Goodbye (Cream album)

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Goodbye
Goodbye album.PNG
Studio album / Live album by Cream
Released 5 February 1969
Recorded 19 October 1968 at The Forum in Los Angeles, California
October 1968 at IBC Studios in London, UK[1]
Genre Hard rock
Length 30:09
Label Polydor
Producer Felix Pappalardi[1]
Cream chronology
Wheels of Fire
(1968)Wheels of Fire1968		 Goodbye
(1969)		 Best of Cream
(1969)Best of Cream1969
Eric Clapton chronology
Wheels of Fire
(1968)		 Goodbye
(1969)		 Blind Faith
(1969)

Goodbye (also called Goodbye Cream)[2] is the fourth and final studio album by the British rock band Cream. The album was released in Europe by Polydor Records and by Atco Records in the United States, debuting in Billboard on 15 February 1969.[3] A single, "Badge", was subsequently released from the album a month later (see 1969 in music). The album was released after Cream disbanded in November 1968.[4]

Background and recording

Just before Cream's third album, Wheels of Fire, was to be released, the group's manager Robert Stigwood announced that the group were going to disband after a farewell tour and a final concert at the Royal Albert Hall in November.[5]

Just before the start of their farewell tour in October 1968, Cream recorded three songs at IBC Studios in London with producer Felix Pappalardi and engineer Damon Lyon-Shaw.[1] The songs "Badge" and "Doing That Scrapyard Thing" featured Eric Clapton using a Leslie speaker,[5] while all three recordings featured keyboard instruments played by either Jack Bruce or Felix Pappalardi.[1]

The group started their farewell tour on 4 October 1968 in Oakland, California[5] and 15 days later on 19 October the group performed at The Forum in Los Angeles where the three live recordings on Goodbye were recorded with Felix Pappalardi and engineers Adrian Barber and Bill Halverson.[1]

Compiling, artwork and packaging

The original plan for Goodbye was to make it a double album, with one disc featuring studio recordings and the other with live performances much like Wheels of Fire, but with a lack of quality material on hand the album was only one disc with three live recordings and three studio recordings.[5]

The original LP release of the album was packaged in a gatefold sleeve with art direction handled by Haig Adishian. The outer sleeve featured photography by Roger Phillips with a cover design by the Alan Aldridge ink Studios, while the inner sleeve featured an illustration of a cemetery by Roger Hane that had the song titles on tombstones.[6] 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 the liner notes of the album.[1]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Retrospective reviews
Review scores
Source Rating
AllMusic 3/5 stars[7]
Chicago Tribune 3/4 stars[8]
Robert Christgau A–[9]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide 3/5 stars[10]

In a contemporary review for Rolling Stone, music critic Ray Rezos felt Cream deserved to depart with a better album. He wrote that most of the live songs sound inferior to the original recordings and that the studio tracks are marred by the same flaw as on Wheels of Fire, namely the presence of blues playing on songs whose compositions were not blues in his opinion.[11] Nonetheless, Goodbye was voted the 148th best rock album of all time in Paul Gambaccini's 1978 poll of 50 prominent American and English rock critics.[12]

In a retrospective review for AllMusic, senior editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine called Goodbye a work of "hard, heavy rock" and "strong moments" rather than cohesiveness, with live music that is generally better than on Wheels of Fire and a side of studio recordings that also found Cream "at something of a peak".[7] Robert Christgau also reacted favourably to the album, citing it as his favorite record from the group.[9] J. D. Considine was less impressed in The Rolling Stone Album Guide (1992), deeming Goodbye an incomplete record with "exquisite studio work" but mediocre live performances.[10]

Track listing

Side one
No. Title Writer(s) Vocal(s)[1] Length
1. "I'm So Glad"   Skip James Jack Bruce, Eric Clapton 9:11
2. "Politician"   Bruce, Pete Brown Bruce 6:19
Side two
No. Title Writer(s) Vocal(s)[1] Length
1. "Sitting on Top of the World"   Walter Vinson, Lonnie Chatmon; arr. Chester Burnett Bruce 5:01
2. "Badge"   Clapton, George Harrison[13] Clapton 2:45
3. "Doing That Scrapyard Thing"   Bruce, Brown Bruce 3:14
4. "What a Bringdown"   Ginger Baker Bruce, Clapton 3:56
CD bonus track
No. Title Writer(s) Vocal(s) Length
7. "Anyone for Tennis" (The Savage Seven Theme) Clapton, Martin Sharp Clapton 2:37

Notes:

  • [1–3] recorded live at The Forum, Los Angeles, 19 October 1968.
  • Original pressings of the album (as well as the single) list composer credit on "Badge" to Clapton alone.
  • "Anyone for Tennis" was originally released as a non-album single, as well as by Atco on the soundtrack album to the film The Savage Seven (catalogue no. SD 33-245, 1968). The song was subsequently sometimes included on later pressings of Goodbye by Polydor.

Personnel

Charts

Chart (1969) Peak
position
Canadian Top 50 Albums[14] 5
French Top Albums[15] 3
German Albums Chart[16] 9
Norwegian Top 40 Albums[17] 7
UK Albums Chart[18] 1
US Billboard 200[19] 2

Certifications

Region Certification Sales/shipments
United States (RIAA)[20] Gold 500,000

^shipments figures based on certification alone

References

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Preceded by
Diana Ross & The Supremes Join The Temptations by The Supremes and The Temptations
The Best of The Seekers by The Seekers
The Best of The Seekers by The Seekers
 UK Albums Chart number-one album
15 March 1969 – 29 March 1969
12 April 1969 – 19 April 1969
26 April 1969 – 3 May 1969		 Succeeded by
The Best of The Seekers by The Seekers
The Best of The Seekers by The Seekers
The Best of The Seekers by The Seekers
  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. Cream: Goodbye > Review at AllMusic. Retrieved 24 June 2011.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Per BMI records, BMI Work #80556. Some releases of the album erroneously credit Clapton only.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Find "CREAM" under the drop-down menu to see statistics.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. If necessary, click Advanced, then click Format, then select Album, then click SEARCH
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