Goodbye to Love

"Goodbye to Love" is a song composed by Richard Carpenter and John Bettis. It was released by the Carpenters in 1972. On the "Close to You: Remembering the Carpenters" documentary, Tony Peluso stated that this was one of the first, if not the first, love ballads to have a fuzz guitar solo.

Upon reviewing an old Bing Crosby 1940 film called Rhythm on the River, Carpenter noticed that they kept referring to the struggling songwriter's greatest composition, "Goodbye to Love". He says `You never hear it in the movie, they just keep referring to it,' and he immediately envisioned the tune, and lyrics starting with:

I'll say goodbye to love

No one ever cared if I should live or die.

Time and time again the chance for

Love has passed me by...

While the Carpenters were working on the song, Carpenter decided that a fuzz guitar solo should be included. Karen Carpenter called renowned electric guitarist Tony Peluso and asked him to play on the record. Tony remembers: "At first I didn't believe that it was actually Karen Carpenter on the phone but she repeated her name again. ... It was at this point that I realized it was really her and that I was speaking to one of my idols." She told him that she and Richard were working on a song called "Goodbye To Love" and they were both familiar with his work with another band, and that he'd be perfect for the sound they were looking for. Peluso first played something soft and sweet, but then Richard Carpenter said "No, no, no! Play the melody for five bars and then burn it up! Soar off into the stratosphere! Go ahead! It'll be great!"

Carpenter first sketched out the melody while visiting London in late 1971 with Bettis adding the lyrics in early 1972. The finished product was released on June 19, 1972, and reached #7 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was the first song written by the songwriting team of Carpenter/Bettis to reach the US Top Ten. However, the Carpenters did receive hate mail (claiming that the Carpenters had sold out and gone hard-rock) because of Richard's idea for a fuzz guitar solo in a love ballad, and some Adult Contemporary (AC) oriented radio stations refused to play the song because of this solo (which may have kept it from reaching #1 on the AC chart, becoming the first Carpenters A-side since "Ticket to Ride" not to be a #1 AC hit). However, many Carpenters fans today still admire the song for its uniqueness.

"Goodbye to Love", with its fuzz guitar solo in the middle, has been described as the prototypical power ballad.^[1]

The song currently receives frequent airplay on the Music of Your Life network.

Cultural references

"Goodbye to Love" was used in science fiction sitcom Red Dwarf, in the Series Two episode titled Queeg. It is sung by the character Holly (played by Norman Lovett), in a scene where Holly, the ship's computer, is being turned off in favor of a superior model.

References