In The Number Ones, I’m reviewing every single #1 single in the history of the Billboard Hot 100, starting with the chart’s beginning, in 1958, and working my way up into the present. Book Bonus Beat: The Number Ones: Twenty Chart-Topping Hits That Reveal the History of Pop Music.
I have terrible news, news that may shake your entire soul to the core. I didn’t even really begin to process this information until I sat down to research this column, but the thoroughly anonymous British dance-pop singer Taio Cruz only has one chart-topping hit in America, and it’s not “Dynamite.” I know. I can’t believe it, either. It doesn’t make sense. It’s not right. Taio Cruz is the “Dynamite” guy. We know this. If you think anything about Taio Cruz in this day and age, you think of him as the “Dynamite” guy. If you try to Google the man’s name, the first autofill result that will come up is probably “Taio Cruz Dynamite.” But Cruz instead scored his one American chart-topper with a song that came out before “Dynamite.” The world is such a strange place.
You remember “Dynamite.” At least, I hope you remember “Dynamite.” You might not even have to remember “Dynamite”; the song might still be a part of your life. It’s definitely still in heavy rotation at my kids’ school functions. If you need a refresher, “Dynamite” is the song about going out to dance dance dance dance while wearing all your favorite brands brands brands brands. It’s the one about how you’re gonna rock this club, you’re gon’ go all night, you’re gon’ light it up like it’s dy-no-mite. ‘Cause I told you once. Yeah, I told you twice. It’s the one about lighting it up like it’s dy-no-mite. To be clear, “Dynamite” is the song about throwing your hands up in the air sometimes, screaming “Ayo, gotta let go” — about celebrating and living your life, screaming, “Ayo, baby, let’s go.” ‘Cause it goes on and on and on. And it goes on and on and on, yeah.
“Dynamite” is the circa-2010 song machine working at peak capacity. The names in its credits are titans of the form: Max Martin, Dr. Luke, Benny Blanco, Bonnie McKee. Together, those precision-engineers put together the kind of mindless hookfest that will get stuck in your brain, on constant repeat, until you are ready to voluntarily cut off your own head. It’s a good song. I like it.
The “Dynamite” single has gone platinum eight times over, but it only made it to #2 on the Hot 100. (It’s an 8.) Instead, the song that lands Taio Cruz in this column is “Break Your Heart.” That’s the one where Cruz sings that he’s only gonna break break your break break your heart. You might remember that song, but you must concede that it’s not “Dynamite.” Nothing else is “Dynamite.”
Have you ever thought about Taio Cruz? Ever given his whole story the slightest consideration? No, right? He’s the “Dynamite” guy. The “Dynamite” guy doesn’t need a backstory. Other pop stars put their personalities front and center. Kesha, another participant in the circa-2010 song machine, managed to do that. You knew who she was immediately. Taio Cruz, on the other hand, only ever presented himself as a vessel for hooks. He had no persona, no character. He comes from the Jay Sean school; he’s someone who managed to make a couple of big hits without ever escaping the “just some guy” zone.
But Taio Cruz had to come from somewhere, and like Jay Sean before him, he came from London. The man born Adetayo Ayowale Onile-Ere is the son of a Nigerian lawyer and a Brazilian woman who ran a hairdressing company. (When Cruz was born, Blondie’s “Call Me” was the #1 song in America. In the UK, it was the Detroit Spinners’ “Working My Way Back To You/Forgive Me Girl.”) Cruz went to fancy boarding schools, and he broke into the music business as a songwriter in 2004. That’s when he co-wrote “Your Game,” a big UK hit from the Pop Idol winner Will Young. (Will Young’s only Hot 100 hit, 2003’s “Leave Right Now,” peaked at #81.)
In the years after “Your Game,” Taio Cruz kept writing for UK stars like the Sugababes, and he also started to release his own music. Cruz signed to Island, and he wrote and produced his own 2006 debut single “I Just Wanna Know.” It was a minor UK hit, peaking at #29. Two years later, Cruz hit big in the UK, making it to #5 with “Come On Girl,” his duet with the singer Luciana. Cruz wrote and produced that one on his own, too. Cruz’s songs weren’t quite R&B, and they weren’t quite dance music. Instead, they existed in some nebulous pop zone — breezy, anonymous, and sleek enough to get radio play without really bothering anyone.
