"Break on Me" (stylized as "Break on Me.") is a song written by

Ross Copperman Ross Copperman (born October 1, 1982) is an American Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter and record producer. After his experience as an artist in the UK, Copperman went to Nashville, Tennessee, where he pursued a career in country music. He ha ...

and

Jon Nite Jon Nite (born March 19, 1988) is an American singer/songwriter. He is Grammy-nominated, and has won CMA and ACM awards. He has written over 30 Billboard Airplay hits including 18 No.1's with billions of streams in multiple genres. Nite's songs ...

and recorded by New Zealand-born Australian

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

singer

Keith Urban Keith Lionel Urban ( né Urbahn; 26 October 1967) is an Australian and American country singer, songwriter and guitarist. Recognised with four Grammy Awards, he has also received 15 Academy of Country Music Awards, including the Jim Reeves Int ...

. It was released on 23 October 2015 as the second single from Urban's 2016 album '' Ripcord''. This

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of Great Britain and Ireland from the Late Middle Ages until the 19th century. They were widely used across Eur ...

with its prominent bassline (played by

Tal Wilkenfeld Tal Wilkenfeld (born 2 December 1986) is an Australian bassist, singer and songwriter. She has performed with artists including Chick Corea, Jeff Beck, Prince (musician), Prince, Incubus (band), Incubus, Eric Clapton, Herbie Hancock, Toto (band ...

) was co-produced by Urban along with Nathan Chapman and has been deemed a stylistic counterpoint to its

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...

y predecessor " John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16". The song is also the second of his career to not have an accompanying music video, after 2010's "

I'm In "I'm In" is a song co-written and recorded by American country music singer Radney Foster. He recorded it on his 1999 studio album ''See What You Want to See'', which was released on the Arista Austin label. In 2000, The Kinleys released it as a s ...

Critical reception

Billy Dukes of ''

Taste of Country Townsquare Media, Inc. (formerly Regent Communications until 2010) is an American radio network and media company based in Purchase, New York. The company started in radio and expanded into digital media toward the end of the 2000s, starting wit ...

'' complimented both the "nuanced" songwriting and Urban's "understated and accessible" delivery of the lyrics, noting that his approach elevates the song to something special.

Chart performance

"Break on Me" was the most-added song at country radio for the week of 26 October 2015 with 67 stations, according to radio monitoring organization ''Mediabase''. It debuted at number 54 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 advertis ...

Country Airplay Country Airplay is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States since October 20, 2012, although the magazine also retrospectively recognizes the Hot Country Songs charts from January 20, 1990, through October 13, 2012, ...

chart on the week of 7 November 2015. The following week, the song debuted at number 24 on the US

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 along with digital sales and streaming. ...

chart, selling 22,000 copies in its first week. On the Country Airplay chart for the week of 12 March 2016, "Break on Me" reached it peak at number one on the chart, making for the biggest jump to number one since

Rascal Flatts Rascal Flatts is an American Country music, country music band formed in 1999 in Nashville, Tennessee. The band consists of Gary LeVox (lead vocals), Jay DeMarcus (bass guitar, background vocals), and Joe Don Rooney (lead guitar, background voc ...

' "

Here Comes Goodbye "Here Comes Goodbye" is a song written by ''American Idol'' season 6 finalist Chris Sligh and Clint Lagerberg and recorded by American country music group Rascal Flatts, who released it in January 2009 as the first single from their album ''Unstopp ...

" in April 2009, also ascended from number six to number one. As of May 2016, the song has sold 265,000 copies in the US. On February 24, 2017, the single was certified

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

by the

Recording Industry Association of America The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

(RIAA) for combined sales and streaming data of over 500,000 units in the United States.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

{{authority control 2015 songs 2015 singles 2010s ballads Keith Urban songs Capitol Records Nashville singles Country ballads Songs written by Ross Copperman Songs written by Jon Nite Song recordings produced by Nathan Chapman (record producer)