Breaking Up The Girl - Single Release

Single Release

Interscope Records released "Breaking Up The Girl" as the second North American single from Beautiful Garbage, to Modern Rock and Triple A radio formats in December 2001. Garbage had just completed a second support slot on U2's Elevation Tour in Miami, Florida; the band spent the rest of the month promoting the Beautiful Garbage album in the United States, recording a VH1 Behind The Music special (for broadcast after the new year) and performing "Breaking Up the Girl" on The Tonight Show on December 12. After the Daria premiere, Interscope re-serviced "Breaking Up the Girl" to Top 40 radio stations in February 2002. The single failed to make any Billboard charts. Garbage began a two-month North American tour in mid-April, which was routed into the American Southwest during May; at that time "Breaking Up the Girl" went into heavy rotation on MTV en Español. Garbage's tour ended at the start of June with a concert at Mexico City's National Auditorium; "Breaking Up the Girl" was subsequently released in Mexico through Universal as a five-track CD maxi.

The UK release of "Breaking Up the Girl" was scheduled to follow the band's concert tour in April 2002. The band performed the song on cd:uk prior to the commencement of the live dates, which ran for eight consecutive nights. On April 8, Mushroom Records issued the single as a 3×CD single set backed with three b-sides: "Confidence", an out-take from Beautiful Garbage and featured drums performed by Matt Chamberlain; "Happiness Pt.2", a discarded demo reworked by Butch Vig while he was recovering from a Hepatitis infection the previous year; and a cover version of Velvet Underground's "Candy Says", featuring a bass guitar part by the band's engineer Billy Bush and recorded during tour rehearsals. The three tracks were spread out over the three discs, as were an acoustic version and a QuickTime music video of the title track, and two remixes of "Breaking Up the Girl" produced by Brothers In Rhythm and Timo Maas; and a version of "Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go!)" by Eli Janney. The single peaked at #27 on the UK Singles Chart. The following week, Pepsi Chart Show broadcast a live recording of Garbage performing "Breaking Up the Girl" on-stage at the Brixton Academy during the tour, while Top of the Pops broadcast a performance of the single pre-recorded by the band the previous November.

In Europe, PIAS Recordings issued "Breaking Up the Girl" across the continent as a five track enhanced CD maxi collecting together both remixes, "Use Me" (an album out-take released earlier in the United Kingdom and Australia on the b-side of "Cherry Lips") and an enhanced music video section; as a two-track CD single backed with a radio edit of the Timo Maas remix; and an exclusive 12" vinyl format of multiple remixes. Garbage returned to tour European rock festivals in June 2002 (follow-up single "Shut Your Mouth" was released to support these dates). Prior to these shows, Garbage completed a mini-tour of Spain sonsored by telecom company Telefónica in Salamanca, Madrid, Bilbao and Barcelona. During this time, "Breaking Up the Girl" reached #33 on the Spanish airplay chart.

Following up Garbage's first Australian top ten hit ("Cherry Lips"), FMR scheduled the release of "Breaking Up the Girl" to begin low-key, with the remixes impacting clubs from March 1, 2002, eight weeks in advance of the single's street date. The song was serviced to Australian radio stations and the music video to television networks on March 25. FMR issued "Breaking Up the Girl" to stores on April 29. The single was issued as 2×CD single set, backed with "Candy Says", "Confidence" and Eli Janney's remix of "Cherry Lips" on the first disc, and the acoustic version, Brothers in Rhythm and Timo Maas mixes on a limited edition second disc. At the start of May, "Breaking Up the Girl" debuted on the ARIA Charts at #19, the band's second single to reach the top twenty in Australia. The single also debuted at #2 on the ARIA Alternative chart. FMR launched a television ad campaign during May, with heavy emphasis on "Breaking Up the Girl"; Beautiful Garbage recharted and reclimbed the album charts chart to #27. At the end of June, "Breaking Up the Girl" eventually bowed out of the Top 100 at #96 after an eight week run. In New Zealand, Beautiful Garbage rebounded on the RIANZ album chart during April, reaching #16."Breaking Up the Girl" did not make the RIANZ singles chart.