CD single of this song since it contained most of the remixes I was interested in. I’m more fond of the Frankie Knuckles remixes than others.

His interpretation seems to give off the closest feeling to the song’s original version. Although you can’t go wrong with any of the tracks on this CD single version. It’s a shame I didn’t have turntables back then because I would have loved to have this on wax as well.

Of course, the ballad version is great too. Toni Braxton knows how to sell heartbreak, that’s for sure, and from what I remember, the live performances of this song were pretty damn good. But, the whole interest was getting a hold of the remixes to play with in my early sets. Suffice it to say I didn’t have the skill level back then to work the mixes properly.

But I’m glad I kept the CD, because now? Well yeah. I could drop this easily into any of my sets without losing a beat. Plus, it was a bitch to find and would have been a waste of good music if I pawned it for nothing.

Then again, some of you probably are not dance music DJs so perhaps this song has a deeper emotional bond to some sort of lost love from many moons ago. I’m sure some of you older folks out there have this somewhere on some breakup mix tape from back in the days of your wasted youth. Hopefully, hearing this doesn’t bring back too many painful memories. But really, you should be over it by now, don’t you think?

For you youngins, take heed. This is what great R&B sounds like. Get yourself an education.

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