Love Inc. is a name many Canadians and dance music fans are familiar with. “Broken Bones” is the band’s debut and lead single from their self-titled album, and it was a massive hit on Canadian Top 40 radio. There wasn’t a single hour during its heyday when this wasn’t played. And now, 25 years later, we’ll look back at how this song came to be.
Love Inc. was a Toronto, Ontario-based Eurodance music group. DJ/producer/remixer Chris Sheppard and Brad Daymond founded the band, with Simone Denny as the vocalist. Sheppard and Denny previously collaborated in the Quality Records dance outfit BKS, an acronym comprised of the surname initials of Zambian-born Hennie Bekker, Greg Kavanagh, and Sheppard.
Love Inc.’s single, “Broken Bones,” features Simone Denny on vocals. It was introduced as the first track from the Love Inc. album in November 1997, becoming the group’s first massive success on the Canadian pop chart. It was among the most-played songs on Canadian radio in 1998, peaking at No. 6 on the Canadian Singles Chart and topping Canada’s RPM Dance Chart. It was a weekend mix show mainstay and was all over MuchMusic on shows like Electric Circus and X-Tendamix.
That’s correct. If you’re familiar with those two shows, you’ll recall when Much explores music videos and introduces people to new artists and genres of music.
As you listen to “Broken Bones,” you’ll notice that it’s a wonderfully crafted piece of dance music, and for the most part, the tunes also hold up quite well, which is a big rarity because dance music mostly favors quantity over quality. The lyrics sound like it revolves around being in pain, and words and verbal aggression can hurt as much as any other kind. As said in this part, several people escape that pain with drugs: “I’ve been high most of my life.” And the individual intends to get out of this self-destructive situation because “a dream is just a wish that a heart makes,” but ends up feeling hopeless and powerless to do so. The song, however, gives a fleeting hope of escape by saying, “take a ride on a purple airplane. Honey, I don’t know when I’ll be back again.”
“Broken Bones” reached No. 23 on Canada’s official chart at the time, the RPM Top Singles chart. The video for the song also helped the trio win Best Video and Best Dance Video at the 1998 MuchMusic Video Awards. The song earned the group a Juno Award for Best Dance Recording in 1999.
That same year, Daymond left the group to explore a successful remix and production profession together with Alex Greggs as “Riprock & Alex G” with Alex Greggs. Following the release of Love Inc.’s self-titled album, Sheppard and Denny began as a duo, releasing Into the Night in 2000. A few years after Love Inc.’s split, “Broken Bones” became a hit in the United Kingdom and Ireland, peaking at number 8 in May 2003.
In 2013, Simone Denny returned to the stage with a touring version of Love Inc., billed as “Love Inc. Featuring Simone Denny,” performing the group’s songs at bars and clubs across Canada. Sadly, Brad Daymond died on August 3, 2018, at 48, from complications following a cardiac arrest he had battled three months earlier.
