1981 Ultimate Breakup Hit and ‘80s Rock Anthem Was Written in 15 Minutes
In 1981, the Greg Kihn Band scored a long-awaited hit single with "The Breakup Song." The song, subtitled "They Don't Write ‘Em," appeared on the band's sixth studio album, RocKihnRoll. The power-pop hit peaked at No. 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 in September 1981 as it told the tale of a breakup and the lack of good songs about the topic. It became a radio favorite and an anthem of the era in the early days of MTV.
In an interview with Music Recall magazine, Kihn revealed that when it came to penning his own breakup song, he had help from bass guitarist Steve Wright.
"I actually wrote that with Steve Wright," he shared in 2018. "We took the verses that I had written and wedded it to the chorus he had written, and the two songs fit effortlessly together."
Written in minutes
Kihn, who died in 2024 at age 75, once shared the backstory on "The Breakup Song." In an interview with Like Totally 80s, he recalled pulling up to his house in his band's tour van and finding all of his belongings piled up on the lawn.
"And it was raining, and I thought, ‘Oh God, my first wife had done it'," he said. "We pull up to the house, and I remember Steve, the bass player, looked at me and said, ‘Well, you might as well just keep on going. You're not going in there.'"
The bandmates went to a Japanese restaurant where they began "pounding down hot sake." "I didn't know where else to go," Kihn shared. "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."
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In an interview with Classic Rock Revisited, Kihn revealed that the "uh uh uhs" he uttered throughout the song weren't originally planned.
"I had always intended to write more lyrics to fit in there, but like so much of rock and roll, it just happened spontaneously," he explained. "Man, I'm glad I didn't change it, though. That song translates into any language and was a worldwide hit. All because I was short on lyrics and improved the uh-uhs in the studio."
Would never happen today
It was not lost on Kihn that going so many albums without a hit wouldn't have flown in later years. He once told Classic Bands, "'The Break-Up Song' came out. It was our first Top Ten hit. That was our seventh album. We'd already had seven albums out. We were getting FM turntable play without hit singles 'cause that's the way it was back in those days. We would book a tour, rent a van pretty much, and drive all over, but you could play."
"The record business has completely changed since then," he added. "Seven albums without a hit? Go figure. It's not gonna happen."
He also expressed gratitude for the long-overdue hit. "It wasn't until ‘The Breakup Song' that we really exploded on the scene," Kihn told Like Totally 80s. "I can tell you that life with a hit record is much better than life without a hit record."
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This story was originally published May 4, 2026 at 4:04 AM.