| "Goodbye Cruel World" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by James Darren | ||||
| from the album Sings for All Sizes | ||||
| B-side | "Valerie" | |||
| Released | October 1961 | |||
| Length | 2:27 | |||
| Label | Colpix | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Gloria Shayne | |||
| James Darren singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"Goodbye Cruel World" is a song written by Gloria Shayne Baker and recorded by James Darren in 1961. [1] [2]
The song is about a man whose heart was broken by a "mean fickle woman", and his plan to join the circus as a brokenhearted clown. He does not mind being shot out of a cannon, and plans to tell the world that she "made a crying clown" out of him. According to disc jockeys at the time the song was released, the calliope-like riff used in the song based on the "Entrance of the Gladiators" theme, was a synthesized recording of a woman's voice rather than a musical instrument.[ citation needed ]
Darren scored his first top ten hit on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, at number three. On the Cash Box Top 100, it spent two weeks at number two. [3] It would prove the biggest hit of his career on this chart, as well as on the UK Singles Chart (no. 28).
| Chart (1961–62) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Canada (CHUM) [4] | 1 |
| New Zealand (Lever) [5] | 3 |
| UK (OCC) [6] | 28 |
| US Billboard Hot 100 [7] | 3 |
| US Cash Box Top 100 [3] | 2 |
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