1972 Songs: Goodbye to Love

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Oh, so your head’s spinning from the transition from a country song to a new wave song in the 40-year-old song side of this dual countdown? Wait ‘til you see what Hillbilly has up her sleeve for the 1972 side. Pairing with the new wave hit from 1982, here’s today’s 50-year-old song Goodbye to Love - Carpenters The story goes that Richard Carpenter was watching an old Bing Crosby film called Rhythm on the River. In it, Crosby plays a songwriter who “ghost-writes” songs for a singer (Basil Rathbone, and his character was not Sherlock Holmes in this one ). He kept referencing a song called “Goodbye to Love,” which apparently never got written in the movie. But Richard’s creative juices were sparked, and a song was born. Now, the funny thing about this song — and personally, one of the things I’ve always liked about it — is how it sounds like some hard rock guitarist broke into the studio and laid down a solo that was meant for another band’s song. Tony Peluso was asked to “go to town” on a guitar solo at the end, and he did. As a result, the Carpenters got a lot of hate mail for this song. They were accused of abandoning their MOR sound for “hard rock.” (Yeah, right.) Also as a result, Peluso got the gig as the Carpenters’ guitarist, a job he kept until Karen passed away in 1983. Yes, the solo does sound out of place. And that’s part of the charm of this Carpenters hit. Goodbye to Love Written by Richard Carpenter and John Bettis Recorded by the Carpenters From A Song for You, 1972 (Today’s 1982 song: “Hungry Like the Wolf”) There are no tomorrows for this heart of mine: