Break 4 Love — Raze
Vaughan Mason wrote, produced and recorded “Break 4 Love” in 1987. It topped the US dance chart, charted in the UK four times and was covered by the Pet Shop Boys.
- Written, produced and recorded by Vaughan Mason of Raze; vocals by Keith Thompson and Mason.
- Released in December 1987; No. 1 on the US Hot Dance Club Play chart in 1988.
- UK No. 28 in 1989, back in the UK chart in 1990, 1994 and 2003.
Released at the end of 1987, “Break 4 Love” topped the US dance chart in 1988, entered the UK chart a year later and kept returning to it until 2003. Along the way it picked up a Pet Shop Boys cover and a reputation among breakbeat DJs.
Vaughan Mason and Raze
Raze was formed in 1986 by multi-instrumentalist and producer Vaughan Mason, with producer Erique Dial and singer Keith Thompson; vocalists Wanda Sykes and Bobby Coleman also contributed. Mason, who died in 2020 at 69, was also the man behind “Bounce, Rock, Skate, Roll”. Raze’s “Jack the Groove” reached No. 20 in the UK in January 1987, and “Let the Music Move U” followed. The group released two albums, Album 88 (1988) and All 4 Love (1991), and “Let It Roll” (1989, credited to Raze presents Doug Lazy) gave Mason another US dance No. 1.
How the record was made
Mason wrote, produced and recorded “Break 4 Love” in 1987. Keith Thompson and Mason share the vocals, and Erique Dial supplied the suggestive sound samples — one mix was titled “Drop the Panties”. The track interpolates “Today, Tomorrow and Forever”, a 1987 record by the Castle Beat. It came out in December 1987 on Grove Street, with Columbia/CBS also involved.
Charts, reissues and a cover
In 1988 it went to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart and No. 24 on the R&B chart; it remained the group’s only significant US hit. In the UK it reached No. 28 in January 1989.
The comebacks started quickly. “All 4 Love (Break 4 Love 1990)”, co-produced by Dial and Mason and released on Grove Street and Champion, reached No. 30. A 1994 remix reached No. 44 and topped the UK Dance Singles Chart; Music Week gave it four out of five. A 2003 release made No. 64.
In 2001 Peter Rauhofer and the Pet Shop Boys, as The Collaboration, covered it on Star 69, and that version topped the US dance chart too. In 2004 the original turned up on the radio station SF-UR in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
A breakbeat ancestor
In 2025 the BBC called it a “seminal house music track of the late 1980s”. Drum and bass DJ Fabio picked it as one of his top ten tracks in 1996 and called it one of the first breakbeat tracks, saying it “used the break to roll the track along”. For more American house from the same years, keep digging with “Jack Your Body” by Steve “Silk” Hurley and “Move Your Body” by Marshall Jefferson.
FAQ
Who made Break 4 Love?
Vaughan Mason, Raze’s principal member, wrote, produced and recorded it. Keith Thompson and Mason sing; Erique Dial added the sound samples.
When was Break 4 Love released?
In December 1987, on Grove Street. It topped the US Hot Dance Club Play chart in 1988 and reached No. 28 in the UK in January 1989.
Who covered Break 4 Love?
Peter Rauhofer and the Pet Shop Boys, as The Collaboration, in 2001. Their version also reached No. 1 on the US dance chart.
