Goodbye To You

Album: Scandal (1982)
Charted: 65
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Songfacts®:

  • "Goodbye To You" was written by Scandal guitarist Zack Smith. It's a breakup song where Patty Smyth sings about moving on from a relationship. Smith wrote most of Scandal's songs, while Smyth fronted the group, moving on to success as a solo artist and eventually marrying tennis star John McEnroe.
  • This was Scandal's debut single, released in 1982 soon after they formed in New York City. Their biggest hit came in 1984 when "The Warrior" went to #7. The band broke up a year later; in 2004 they got back together for VH1's Bands Reunited.
  • Patty Smyth credits MTV for this song's success. The song didn't get much radio airplay, but the video got a lot of spins on the network. The clip was a typical, low budget, performance video, but MTV was overloaded with Europop and male artists, so female-fronted rock bands like Blondie, Pretenders and Scandal were welcomed on the network.
  • John McEnroe made mention of this song during the 2024 French Open final when Iga Swiatek was dismantling her opponent, Jasmine Paolini. "If you're going to quote great female rock stars from the '80s, you can throw one down for my wife, Patty Smyth: 'Goodbye To You,'" he said. "This is turning into a rout."
  • "Goodbye To You" hasn't been used in many movies or TV shows, but it does show up in the 2025 Adam Sandler film Happy Gilmore 2.

Comments: 4

  • Jon from Export Pashould have played it when biden was leaving the white house
  • Barry from Sauquoit, NyPatty Smyth, as a solo artist, had a record, "Sometimes Love Just Ain't Enough", peak at #2 on September 20th, 1992, it was a duet with Don Henley, and it remained at #2* for six consecutive weeks...
    Patricia 'Patty' Smyth McEnroe will celebrate her 61st birthday come next June 26th {2018}...
    * For the six weeks that "Sometimes Love Just Ain't Enough" was at #2, the #1 record was "End of the Road" by Boyz II Men.
  • Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn December 4th, 1982 Scandal performed "Goodbye To You" on the ABC-TV program 'American Bandstand'...
    One month earlier on November 13th it entered Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart at position #86; though it only peaked at #65 it did spent 11 weeks on the Top 100...
    It reached #5 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks chart...
  • Michael from San Diego, CaGreat, early hit for Patty & Scandal. She was pretty cute, hooping around in her little red dress!
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