Maddie & Tae tip their hat to their most recent No. 1 hit with a new song that zooms in on the post-breakup cleanup. “Heart They Didn’t Break” is a best friend ballad that’s sure to stick to the hearts of country music fans.
The pair call “Heart They Didn’t Break” the “soul sister” to “Die From a Broken Heart,” their 2019 chart-topper. Maddie & Tae helped write that first-person experience, but neither played a part in this new song. That’s almost unfathomable, as the sincerity of their vocals would only seem possible if they’d scratched them out themselves. This song is proof their friendship is just as strong as they’d have you believe.
“She ain’t the one that slammed the door and tore off in the truck / She ain’t the one that made me feel like I ain’t good enough / Someone’s gotta help clean up the mess you went and made / So here’s to friends that will fix a heart they didn’t break,” M&T sing.
Both women sing lead on the new song:
Benjy Davis, Anna Vaus and Ryan Beaver wrote this new song from an unidentified future project. Corey Crowder produced it, sticking with a sparse, acoustic arrangement that allows the vocals to shine.
The first verse of “Heart They Didn’t Break” finds Maddie Marlow telling of a friend who drops everything to drive 200 miles to be with her. The second introduces Tae Dye as lead vocalist. She sings from the same perspective, so both women are showing appreciation to the other for being there, as opposed to one answering the other’s call.
These days, both women seem to be far from needing each other’s support in the way they sing about. Both are married and either have a child (Dye and Josh Kerr have a 1-year-old) or are expecting (Marlow and Jonah Font).
The Top Country Songs of 2023, Ranked
The best country songs of 2023 fit snug over your life and experiences. Each is written from personal experiences, but somehow, that translates as if it were custom to each of us. We’ve loved, we’ve longed, we’ve lost and we’ve cut loose in the country.
Airplay charts, sales data and streaming numbers helped make this list of country music’s top songs of 2023, but staff and Taste of Country reader opinion were most influential. Songs included on previous Top Country Songs lists were not eligible. A song may have been released in 2022, but it had to have the majority of recorded airplay or impact this year to count.