| Goodbye | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album /Live album by | ||||
| Released | 5 February 1969 (1969-02-5) | |||
| Recorded | October and November 1968 | |||
| Venue | The Forum, Los Angeles | |||
| Studio | Wally Heider Studios, Los Angeles,IBC, London[1] | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 30:30 | |||
| Label | Polydor | |||
| Producer | Felix Pappalardi[1] | |||
| Cream chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Goodbye | ||||
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Goodbye (also calledGoodbye Cream)[2] is the fourth and final studio album byCream, with three tracks recorded live, and three recorded in the studio. The album was released after Cream disbanded in November 1968.[3]
Just before Cream's third album,Wheels of Fire, was to be released, the group's managerRobert Stigwood announced that the group would disband after a farewell tour and a final concert at theRoyal Albert Hall in November.[4] The group started their farewell tour on 4 October 1968 inOakland, California[4] and 15 days later on 19 October the group performed atThe Forum in Los Angeles where the three live recordings onGoodbye were recorded with Felix Pappalardi and engineersAdrian Barber and Bill Halverson.[1] Just after their farewell tour concluded in November (and just prior to the final Royal Albert Hall show on 26 Nov), Cream recorded three songs over three days atWally Heider Studios in Los Angeles with producerFelix Pappalardi andengineer Damon Lyon-Shaw, with overdubs atIBC Studios in London a month later. Each of the three songs was penned by a different member of the band. The songs "Badge" and "Doing That Scrapyard Thing" featuredEric Clapton using aLeslie speaker,[4] while all three recordings featured keyboard instruments played by eitherJack Bruce or Felix Pappalardi.[1] Present at the Wally Heider sessions on 21 November wasGeorge Harrison, credited on the album sleeve for contractual reasons as "L'Angelo Misterioso", who contributed rhythm guitar to "Badge", the song he co-wrote with Clapton.[5]
In a 1969Rolling Stone interview, producerPhil Spector told a possibly apocryphal story about howAtlantic Records headAhmet Ertegun caused the album to happen: "Like the Cream are breakin' up, and he said, 'like man you have to do a final album for me.' They said, 'Why man, we hate each other,' or somethin' like that. Ahmet said, 'Oh no man, you have to do one more album for me.Jerry Wexler has cancer, and he’s dyin' and he wants to hear one more album from you.' So they go in, make the album and he says, 'Like man, Jerry Wexler isn’t dyin', he’s much better, he’s improved.'”[6]
The original plan forGoodbye was to make it a double album, with one disc featuring studio recordings and the other with live performances, likeWheels of Fire. With a lack of quality material on hand, however, the album was only one disc with three live recordings and three studio recordings.[4]
The originalLP release of the album was packaged in agatefold sleeve withart direction handled by Haig Adishian. The outer sleeve featured photography byRoger Phillips with a cover design byAlan Aldridge Ink Studios featuring the group doing a showbiz soft shuffle with top hats and silver silk tails, while the inner sleeve featured anillustration of a cemetery byRoger Hane that had the song titles on tombstones.[7] A compact disc reissue of the album for the Cream Remasters series in 1998 featured an inlay photograph and had the inner-sleeve illustration in theliner notes of the album.[1]
Goodbye was released on 5 February 1969 byAtco Records in the United States, debuting in theBillboard chart on 15 February[8] and a month later in Europe byPolydor Records. It debuted at No. 1 in the United Kingdom on 15 March, staying in that position for four non-consecutive weeks,[9] and peaked at No. 2 in the United States. A single, "Badge", was released from the album a month later and hit No. 18 on the UK charts. Interest in the now-defunct group was so intense at this point that the album's release pushed two of the group's earlier albums,Fresh Cream andDisraeli Gears, to both peak at No. 7 on the UK chart in late February 1969.[10][11]
| Retrospective reviews | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [12] |
| Chicago Tribune | [13] |
| Christgau's Consumer Guide | A−[14] |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [15] |
The album was received well byNew Musical Express, whose Nick Logan wrote an article-long review discussing each track. He praised the version of "I'm So Glad" for "being as good as they've ever done it and suffice to say the musicianship is stunning", while noting "Badge" as "compelling listening" and pinpointing "What a Bringdown" as Jack Bruce's favorite of the studio tracks.[16]Melody Maker wrote "no drum solos on this one, but all three are in superb form".[17]Record Mirror was slightly less enthusiastic, stating "a worthwhile souvenir though nothing superastonishing to fill us with desperate regrets it's all over", naming "What a Bringdown" as the best track and "a mild knockout".[18] Over in America,Cashbox penned a short review which simply stated "the group has a reservation for the charts with this set, and should claim it in short order".[19]
In a contemporary review forRolling Stone, music critic Ray Rezos felt Cream deserved to depart with a better album. He wrote that most of the live songs sounded inferior to the original recordings and that the studio tracks were marred by the same flaw as onWheels of Fire, namely the presence of blues playing on songs whose compositions were not blues in his opinion.[20] Nonetheless,Goodbye was voted the 148th best rock album of all time inPaul Gambaccini's 1978 poll of 50 prominent American and English rock critics, issued as the bookCritic's Choice: Top 200 Albums.[21]
In a retrospective review forAllMusic, senior editorStephen Thomas Erlewine calledGoodbye a work of "hard, heavy rock" and "strong moments" rather than cohesiveness, with live music that is generally better than onWheels of Fire and a side of studio recordings that also found Cream "at something of a peak".[12]Robert Christgau also reacted favourably to the album, citing it as his favourite record from the group.[14]J. D. Considine was less impressed inThe Rolling Stone Album Guide (1992), deemingGoodbye an incomplete record with "exquisite studio work" but mediocre live performances.[15]
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Vocal(s)[1] | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "I'm So Glad" (Live) | Skip James | Jack Bruce, withEric Clapton | 9:13 |
| 2. | "Politician" (Live) | Bruce,Pete Brown | Bruce | 6:20 |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Vocal(s)[1] | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3. | "Sitting on Top of the World" (Live) | Walter Vinson, Lonnie Chatmon;arr.Chester Burnett | Bruce | 5:01 |
| 4. | "Badge" | Clapton,George Harrison[22] | Clapton | 2:44 |
| 5. | "Doing That Scrapyard Thing" | Bruce, Brown | Bruce | 3:15 |
| 6. | "What a Bringdown" | Ginger Baker | Clapton, with Bruce | 3:57 |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Vocal(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7. | "Anyone for Tennis" (The Savage Seven theme) | Clapton,Martin Sharp | Clapton | 2:37 |
Notes:
Cream
Additional musicians
Recording
| Chart (1969–1970) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)[23] | 6 |
| Canada Top Albums/CDs (RPM)[24] | 5 |
| Finnish Albums (Suomen Virallinen)[25] | 3 |
| French Albums (SNEP)[26] | 3 |
| German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[27] | 9 |
| Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[28] | 7 |
| UK Albums (OCC)[29] | 1 |
| USBillboard 200[30] | 2 |
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| Australia (ARIA)[31] | Gold | 35,000^ |
| United States (RIAA)[32] | Gold | 500,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. | ||
{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link){{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)| Studio albums | |
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| Live albums | |
| Compilations | |
| Singles | |
| Other songs | |
| Film | |
| Collaborators | |
| Related articles | |
