Goodbye (Billie Eilish song)

Last updated
"Goodbye"
Song by Billie Eilish
from the album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?
ReleasedMarch 29, 2019 (2019-03-29)
Format
Length2:00
Label
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s) Finneas O'Connell

"Goodbye" is a song by American singer Billie Eilish. It is the final song from her debut studio album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? . The song was written by Eilish and her brother Finneas O'Connell, with the latter producing the song.

Contents

The song charted at number 69 on the Canadian Hot 100. Although it did not enter the Billboard Hot 100, it peaked at number 4 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart. "Goodbye" was met with mixed reviews upon release from music critics. They praised the song for being the right ending to the album but didn't think that it was good enough for it to be a standalone track. Eilish usually ends her performances with the song, including at the Glastonbury Festival, and at her When We All Fall Asleep Tour and Where Do We Go? World Tour.

Background and release

Billie Eilish released her debut studio album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? on March 29, 2019, via Darkroom and Interscope Records. [1] [2] The song was the final track on the album. It was co-written by Eilish and her brother Finneas O'Connell, with the latter also producing the track. It was mastered by John Greenham and mixed by Rob Kinelski, both of whom also served as studio personnel. Casey Cuayo received credit as studio personnel and an additional mixer. [3]

Composition and lyrical interpretation

Musically, "Goodbye" runs at a slow tempo, and is played in the key of A major. Eilish's vocals, which are sung quietly and treated with some reverb, span a range between the notes of E$ and B5. [4] In a previous interview with MTV, Eilish states that she wanted something like "Goodbye" as the conclusion because she didn't like it when a song just ended an album and then nothing feels like it's actually over. She wanted the end her album to feel like a "finish line": "So the idea was to have that 'Please, don't leave me be' right at the beginning, and then basically the rest of the song is every single song on the album, starting from the bottom to the top. And then when it gets to the top, it just kind of dies down and it feels like it's a goodbye. It almost feels like an RIP." [5] According to Finneas in an interview with MTV, he states, "That was Billie's idea, and I just thought it was really cool, the other thing I did was I layered in, really quietly, clips of all the songs on the album and played them backwards. To us, the motif would be when you grow up listening to a tape and at the end, you reverse the tape to go back to the beginning of the song." [6]

The song features a line of each of the album's songs in reverse order (with the exception of "!!!!!!!"). It starts with a line from "I Love You" and ends with a line from "Bad Guy". [5] [7] Chris Willman of Variety wrote that "Goodbye" "takes her already-trademark stacked vocal layers and turns them into something nearly worthy of the Beatles’ “Because”, while running in reverse chronological order through the album’s preceding tracks and borrowing one line from each, for a reverse-overture coda." [8] According to Thomas Smith of NME , "Listen Before I Go", "I Love You", and "Goodbye" provide a "melancholy end close" to the album. [9]

Reception and promotion

"Goodbye" received mainly mixed reviews from music critics. The song was likened by Insider 's Callie Ahlgrim, who said the track "works perfectly as a tender goodbye when you listen to "When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?" but that it "doesn't function as a standalone song". [10] Craig Jenkins of Vulture commented that "Goodbye" is a "Wizard of Oz and Dark Side of the Moon conclusion" and a "dramatic Hollywood ending." [11] Upon the release of When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, "Goodbye" debuted at number 4 on the US Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart. [12] At the same time, Eilish broke the record of most simultaneous Hot 100 entries for a female artist. [13] It also charted at number 69 on the Canadian Hot 100. [12]

Eilish performed "Goodbye" at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in April, at the Glastonbury Festival in June, and at Pukkelpop in August 2019. [14] [15] [16] "Goodbye" was included on the setlist of Eilish's 2019 When We All Fall Asleep Tour, and on her 2020 Where Do We Go? World Tour. [17] [18]

Credits and personnel

Credits adapted from Tidal and the liner notes of When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?. [19] [3]

Charts

Chart (2019)Peak
position
Canada (Canadian Hot 100) [20] 69
US Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles ( Billboard ) [12] 4
Sweden Heatseeker (Sverigetopplistan) [21] 2

Release history

RegionDateFormatLabelRef.
VariousMarch 29, 2019
[22]

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References

  1. ↑ Brandle, Lars (March 29, 2019). "Billie Eilish's Debut LP 'When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?' Has Arrived". Billboard . Retrieved April 22, 2020.
  2. ↑ "When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? by Billie Eilish on iTunes". iTunes Store . Retrieved April 22, 2020.
  3. 1 2 Eilish, Billie (2019). When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? (booklet). Santa Monica: Darkroom/Interscope Records.
  4. ↑ "Billie Eilish 'Goodbye' Sheet Music". Musicnotes.com. Retrieved April 27, 2020.
  5. 1 2 Roth, Madeline (March 29, 2019). "Billie Eilish Tells Us About Her Spotify Pop-Up, Sampling The Office, And Ending Her Album with 'An R.i.p.'". MTV . Retrieved March 12, 2020.
  6. ↑ Roth, Madeline (April 4, 2019). "Billie Eilish's When We All Fall Asleep: A Complete Breakdown From Finneas O'Connell". MTV . Retrieved March 12, 2020.
  7. ↑ "How Billie Eilish's 'Goodbye' Incorporates Every Song On 'When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?'". Genius. April 5, 2019. Retrieved May 25, 2020.
  8. ↑ Willman, Chris (March 28, 2019). "Album Review: Billie Eilish's 'When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?'". Variety . Retrieved March 29, 2020.
  9. ↑ Smith, Thomas (March 29, 2019). "Billie Eilish – 'When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?' review". NME . Retrieved June 2, 2020.
  10. ↑ Ahlgrim, Callie (March 18, 2020). "Every Billie Eilish song, ranked". Insider . Retrieved April 29, 2020.
  11. ↑ Jenkins, Craig. "Inside the Making of Billie Eilish's When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?". Vulture. Retrieved April 5, 2020.
  12. 1 2 3 "Billie Eilish Chart History (Bubbling Under Hot 100)". Billboard. Retrieved March 11, 2020.
  13. ↑ Ahlgrim, Callie (April 4, 2020). "14 records Billie Eilish has already broken". Insider. Retrieved May 6, 2020.
  14. ↑ Powers, Shad (December 10, 2019). "Second time around even better for Billie Eilish as Weekend 2 set is more powerful, raw". The Desert Sun . Retrieved May 5, 2020.
  15. ↑ Saval, Marina (July 1, 2019). "Billie Eilish Mesmerizes Glastonbury Crowd With Life-Affirming Performance". Variety . Archived from the original on July 11, 2019. Retrieved April 22, 2020.
  16. ↑ "Hysterie tijdens Billie Eilish, maar perfect is het nog lang niet" [Hysteria during Billie Eilish concert, but it isn't perfect yet]. Het Laatste Nieuws (in Dutch). August 18, 2019. Retrieved April 22, 2020.
  17. ↑ Saw, Yadana (April 25, 2019). "Review: Billie Eilish at Spark Arena – 'a shared dream'". Radio New Zealand . Retrieved March 16, 2020.
  18. ↑ Young, Alex (March 10, 2020). "Billie Eilish Launches 'Where Do We Go? World Tour'". Consequence of Sound . Archived from the original on March 11, 2020. Retrieved April 22, 2020.
  19. ↑ "When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? (Ilomilo) – Billie Eilish – Tidal". Tidal. March 29, 2019. Retrieved April 16, 2020.Note: Access the 'Credits' button.
  20. ↑ "Billie Eilish Chart History (Canadian Hot 100)". Billboard. Retrieved March 11, 2020.
  21. ↑ "Veckolista Heatseeker – Vecka 8, 27 maj 2020". Sverigetopplistan . Retrieved May 27, 2020.
  22. ↑ "Goodbye". iTunes. Apple Inc. Retrieved April 27, 2020.
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