“Break Them Down” by Graham Parker

"Break Them Down" is Graham Parker's own song, words and music, from Steady Nerves, the 1985 album he made with his band the Shot. He sings it and plays guitar alongside Brinsley Schwarz, with Kevin Jenkins on bass, Michael Braun on drums and George Small on keyboards.

The record behind it was a tug-of-war. Parker wanted Jack Nitzsche, who had produced Squeezing Out Sparks; Elektra said no, then balked at William Wittman, who had just engineered Lauper's She's So Unusual, paying for only four songs before giving the go-ahead. Parker later admitted he had no say in the production and simply let Wittman run things, and he blamed himself for the result, having hoped for something far stranger-sounding. The album still gave him his only US Top 40 hit, "Wake Up (Next to You)".

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.