Released April 1976 Recorded 1975 | Format 7" 45 RPM Genre Rhythm and blues, soul | |
B-side "Wonderful World of Love" Length 4:27 (full version)
3:29 (single edit) | ||
"Kiss and Say Goodbye" is a song recorded by the American R&B vocal group The Manhattans. It was one of the biggest hits of 1976.
Contents
Background and recording
The song was written by Manhattans member Winfred "Blue" Lovett. The lyrics and melody came to him late one night. As he later recalled, "Everything was there. I got up about three o'clock in the morning and jotted down the things I wanted to say. I just put the words together on my tape recorder and little piano. I've always thought that when you write slow songs, they have to have meaning. In this case, it's the love triangle situation we've all been through. I figured anyone who's been in love could relate to it. And it seemed to touch home for a lot of folks."
Lovett originally considered the song a country tune more appropriate to be sung by Glen Campbell or Charley Pride. He decided to do it with his group and sing background on it.
The original demo of the song was recorded with The Manhattans backing band, "Little Harlem." After hearing a tape of the recording, producer/arranger Bobby Martin decided to re-record the song with MFSB at Sigma Sound Studios in Philadelphia. Recorded in early 1975, Columbia Records officials withheld releasing the song until 14 months later. Lovett had his concerns over when the record came out as well as the record itself. "I was critical, a perfectionist in the studio, and there are still parts of it that make my skin crawl. For example, in one place, the background vocals go off pitch. Somehow, though, that didn't seem to bother anyone else."
Chart performance
Released as a single, the song became a worldwide hit for the group, spending two weeks at number one on the U.S. Pop and U.S. R&B charts. and reaching number four on the UK Singles Chart in the middle of 1976. In the U.S., the song was the 400th #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart. It also became just the second single to earn platinum certification status, after the RIAA established the designation in 1976. (Johnnie Taylor's "Disco Lady" had been the first a few months earlier.) Billboard ranked it as the No. 6 song for 1976.
Besides being the first and only No. 1 pop hit for the Manhattans, "Kiss and Say Goodbye" marked more than 11 years since the group first made the Billboard Hot 100 in 1965 with "I Wanna Be (Your Everything)."