After Taio Cruz released his 2008 album Departure — weird name for a debut — American execs started to get interested. Cruz produced everything on Departure himself, but he went to work on his sophomore album Rokstarr with the UK producer Fraser T. Smith. Smith, whose work will appear in this column again, started off as a touring guitarist for prog wizard Rick Wakeman in the early ’90s. From there, Smith went into session work, and he eventually became the guitarist for the London singer Craig David, the biggest star ever to come out of the circa-Y2K UK garage scene. Soon, Smith started co-writing and producing Craig David’s songs, and he moved into the UK rap world when he produced a bunch of tracks for the great grime MC Kano, including the 2005 single “Typical Me.”
In the late ’00s, Fraser T. Smith made a bunch of tracks with Tinchy Stryder, a grime MC and former Roll Deep member who was trying to make crossover moves. Working with Smith, Tinchy succeeded wildly. Tinchy’s first big hit was the Smith production “Take Me Back,” a big, obvious lumbering club-pop track. Taio Cruz co-wrote that song, and he sang the hook; the song went all the way to #3 on the UK charts. Cruz also co-wrote Tinchy’s “Never Leave You,” which topped the UK charts later in 2009. None of those Tinchy Stryder tracks made any impact in the US; we were still many years away from taking UK rap even a tiny bit seriously. We still don’t take UK rap seriously, but a figure like Stormzy can at least get some props over here. Those thudding rave-pop Tinchy Stryder tracks simply weren’t going to go.
In any case, Taio Cruz and Fraser T. Smith figured out a comfortable working relationship. They were both chasing the same sound — hooky, repetitive club-pop with all the weight and nutritional value of cotton candy. One day, Cruz and Smith wrote two songs for Cheryl Cole — now simply known as Cheryl — a UK pop singer who’d been a member of the hugely popular group Girls Aloud and who’d just become a judge on the UK version of The X Factor. One of those songs was “Stand Up,” which appeared on Cheryl’s 2009 solo debut 3 Words. The other was “Break Your Heart.” Cheryl Cole’s people ignored that one, possibly because the album already had a will.i.am collab called “Heartbreaker.” Taio Cruz wasn’t entirely comfortable singing about being a heartbreaker, but he eventually took that song for himself.
It couldn’t have taken much work to rewrite “Break Your Heart” and turn it into a male-perspective song. Either way, the message is the same: You should know, before you get involved with me, that I’m only gonna break break your break break your heart. It’s supposed to be a warning, but it comes off as more of a challenge — that is, if it comes across as anything. I’m slightly surprised that the “Break Your Heart” lyrics come from two writers whose first language is English. The song barely has any words, and those words are extremely silly: “There’s no point tryin’ to hide it/ No point tryin’ to evade it/ I know I got a problem/ Problem with misbehaving.” He’s got a problem with misbehaving! That does sound like a heartbreaker, doesn’t it?
Taio Cruz’s “Break Your Heart” chorus is simple enough to drill itself into your brain. The whole thing is just six words, repeated incessantly — seven if you consider “whoa-oh-oh” to be a word. It’s a perfectly pleasant listen, but I honestly don’t know how songs like this get popular. Cruz’s voice is smooth and flexible without carrying the slightest trace of personality. The beat is all synth — wub-wub bass tones on the low end, ravey keyboard diddles up top. It sounds like about a million other things that were popular at the time. Cruz has nothing to say, but I can’t deny that the song works — that all the little interlocking melodic parts click into place in satisfying ways. I probably heard “Break Your Heart” a hundred times without even noticing that it was playing; it’s that kind of song. At the same time, I’ve never been mad to hear it.
“Break Your Heart” came out in the UK late in 2009, and it went straight to #1. When it came time to release the song in the US, Taio Cruz and Fraser T. Smith realized that it needed something extra to help it stand out. Enter Ludacris. Luda, who’s been in this column plenty of times, was near the end of his commercially dominant run, but he was still plenty valuable as a guest-rapper — someone who could show up, spray some syllables, and crank up a song’s energy by a few levels. That’s what Luda did on Usher’s “Yeah!” and on Fergie’s “Glamorous.” Just before he appeared on the American version of “Break Your Heart,” Ludacris played the exact same role on young Justin Bieber’s big breakout hit “Baby,” which peaked at #5 before going platinum about a million times. (It’s a 7. Justin Bieber will be in this column many times.)
Ludacris has two verses on the US version of “Break Your Heart” — one on the intro and one just before the bridge — and they fit onto the track pretty seamlessly. Luda says that he’s only gonna break your heart and shatter and splatter it all into little itty-bitty pieces — a phrase that he rhymes with “losers weepers.” He also informs us how to pronounce Taio Cruz’s name. It’s all that he needed to do. Luda doesn’t really say anything on “Break Your Heart,” and he’s totally stuck on cruise control. But the thing about Luda is that he still brought the energy, even when he was sleepwalking. His presence gives the song a little more juice, and I can’t imagine listening to it without him.
