Goodbye is a song composed by Gordon Jenkins and published in 1935. It became famous as the closing theme of the Benny Goodman orchestra, a tune Jenkins wrote while with the Isham Jones orchestra, though Jones reportedly rejected it as too sad. The Benny Goodman recording was made on September 27, 1935 and issued as Victor 25215 on January 8, 1936. Critics have noted its emotional depth, with Alec Wilder calling it the saddest song he knows and Leonard Feather ranking it among the top ten songs hard to tire of hearing. The tune has been covered widely, including Frank Sinatra on the 1958 album Sings for Only the Lonely and Ella Fitzgerald on The Best Is Yet to Come in 1982, both arranged by Nelson Riddle. In 1992 Richard Stoltzman commissioned a clarinet and strings arrangement titled Goodbye: In Memory of Benny, performed with the London Symphony Orchestra under Michael Tilson Thomas; Sabine Meyer has also recorded her own arrangement. As a 1930s jazz standard, Goodbye has remained popular in instrumental and vocal interpretations by artists such as Julie London, Cannonball Adderley with Bill Evans, June Christy, Clare Fischer, Donna Hightower, Linda Ronstadt with Nelson Riddle, Lizz Wright, Charlie Haden Quartet West with Diana Krall, and Keith Jarrett with Charlie Haden on Jasmine.
