#13: Goodbye by Mary Hopkin

City: Fredericton, NB
Radio Station: CFNB
Peak Month: June 1969
Peak Position in Fredericton: #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #3
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #13
YouTube: “Goodbye”
Lyrics: “Goodbye”

Mary Hopkin was born in May 1950 in Pontardawe, Wales. She took weekly singing lessons as a child and began her musical career as a folk singer with a local group called the Selby Set and Mary. She released an EP of Welsh-language songs for a local record label called Cambrian, based in her hometown, before signing to the Beatles’ Apple Records. The model Twiggy saw Hopkin winning the ITV television talent show Opportunity Knocks and recommended her to Paul McCartney. Her debut single, “Those Were the Days”, produced by McCartney, was released in the UK on August 30, 1968. Hopkin had competition from well-established star Sandie Shaw, whose own single version of the song was  released that fall. But Shaw’s recording stalled at #51 on the UK chart. Meanwhile, Mary Hopkin’s “Those Were the Days” became a number-one hit in Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK, USA, and West Germany. Hopkins smash hit also climbed to #2 in Argentina, Australia, Austria, and South Africa.

Next, she released two singles in Welsh, and one in French. Her next release in English was “Goodbye”.

“Goodbye” was written by John Lennon (born in Liverpool in 1940) and Paul McCartney (born in Liverpool in 1942). In his early teens McCartney learned to play trumpet, guitar and piano. He was left-handed and restrung the strings to make it work. In 1957, Paul met John Lennon and in October he was invited to join John’s skiffle band, The Quarrymen, which Lennon had founded in 1956. After Paul joined the group his suggested that his friend, George Harrison, join the group. Harrison became one of the Quarrymen in early 1958, though he was still only 14. On July 15, 1958, John Lennon’s mother died in an automobile accident. By 1960 they had added a drummer and became the Beatles. Between October 5, 1962 and May 8, 1970, Lennon and McCartney published about 180 jointly credited songs. Most of these were recorded by the Beatles. Songs the duo wrote which were recorded by other pop stars include “Bad to Me” by Billy J. Kramer & the Dakotas, “It’s For You” by Cilla Black, and “A World Without Love” for Peter and Gordon.

The songs Lennon and McCartney wrote for the Beatles include “All My Loving”, “All You Need Is Love”, “A Day in the Life”, “Eleanor Rigby”, “A Hard Day’s Night”, “Hey Jude”, “I Want to Hold Your Hand”, “Let It Be”, “Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds”, “Michelle”, “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)”, “Penny Lane”, “When I’m Sixty-Four”, and “Yellow Submarine”, and “Yesterday”.

After the Beatles broke up in 1970, both Lennon and McCartney (as well as George Harrison and Ringo Starr) had solo careers. Lennon’s notable hits include “Imagine”, “Starting Over”, “Instant Karma” and “Woman”. Paul McCartney’s solo hits include “Live And Let Die”, “Band On the Run”, “Silly Love Songs”, “Mull of Kintyre” and “With A Little Luck”.

John Lennon died on December 8, 1980, when he was murdered in the archway of The Dakota, an apartment building where he and Yoko Ono lived. His assassin, 25-year-old Mark David Chapman, who lived on the streets while he was a teen. Chapman was a college drop-out, failed an attempted suicide, and was a former security guard from Hawaii. As well, Chapman had travelled in his early 20’s to Japan, the UK, Ireland, France, India, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Nepal, Korea, Vietnam and China, and Lebanon.

Archway of The Dakota where John Lennon was slain, December 8, 1980.

Paul McCartney played acoustic guitar on “Goodbye”. He remembers a sailor in the Orkney Islands telling him it was his favorite song. McCartney remarked that from a sailor’s point-of-view, “Goodbye” is very much a “leaving-the-port-song.” The lover is telling their sweetheart that they have something they must attend to, and so they are telling them “goodbye, my love, goodbye.” The song is not about a relationship ending. It reflects the day-to-day life of any couple who have separate responsibilities and have to be apart for awhile.

“Goodbye” peaked at number-one in Ireland, the Netherlands, and Portugal, #2 in Australia, New Zealand and the UK, #3 in Brazil, Denmark, Norway and Sweden, #4 in Finland and Poland, #5 in Israel, #7 in Argentina and Belgium, #9 in France, and #13 on the Billboard Hot 100.

