♫ How Can You Mend A Broken Heart ♫

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, History, music

Sometimes, I actually remember when someone asks me to play a certain song, but most often things don’t stick around in my brain for very long!  Luckily, I wrote this one down when my dear friend Amy asked me to play it!  Unluckily, I forgot I had written it down and just came across my jotted note tonight, while looking for something else!  So … this one’s for you, sweet Amy!!!

I was so so so wrong about this song!  I could have sworn it was Al Green’s and that the Bee Gees covered it, but it turns out the Bee Gees wrote and were the first to record the song, with Al Green’s version coming a year later!

Barry and Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees wrote this in August 1970, along with Lonely Days when the Gibb brothers had reconvened following a period of break-up and alienation.  According to Barry Gibb …

“Robin came to my place, and that afternoon we wrote How Can You Mend a Broken Heart and that obviously was a link to us coming back together. We called Maurice, finished the song, went to the studio and once again, with only ‘Broken Heart’ as a basic structure, we went in to the studio with that and an idea for ‘Lonely Days’, and those two songs were recorded that night.”

They originally offered the song to Andy Williams, but ended up recording it themselves, although Williams did later cover the song on his album You’ve Got a Friend.

The song was sung live for the first time in 1971, in a performance that was notable as drummer Geoff Bridgford’s first appearance with the band. Although failing to chart on the UK Singles Chart, the song became the Bee Gees’ first US number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and also reached number four on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart. Billboard ranked it as the No. 5 song for 1971. In Spain, it was released under the title “Cómo Puedes Arreglar Un Corazón Destrozado”.

Al Green recorded the song a year later, in 1972, and it was his version that was used in the 1999 movie Notting Hill.  Because it was the Al Green version I initially set out to play, and because I like both, though very different versions, I shall play both.

How Can You Mend a Broken Heart? 
Al Green

I can think of younger days when living for my life
Was everything a man could want to do
I could never see tomorrow, but I was never told about the sorrow

And how can you mend a broken heart?
How can you stop the rain from falling down?
How can you stop the sun from shining?
What makes the world go round?
How can you mend a this broken man?
How can a loser ever win?
Please help me mend my broken heart and let me live again

I can still feel the breeze that rustles through the trees
And misty memories of days gone by
We could never see tomorrow, no one said a word about the sorrow

And how can you mend a broken heart?
How can you stop the rain from falling down?
How can you stop the sun from shining?
What makes the world go round?
How can you mend this broken man?
How can a loser ever win?
Please help me mend my broken heart and let me live again

Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Barry Gibb / Robin Gibb
How Can You Mend a Broken Heart? – Notting Hill lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

24 thoughts on “♫ How Can You Mend A Broken Heart ♫”

  1. I’ve always liked the little, suddenly introspective pause given in the song after “And” when they then pursue the questions. Yeah, they shifted dramatically with disco and were deeply overexposed — which says more about pop culture than about the Bee Gees — but they were sufficiently talented to make the shift and continue their success, so good for them. I applaud just about anyone who can play instruments, write and record a song, let alone make it a hit or drive themselves enough to make a career and become a star. Hugs and cheers, mon ami.

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    • Hmmm … I never really thought about it, but yeah … it adds something to the song. It is, indeed, a quality of true musical talent to be able to cross genres as the Bee Gees did. I’m like you … not a shred of musical talent! Probably having been nearly deaf since birth played a role there! 🤣 My mother once enrolled me in piano lessons and by the end of the second week, the piano teacher told her not to bring me back, that it was hopeless! Hugs and cheers, mi amigo!

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  4. This was around the time that their run of UK hit singles dried up, until they inflicted disco on us. I think the reason for that is clear. When you consider some of the great songs that preceded this it is, in my view, pretty poor. And I don’t think Al Green’s cover is any better, either!

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    • Oh no!!! Are you not feeling well again? If that’s the case, please see a doctor, Michael. I’m really glad you enjoyed the music! I hope you do lots of resting and pillow-hugging this weekend, dear friend! xx

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  8. Jill, what is sometimes overlooked is the Gibbs brothers wrote many wonderful songs. After they got overexposed with the Disco Era and suffered a backlash when Disco died off, they wrote songs for other people to record initially – Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton, Barbra Streisand, Dionne Warwick et al. There is a great documentary on how they kept reinventing themselves. Keith

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