"Only Love Can Break a Heart" is the title of a popular song from 1962 (see 1962 in music

1962 in music

-Events:*January 1 – The Beatles and Brian Poole and the Tremeloes both audition at Decca Records, a company which has the option of signing one group only...

) by the American singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...

 Gene Pitney

Gene Pitney

Eugene Francis Alan Pitney, known as Gene Pitney , was an American singer-songwriter, musician and sound engineer. Through the mid-1960s, he enjoyed success as a recording artist on both sides of the Atlantic and was among the group of early 1960s American acts who continued to enjoy hits after the...

. The song was written by Hal David

Hal David

Harold Lane "Hal" David is an American lyricist. He grew up in Brooklyn, New York. David is best known for his collaborations with composer Burt Bacharach.-Career:...

 (words) and Burt Bacharach

Burt Bacharach

Burt F. Bacharach is an American pianist, composer and music producer. He is known for his popular hit songs and compositions from the mid-1950s through the 1980s, with lyrics written by Hal David. Many of their hits were produced specifically for, and performed by, Dionne Warwick...

 (music) and appears on Pitney's second album Only Love Can Break a Heart.

Pitney had enjoyed some success as a songwriter prior to breaking through as a performer in his own right. He wrote the songs "Hello Mary Lou

Hello Mary Lou

"Hello Mary Lou" is a song written by U.S. singer Gene Pitney and Cayet Mangiaracina and performed by Ricky Nelson in English and German in 1961. It reached #9 on the Billboard music charts on May 28, 1961, although the other side of the single, "Travelin' Man", hit #1...

", "Rubber Ball

Rubber Ball (song)

"Rubber Ball" was an early 1961 hit for Bobby Vee on Liberty Records. In fact, it was the record which made Vee an international star. The song was recorded on August 12, 1960 in a four-song, 3-hour session at United in Hollywood...

", and "He's a Rebel

He's a Rebel

"He's a Rebel" is a pop song credited to the girl group The Crystals, reaching #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts in November 1962. Written by Gene Pitney and produced by Phil Spector, it is considered one of the definitive examples of the Spector-produced girl group sound.In 2004, the song was...

", the latter a number-one Billboard Hot 100

Billboard Hot 100

The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

 hit for The Crystals

The Crystals

The Crystals are an American vocal group based in New York, considered one of the defining acts of the girl group era of the first half of the 1960s. Their 1961–1964 chart hits, including "Uptown", "He's a Rebel", "Da Doo Ron Ron " and "Then He Kissed Me", featured three successive female lead...

 in 1962. Ironically, Pitney's success as a singer was beginning at this time, and "He's a Rebel" kept "Only Love Can Break a Heart" from topping the Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

pop chart, where it spent one week at number two. "Only Love..." did spend two weeks atop the Billboard Easy Listening chart in October and November 1962. It also reached number 16 on the Billboard R&B chart

Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs

Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, is a chart released weekly by Billboard in the United States.The chart, initiated in 1942, is used to track the success of popular music songs in urban, or primarily African American, venues. Dominated over the years at various times by jazz, rhythm and blues, doo-wop, soul,...

.

Other artists have recorded cover version

Cover version

In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...

s of "Only Love...", including country music

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

 singers Sonny James

Sonny James

James Loden , known professionally as Sonny James, is an American country music singer and songwriter best known for his 1957 hit, "Young Love". Dubbed the Southern Gentleman, James had 72 country and pop chart hits from 1953 to 1983, including a five-year streak of 16 straight among his 23 No. 1...

 and Kenny Dale

Kenny Dale

Kenneth Dale Eoff is an American country music artist, known professionally as Kenny Dale. Activein the 1970s, he recorded two albums for Capitol Records and charted several country hits. His biggest hit was a cover version of Gene Pitney's "Only Love Can Break a Heart", which peaked at #7...

. Both versions reached the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles

Hot Country Songs

Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States.This 60-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly mostly by airplay and occasionally commercial sales...

 chart during the 1970s. James' version peaked at No. 2 in March 1972, held out of the top by Freddie Hart

Freddie Hart (musician)

Frederick Segrest , known professionally as Freddie Hart, is an American country musician and songwriter best-known for his No. 1 hit "Easy Loving," which won the Country Music Association Song of the Year award in 1971 and 1972....

's "My Hang-Up Is You." As a result, "Only Love ..." just missed continuing James' record-breaking streak of consecutive number-one singles, which had reached 16. Dale's version of the song reached number seven on the Hot Country Singles chart in 1979 becoming his biggest hit on the country charts.

Dionne Warwick

Dionne Warwick

Dionne Warwick is an American singer, actress and TV show host, who became a United Nations Global Ambassador for the Food and Agriculture Organization, and a United States Ambassador of Health....

 released her version of the song as a single

Single (music)

In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...

 in 1977, but it only reached number nine of the "Bubbling Under" portion of the Billboard Hot 100. Bobby Vinton

Bobby Vinton

Bobby Vinton is an American pop music singer of Polish origin. In pop music circles, he became known as "The Polish Prince".-Early life:...

also recorded the song in 1977, and it reached number 99 on the Hot 100. Vinton's version appears on his album The Name Is Love.