Every Friday night we smooth our way into the weekend with music, the universal language. These selections demonstrate that despite what is being passed off as art today, there is plenty of really good music available. Come along and enjoy!

Superstar Taylor Swift today released her latest album, “Tortured Poets Department,” but that wasn’t all.

Pop music’s phenom also revealed daily secret messages, one word a day before the album release with each coming from Taylor playlist lyrics exploring the five stages of heartbreak: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Noted psychiatrist Elisabeth Kubler-Ross of Cheyenne, Wyoming created that grief cycle model in 1969.

Swift, according to one NY Magazine writer, “has a heartbreak song for almost every situation.”

And Swift’s reputation for sadness, not that it matters, will surely bring out the naysayers with her 11th studio album.

When it comes to Swift’s music and lyrics I’m indifferent. Not my cup of tea, but I don’t detest the stuff.

During the NFL playoffs I wrote about the Swift haters, their noses all bent out of shape because of the mega-popularity she enjoys. Hello, that’s what happens when billions like you.

And those songs of hers. OMG, all that lamenting about a love gone wrong.

Excuse me?

Since the dawn of music writers have constantly come up with countless tales of happy couples suddenly splitting and becoming unhappy.

“Approximately 70% of college students have experienced a romantic relationship breakup. In the US, 43–50% of first time marriages end in divorce. The loss of a relationship partner is one of the most traumatic and distressing events in life.”
—The Journal of Research in Personality

“Romantic breakups may lead to bereavement symptoms that may affect them both physically and mentally, and include intrusive thoughts, insomnia, depression and—in rare cases—broken heart syndrome, also known as stress cardiomyopathy, a condition that may mimic signs of a heart attack, such as chest pain.”
—Tiffany Field,  Touch Research Institute, School of Medicine, University of Miami

This week, just a few songs about broken relationships, the kind that have been and will always be around, long after Taylor Swift.

We begin in 1962. After a string of top ten hits Neil Sedaka is searching for his first #1. Finally, it came with a doo-wop song.

Then in 1975 Sedaka released the song again, only this time with a much slower tempo, and a message that can’t be denied.

Shortly after the original version came out Sedaka married his longtime sweetheart Leba Strasberg on September 11, 1962. Nearly 62 years later they’re still together.

In 1983 Sedaka was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame (Ring Ring by Abba, Solitaire by the Carpenters, Lonely Night (Angel Face) by Captain & Tennille, Love Will Keep Us Together by Captain & Tennille).

Speaking of songwriters two of the best were Burt Bacharach and Hal David.

Bacharach wrote more than 500 songs and more than 1,200 artists performed his material.

“A song is a very compact form–probably the most compact form,” said Bacharach who died in February 2023. “It’s supposed to create an emotional response from a listener in two to three minutes time, an emotional response that people can identify with. My idea was always to search for a new way, a fresh way of portraying the emotion.”

Dionne recorded several Bacharach/David compositions.

“We could go in almost any direction with Dionne,” Bacharach recalled. “She could have any kind of hit at that time: an r&b-tinged record, or a very white kind of song. She’s an incredible singer, very flexible.”

Tim Burgess, the frontman for the UK rock group The Charlatans said, “The song involves tears in the street, unrequited love and Groundhog Day-style heartbreak. If you listen properly it’s everything but easy listening. It’s utter devastation, given dignity by Dionne’s rich, beautiful voice – one of the most soulful performances ever given.”

Just an FYI. On that album cover that gave us “Walk on By” Warwick is modelling a Pierre Cardin gown.

Serious question.

How Long Does It Take to Get Over a Breakup?

Unfortunately, there’s no formula for determining how long recovering from a breakup will take. A study in The Journal of Positive Psychology found that couples who lived together and had plans to marry experienced a greater decline in life satisfaction following a breakup, compared to couples who were not in this situation.

“The more significant the relationship was to you, the longer it takes to get over,” said Angela Amias, a licensed clinical social worker. “This is why breakups after short relationships can sometimes hit us really hard and take a long time to get over. The other factor is whether we see the breakup coming and can begin to process the end of the relationship before it actually happens.”

