What makes a one-hit wonder the kind of song that sticks around for decades? In the case of Matthew Wilder's 1983 Top 5 hit, "Break My Stride," it was a combination of the tune's unbelievably catchy melody, super positive lyrics, and the fact that it made an unexpected return to the charts over a decade later.
Wilder was only 19 when he got his first record contract, though he wouldn't have his first (and last) major hit until roughly 10 years later, when "Break My Stride" made a huge splash. As the musician told Bruce Pollock of Songfacts, his road to success with the song was a bumpy one.
"I was one of two artists from this production company in L.A. that Clive Davis signed to Arista Records in 1981 or '82," Wilder explained. "Clive set up a very competitive environment between the other artist and myself where he told us, one artist is going to get the album deal and one artist is going to get the singles deal. So I drew the short straw where he felt that I needed to prove myself on the basis of singles."
As time passed, "Davis wasn't getting the results he wanted and I wasn't getting results I wanted," Wilder continued. "So, in the 11th hour of my relationship with Clive and the label, the production company and I went in on the graveyard shift to Spencer Proffer's studio on Melrose. Spencer Proffer had discovered Quiet Riot. So we went in in the wee hours of the morning and recorded 'Break My Stride' on our own dime."
According to Wilder, his frustrating relationship with Davis was the "impetus" for the song's lyrics:
Ain't nothin' gonna break my strideNobody gonna slow me down, oh noI got to keep on movingAin't nothin' gonna break my strideI'm running and I won't touch groundOh no, I got to keep on moving
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Davis didn't think "Break My Stride" was a hit, which was the straw that broke the camel's back for Wilder. After he was let go by the label, Wilder signed with Private-I Records, and "Break My Stride" — the first single from his debut album, I Don't Speak the Language — blew up before the album was even released.
View this post on InstagramWilder went on to have a successful career, though not as a rock star; he produced No Doubt's third album, Tragic Kingdom, and was nominated for an Academy Award for writing the score to Mulan, among other things. Still, "Break My Stride" remains his cultural "touchstone," as he put it. In 2025, Time Out New York ranked the track among the "Best Inspirational Songs of All Time," praising it as a "simple earworm about the urge to continue moving forward no matter the obstacle."
"Break My Stride" even made a return to the charts over a decade later. In 1997, Puff Daddy's "Can't Hold Me Down" (which used an interpolation of "Break My Stride" for the chorus), went to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Related: 1984 Hit Single Ranked 'Best Motivational Song' of All Time Was Originally Written for a No. 1 Movie
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