3 Breakup Anthems From the 70s That Always Hit (Even When You’re Happily Taken)

Sometimes you want to feel like you just got broken up with, even if you’re actually quite emotionally stable. Here are three 70s breakup anthems that sound like moving on after heartbreak.

“Already Gone” by The Eagles

“Already Gone” sings of moving on before you can get too hurt by a situation. This song was a shift towards a heavier rock sound for Eagles, who had just added Don Felder to the group.

“Already Gone” was actually written by songwriters Jack Tempchin and Rob Standlund during a night of hard cider drinking.

“So, we were drinking out of this jug and we started to feel really good, and I said, ‘Let’s write a country song,’ Tempchin told Songfacts. “So in about 20 minutes in the back room there, we wrote ‘Already Gone’. The chorus goes ‘woo hoo hoo’ because I just felt so good suddenly.”

“Go Your Own Way” by Fleetwood Mac

This one was inspired by the famous Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham breakup. “Go Your Own Way” is one of those songs that says “f**k you” in a free feeling sort of way. Perhaps not for Nicks, though, who was the inspiration for the song.

There was one line in particular that bothered the witchy songstress. She said of that one line, “I want you to know, that line about ‘shacking up’? I never shacked up with anybody while I was with him.”

According to her, “I was the one who broke up with him. All he wanted to do was to fall asleep with his guitar.”

“You’re So Vain” by Carly Simon

Originally, the title Simon had given to this song was “Bless You Ben”. However, as she explained, she “could never fall in love” with that title.

“And then I was at a party and somebody walked in and my friend said to me, ‘Doesn’t he look like he’s just walked on to a yacht?’” she explained of the song. “So, I thought to myself – hmmm, let me write that in my notebook. And then one day, when I was playing ‘Bless You Ben’ on the piano, I substituted ‘You walked into the party, like you were walking onto a yacht’ and the exchange was equal. And it felt natural and it felt good and then I could get into that man, I knew who I was talking about.”

In past interviews, Simon has mentioned that the second verse of this song was written about actor Warren Beatty. Apparently, the rest of it was inspired by two other unnamed subjects.

Photo by: Richard E. Aaron/Redferns