At the start of 1970, Mary Hopkins third English-language single release was “Temma Harbour”, about an inlet in Tasmania. It included a steel band. The song climbed to number-one in Singapore, #3 in Ireland and New Zealand, #4 in Malaysia, and #6 in Australia and the UK.

On March 7, 1970, Mary Hopkin sang six songs at the UK National Final, A Song for Europe, which was aired on the television series It’s Cliff Richard! Hopkin was chosen by the BBC to be the United Kingdom’s representative for that year. The winner of a postal vote would determine which of the six songs would progress with her to the finals in Amsterdam. “Knock Knock Who’s There”, the sixth and final song performed that evening, won the postal vote with over 120,000 supporters.

At Amsterdam, the song was performed seventh on the night, after France’s Guy Bonnet with “Marie-Blanche”, and before Luxembourg’s David Alexandre Winter with “Je suie tombe du ciel”. At the end of judging that evening, “Knock, Knock Who’s There?” took the second-place slot with 26 points after Ireland’s “All Kinds of Everything”, performed by Dana. The UK received points from nine out of a possible eleven voting juries.

Internationally, “Knock, Knock Who’s There?” peaked at #1 in New Zealand, #2 in Ireland, Malaysia, South Africa and the UK, #3 in Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland and Yugoslavia, #4 in Austria, #5 in Australia, and #12 in West Germany. In addition to Mary Hopkin charting to #5 in Australia, in 1970, Australian pop singer Liv Maessen covered the song reaching #2 nationally.

Between the fall of 1968 and the spring of 1970, barely 20-year-old Mary Hopkin had four international Top Ten hits to her credit. And three of these had topped the pop charts in at least one country.

Next, Hopkin released a cover of the 1956 Doris Day hit “Que Sera Sera (Whatever Will Be Will Be)”. She cracked the Top Ten with her version in New Zealand, and the Top 20 in Japan. But that was pretty much it. One exception is Hopkin’s cover of the Jamies 1958 hit “Summertime, Summertime”. People in the Netherlands snapped up copies of her version and sent it to #5 on the Dutch pop chart.

Mary Hopkin got married in 1971 to her producer, Tony Visconti, taking the name Mary Visconti. She largely withdrew from the pop-music scene to have a family, giving birth to a girl and a boy. Though she travelled to Australia with her new husband in January 1972. She performed at a large outdoor rock festival in South Australia, in addition to giving concerts in several major cities.

Ahead of December 1972, she released the single “Mary Had a Baby” / “Cherry Tree Carol”. Mary Visconti appeared a number of times on the Cilla Black variety show. She later sang backing vocals variously credited as Mary Hopkin-Visconti, and finally Mary Hopkin. Among her backing vocal credits are for recordings by David Bowie, Elaine Paige, Thin Lizzy, Oasis, the Strawbs, Tom Paxton, Linda McCartney, Dolly Parton and Marc Bolan.

However, in 1981 her marriage dissolved. In 2023, Mary Hopkin released her twelfth studio album singing duets with her daughter Jessica Lee Morgan. Mary Hopkin is 74 as of April 2025.

April 26, 2025
Ray McGinnis

References:
References:
“What Exactly Happened To Mary Hopkin? Bio, Net Worth, Husband, Children, 7 Quick Facts,” Juke Bugs, July 5, 2023.
Richard Barber, “Sixties singer Mary Hopkin on why she’s appalled by X Factor judges,” Daily Mail, October 22, 2010.
“John Lennon Died 35 Years Ago Today: Read Original Associated Press Story,” Billboard, December 8, 2015.
Johnathan Cott, “John Lennon: The Last Interview: Three days before he died, John Lennon talked with ‘Rolling Stone’ for nine hours. For the first time, we present this extraordinary interview,” Rolling Stone, December 23, 2010.
David Fricke, “Paul McCartney Looks Back: The Rolling Stone Interview,” Rolling Stone, August 10, 2016.
Ben Quinn, “Paul McCartney ‘saw God’ After Taking Drugs During Beatles Heyday,” Guardian, September 2, 2018.
Tony Rennell, “Was John Lennon’s murderer Mark Chapman a CIA hitman? Thirty years on, there’s an extraordinary new theory,” Daily Mail, December 3, 2010.

CFNB 550-AM Fredericton (NB) Top Ten | June 7, 1969