Today’s classic movie theme song of the day is “Goodbye Girl” by David Gates. The song comes from the 1977 movie of the same name; released as a single in December of 1977, it peaked early the following year at #15 on the Billboard Hot 100, #9 on the Cash Box Top 100, and #3 on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart.
“Goodbye Girl” was written, sung, and produced by David Gates. He was the guy behind Bread, the group named after money, not the dough. (Well, not that kind of dough, anyway.) Gates got his start as a studio musician, producer, and songwriter out on the West Coast during the early 1960s. He put Bread together in 1969 and they had a bevy of soft rock hits. He released his first solo album in 1973 and didn’t really have any big hits until “Goodbye Girl.” He kind of left the music biz in the 1980s, returned for a bit in the 1990s, and that was about it.
The Goodbye Girl, the movie, was a romantic comedy written by Neil Simon, directed by Herbert Ross, and starring Richard Dreyfuss, Marsha Mason (Mr. Simon’s wife), and Quinn Cummings. The film was nominated for five Oscars and won one, Best Actor for Mr. Dreyfuss. It was a nice little movie, not much remembered today.
To remind of what the movie was about, here’s today’s daily bonus video of the day, the film’s original trailer. You remember it now, don’t you?
