Today’s classic song of the day is “Goodbye, Columbus” by the Association. It was the theme song for the movie of the same name; released as a single early in 1969, it only reached #80 on the Billboard Hot 100—which is a shame, because it’s a terrific tune.
The Association recorded four tunes for the movie’s soundtrack. “Goodbye, Columbus” was written by Associate Jim Yester, who also sang lead vocals. Here’s what he recalls about the whole soundtrack thing for the movie:
“Paramount Pictures approached us to do the soundtrack. They were very aware of our music, and they asked us to meet with them… They said, ‘Okay, here, we want this, and here we want that, and here we want this.’ We said, ‘Okay.’ And they said, ‘Okay, go home and write. You’ve got a week and a half’—or maybe it was a week—’and we’ll meet again, and then we’ll see what’s what.’ Which we did. We went home and wrote, we came back, we had show and tell. And they said, ‘Okay, I want this and I want this and I want this. And now you’ve got a week-and-a-half to record it.’ So the next day, I walked from the Warwick Hotel up on 54th and 6th down to the Village, the whole while composing ‘Goodbye, Columbus’ in my head. It was a slam-bang thing.”
The movie, Goodbye, Columbus, was based on the famous novella by famous author Philip Roth. The story is about a young lower-class Jewish lad (played by Richard Benjamin in the movie) who falls in love with an upper-class Jewish girl (played by Ali MacGraw in her movie debut). I like the film a lot, even though it sort-of sanitizes some of the religious themes from the novella and would have played better in its original late-50s setting. (The movie, released in 1969, placed the action in the late ’60s, when the sexual issues weren’t as acute as they were a decade previous.) In addition to Mr. Benjamin as Neil and Ms. MacGraw as Brenda, the movie also featured Jack Klugman as Brenda’s father.
Which leads us to today’s daily bonus video of the day, the original trailer for Goodbye, Columbus. Every father’s daughter is a virgin…
