Songfacts®:

• Written by APP leaders Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson, this song is told from the perspective of a person or thing that constantly malfunctions, and gets ignored when broken.
  
  "We tried to make it vague whether we were talking from a robot perspective, or a human talking to a robot," Parsons told Songfacts. "I think we could argue that robots could break down just like humans do."
• Before forming The Alan Parsons project, Parsons did engineering work for The Hollies, where he befriended their lead singer, Allan Clarke. With The Project, Parsons used an array of vocalists, and on "Breakdown" Clarke takes the lead. Hollies harmony vocalist/guitarist Terry Sylvester appears on the first Alan Parsons Project album. >>>

  Suggestion credit:
  Neil - Skokie, IL
• This follows the theme of the album, which is robots. The songs are loosely based on the work of science fiction writer Isaac Asimov, who published a collection called I, Robot in 1950.
• Parsons used a homemade device called a Projectron to process the female backing vocals on this track. The Projectron was similar to a mellotron in that it looked like a keyboard but was filled with tape loops that could be triggered by the keys.
• The New Philharmonia Chorus appears on this track, conducted by Andrew Powell. Other musicians to appear are:
  
  Vocals: Allan Clarke
  Acoustic Guitar: Alan Parsons, Ian Bairnson
  Bass: David Paton
  Drums: Stuart Tosh
  Wurlitzer Electric Piano: Eric Woolfson
  Guitar: Ian Bairnson
  Wurlitzer
  Synthesizer: Duncan Mackay