The “Break Your Heart” video is a sunny speedboat fantasy, with Taio Cruz and a model promising each other that they’ll break each other’s hearts. For the American version, Ludacris was just edited into the clip; he and Taio Cruz never appear on screen together. Apparently, that wasn’t a problem. One week after “Break Your Heart” debuted on the Hot 100, it sold a ton of downloads and jumped more than 50 spots to #1.
The week that “Break Your Heart” reached #1, Ludacris was on five different Hot 100 hits. “How Low,” Luda’s last top-10 hit as lead artist, was at #10, falling from its previous peak at #6. (It’s a 6.) Justin Bieber’s “Baby” was still on the charts, too. So were Luda’s Nicki Minaj collab “My Chick Bad” and his verse on the DJ Khaled posse cut “All I Do Is Win.” (A different DJ Khaled posse cut will eventually appear in this column. Nicki Minaj will be in here, too.) This was Luda’s last real moment as a pop star. After “Break Your Heart,” he’s only appeared on one top-10 hit: Enrique Iglesias’ “Tonight (I’m Lovin’ You),” which peaked at #4 later in 2010. (It’s a 5.)
Luda was already acting in tons of movies, and most of them were bad. In 2011, though, Luda reprised his 2 Fast 2 Furious role of Tej Parker in Fast Five, a glorious piece of franchise entertainment that turned those Fast movies into global box-office powerhouses. These days, it seems like those Fast films are mostly what Ludacris does. I haven’t seen Fast X yet, but I bet he’s good in it.
“Break Your Heart” eventually went triple platinum — impressive numbers, but nothing compared to what the follow-up single “Dynamite” would do. “Dynamite” might’ve gotten stuck at #2, but it’s Taio Cruz’s true contribution to the world. His two big hits, “Break Your Heart” and “Dynamite,” were not enough to turn his album Rokstarr into any kind of commercial success. Nobody needed a Taio Cruz album. The LP didn’t even go gold. Cruz worked with Kesha, someone who’s been in this column once and who will be back, on “Dirty Picture,” a UK hit that never got a real push in the US but still made it to #96 on iTunes downloads alone. It’s not very good.
Rokstarr had one more minor US hit. Taio Cruz’s track “Higher” had two different guests on both sides of the Atlantic. In the UK, Kylie Minogue appeared on the song, and it gave Cruz another top-10 hit. In the US, the guest was the endlessly irritating Gym Class Heroes leader Travie McCoy, and “Higher” peaked at #24. We really got screwed in that deal. That song’s not very good, either.
Taio Cruz hsan’t been on the Hot 100 since 2011. That year, Cruz and Ludacris reunited on David Guetta’s single “Little Bad Girl,” which peaked at #70. (Guetta’s three highest-charting songs all peaked at #4: The 2011 Usher collab “Without You,” the 2011 Nicki Minaj collab “Turn Me On,” and the 2022 Bebe Rexha collab “I’m Good (Blue).” “Without You” is a 5, “Turn Me On” is a 3, and “I’m Good (Blue)” is a 7. Don’t even talk to me about that last one. Just reflect on it until you realize, deep within your soul, that I’m right.) Later in 2011, Cruz released his follow-up album TY.O, and he teamed up with Flo Rida for lead single, “Hangover.” Somehow, the combined personality vacuums of Taio Cruz and Flo Rida couldn’t push that song any higher than #62.
And that was pretty much it for Taio Cruz. He tried to launch a line of sunglasses, but it went nowhere; maybe people felt too much loyalty to their favorite brands brands brands brands. He sang “Dynamite” at the closing ceremony of the London Olympics. He got French Montana to show up on one of his singles a few years ago, but nobody cared. Cruz is still out there, still making music, but I would be absolutely shocked if we see him in this column again.
Is there any lesson to be drawn from the saga of Taio Cruz? Not really. Sometimes, people just get hot for a minute. The success of “Break Your Heart” probably earned Taio Cruz a chance to work with a bunch of big-deal hitmakers, and those hitmakers wrote and produced “Dynamite” for him. He’ll be singing “Dynamite” for the rest of his life. That’s his plans plans plans plans. I can think of worse fates than that.
GRADE: 6/10
BONUS BEATS: Here’s Blondie, a group that’s been in this column a bunch of times, randomly covering “Break Your Heart” at the Isle Of Wight Festival in 2010:
The Number Ones: Twenty Chart-Topping Hits That Reveal The History Of Pop Music is out now via Hachette Books. You’re only gonna buy buy my buy buy my book.
