Song of the Day 12/10: Mary Hopkin, “Goodbye”
Paul Krugman, the Princeton economist hired by the New York Times in 2000, published his last column for the newspaper today. He will be sorely missed, or would be if I hadn’t cancelled my subscription earlier this year.
Paul McCartney gave this tune to Mary Hopkin, a Welsh singer the Beatles had signed to their Apple Records label, in 1969. She’s remembered today mostly for her cover of “Those Were the Days,” which went to No. 1, but this ditty went to No. 2 in the UK, kept from the top spot by the Beatles’ own “Get Back.” It reached No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 6 on the easy listening chart.
McCartney claimed to have no memory of writing the tune, but rumor has it that it was written for his “secret girlfriend,” Maggie McGivern, whom he saw for three years while dating Jane Asher. She wasn’t interested in marriage, though, and he took up with Linda Eastman, whom he married on March 12, 1969 – less than two weeks after he produced the song for Hopkin. He played bass and the acoustic guitar intro on the record.
The demo he recorded to help Hopkin learn the song was bootlegged for decades before it was finally released officially in 2019, on the deluxe edition of “Abbey Road.” A lot of people prefer it to Hopkin’s version.
