"For My Broken Heart" is a song written by Keith Palmer and

Liz Hengber Liz Hengber (born August 22, 1959) is an American songwriter and musician based in Nashville, Tennessee. Hengber was born in Brooklyn, New York, and graduated from New Milford High School in New Milford, New Jersey in 1977. She graduated from th ...

, and recorded by American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

singer

Reba McEntire Reba Nell McEntire (born March 28, 1955), or simply Reba, is an American country music singer and actress. Dubbed " the Queen of Country", she has sold more than 75 million records worldwide. Since the 1970s, McEntire has placed over 100 single ...

. It was released in September 1991 as the first single and title track from her album ''

For My Broken Heart ''For My Broken Heart'' is the seventeenth studio album by American country music singer Reba McEntire, released on October 1, 1991. It was the first studio album recorded after an airplane crash which killed most of the members of her touring ...

''. The song was a Number One hit for her, topping the country singles charts in both the U.S. and Canada.

Content

"For My Broken Heart" chronicles a failed relationship. In the first verse, the male is packing up his belongings and then leaving. After falling asleep on the couch, she reluctantly wakes up and, despite being "so sure life wouldn't go on" without him, she says "I guess the world didn't stop for my broken heart." The song's radio edit omits a string section prelude, the radio edit is included on her '' Greatest Hits Volume Two'' compilation album, but the full album version including the prelude is included on her ''

Reba 1's ''Reba #1s'' is a double-disc compilation album released in 2005 celebrating Reba McEntire's thirty years in the music industry. It is the first compilation of her career to include tracks from her early Mercury Records years along with her M ...

'' and her ''

50 Greatest Hits ''50 Greatest Hits'' is three-disc compilation from country music singer Reba McEntire. The album's release was announced in August 2008 on her official website. It was also her last studio album for MCA Records, a label she had been with since 1 ...

'' compilation albums. McEntire originally planned to record the song as a duet with

Clint Black Clint Patrick Black (born February 4, 1962) is an American country music singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. Signed to RCA Nashville in 1989, Black's debut album '' Killin' Time'' produced four straight number one singles on the ...

, but he was unavailable at the time.

Music video

The song's

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

was directed by Jack Cole and shows four women dealing with heartbreak during a rainy night. Three of them are: a young, white woman sitting at a corner booth at a cafe, a middle-aged black woman in her apartment, and an elderly, white woman, also in her apartment. The fourth woman is Reba herself, clad in a blue nightgown. Reba sings the song while the other three women lip sync along with her. The video ends the next morning, with each of the women over their heartbreak and going about their lives. The video does not include the string section prelude at the beginning of the song.

Chart positions

"For My Broken Heart" debuted at number 64 on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' Hot Country Singles & Tracks (now

Hot Country Songs Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data from Nielsen BDS along with digital sal ...

) charts dated for October 12, 1991. It peaked at number 1 on the chart dated for December 7, 1991 and held the position for two weeks. The song was also a Number One country hit in Canada, holding that position on the ''

RPM Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or with the notation min−1) is a unit of rotational speed or rotational frequency for rotating machines. Standards ISO 80000-3:2019 defines a unit of rotation as the dimensionl ...

'' Country Tracks chart dated for December 21.

Year-end charts

References

1991 singles Reba McEntire songs Song recordings produced by Tony Brown (record producer) Songs written by Liz Hengber MCA Records singles 1991 songs {{1991-country-song-stub