Let’s be honest. Just about everyone who’s made a record has touched on the topic of a lost love, including those four moptops from Liverpool.

Paul McCartney wrote our next selection about his tumultuous five-year relationship with the actress Jane Asher. From the website Gold Radio UK:

To capture the Beatles’growing influence over that generation’s youth, Radio Times sent a young actress and journalist named Jane Asher to document the phenomenon.

Later that night she met Paul McCartney for the first time, and the pair immediately connected. Paul revealed what happened that evening in a later interview:

“We’d thought she was blonde, because we had only ever seen her on black-and-white telly doing Juke Box Jury, but she turned out to be a redhead.”

So it was: ‘Wow, you’re a redhead!’,” he added. “I tried pulling her, succeeded, and we were boyfriend and girlfriend for quite a long time.”

And they were an item for five years in total. That was until Jane Asher decided to break up with Macca on live television without him having any prior knowledge.

But how did their relationship end in such acrimonious and cold circumstances, especially when things got off to such a whirlwind start?

After Paul and Jane dated for a while, Asher’s parents invited him to stay in the attic of their West End home, and Paul was introduced to cultural delights London had to offer on a daily basis.

John Lennon’s first wife Cynthia wrote in her memoir: “Paul fell like a ton of bricks for Jane. The first time I was introduced to her was at her home and she was sitting on Paul’s knee. My first impression of Jane was how beautiful and finely featured she was. Paul was obviously as proud as a peacock with his new lady. For Paul, Jane Asher was a great prize.”

But during the Rubber Soul period around 1965, things between the two began to sour as Paul focused on the band rather than his relationship.

Paul wrote ‘We Can Work It Out’ as a means of proving they could get their romance back on track, and he eventually proposed to Asher in a bid to make it work.

But his misgivings were the final straw for Jane, who caught Paul in bed with American Francie Schwartz in 1968 having come home early from an acting job.

She broke up with Paul, and proceeded to humiliate him live on television.

In July of that year, Jane appeared on the chat show Dee Time, and nobody expected her to drop the bombshell that she was breaking up with Paul.

Telling the host Simon Dee, Asher said:

“I haven’t broken it off, but it’s finished. I know it sounds corny, but we still see each other and love each other, but it hasn’t worked out. Perhaps we’ll be childhood sweethearts and meet again and get married when we’re about 70.”

It clearly must’ve been a shock for Paul to receive the news via television than in person, but the two moved on.

Social worker Angela Amias and Alana Carvalho, a licensed mental health counselor, suggest the following to get over a breakup:

Engage in positive journaling. 

Look inward. Pursue your own pleasures, enjoy activities that make you feel good and surround yourself with people who are supportive and loving.

Don’t judge yourself. 

Avoid demonizing your former partner: That leads to feelings of bitterness and resentment that will negatively impact the success of future relationships.

Prioritize your health. 

Exercise regularly.

How can you help someone experiencing a breakup?

Experts say the best course of action may be just to listen. While it may be tempting to offer advice or speak negatively about a loved one’s former partner, each of these can backfire.

That’s it for this week.

Goodnight.

Sleep well.

Have a great weekend.

And remember. There are more than enough breakup songs to choose from to help you find peace, security, and happiness after a relationship’s end.

We close on a bit of a high note. Getting over a breakup is not impossible. Happens all the time. The ‘victims’ are even understanding at times.

In 1961 Marty Robbins had a smash record that stayed at #1 on the country chart for 10 consecutive weeks. During the studio recording there was a noticeably fuzzy malfunction when the bass guitar started making a distorted sound because the transformer in the amplifier blew up. A producer decided to keep the distortion in the final product.

When LeAnn Rimes was 8 years old she appeared on Star Search and wowed the judges with her rendition of the Robbins’ hit. Rimes later did a track on her 1999 self-titled album, a reverent collection of country classics.