Songfacts®:

• "The Way We Make A Broken Heart" was written by John Hiatt and first recorded by Ry Cooder, who included it on his 1980 album Borderline. Hiatt was a member of Cooder's group at the time and played guitar on that version. (In 1987 Cooder played on Hiatt's album Bring The Family). The song gained some renown around Nashville and was covered in 1985 by Asleep At The Wheel.
  
  At some point, Hiatt recorded the song as a duet with Rosanne Cash that Hiatt didn't release until 1998, when it appeared on his greatest hits album. When Cash made her 1987 album King's Record Shop she remembered the song and recorded it herself. Released as the first single, it went to #1 on the Country chart.
• This is a very forthright song about infidelity, with Cash playing the part of the mistress, acknowledging the pain she's inflicting on the wife or girlfriend. By the end of the song, we get the sense that she's done this before, as she seems to know exactly what's going to happen on the way to breaking this poor woman's heart. In the duet version, Cash and John Hiatt portray the cheating couple.
• Cash loved the backing vocals on Ry Cooder's original version, so she got the same singers - Bobby King and Willie Greene, Jr. - so sing on hers.
• This is one of several songs written by John Hiatt that were popularized by other artists. Others include "Thing Called Love" by Bonnie Raitt and "Angel Eyes" by Jeff Healey. Cash had previously recorded Hiatt's songs "It Hasn't Happened Yet" and "I Look for Love," both on her 1982 album Somewhere In The Stars.
  
  Hiatt was little known as an artist when the original version of the song was released in 1980, but in 1987 when Cash released her version, Hiatt put out his album Bring The Family, which got some attention - more than his previous releases, at least. The title track to his next album, Slow Turning, ended up being his most popular song as an artist.
• The song is part of Rosanne Cash's sixth album, King's Record Shop, produced by Rodney Crowell, her husband at the time.