"Goodbye Marie" is a country-pop song written by

Mel McDaniel Melvin Huston McDaniel (September 6, 1942 – March 31, 2011) was an American country music artist. Many of his top hits were released in the 1980s, including " Louisiana Saturday Night", "Big Ole Brew", "Stand Up", "Baby's Got Her Blue Jeans ...

and

Dennis Linde Dennis Linde (pronounced LIN-dy, March 18, 1943December 22, 2006) was an American music songwriter based in Nashville who has had over 250 of his songs recorded. He is best known for writing the 1972 Elvis Presley hit, "Burning Love". Rarely wo ...

. The song is about a man who has to leave his lover to head for "the lonesome highway" back to his home in

Houston, Texas Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

. It was first released by

Johnny Rodriguez Juan Raoul Davis "Johnny" Rodriguez (born December 10, 1951) is an American country music singer. He is a Tejano and Texas country music singer, infusing his music with Latin sounds, and even singing verses of songs in Spanish. In the 1970s and ...

on his March 1979 album, ''Rodriguez Was Here''. In September 1979,

Kenny Rogers Kenneth Ray Rogers (August 21, 1938 – March 20, 2020) was an American singer, songwriter, and actor. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2013. Rogers was particularly popular with country audiences but also charted mo ...

released the song on his album, ''

Kenny Kenny is a surname, a given name, and a diminutive of several different given names. In Ireland, the surname is an Anglicisation of the Irish language, Irish ''Ó Cionnaith'', also spelt ''Ó Cionnaoith'' and ''Ó Cionaodha'', meaning "descendant ...

''. Although the song was not issued as a single at the time, after Kenny Rogers signed to

RCA Records RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also A ...

his former label,

Liberty Records Liberty Records was a record label founded in the United States by chairman Simon Waronker in 1955 with Al Bennett as president and Theodore Keep as chief engineer. It was reactivated in 2001 in the United Kingdom and had two previous revival ...

, issued a newly overdubbed version on a Rogers compilation album called ''

Short Stories A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest t ...

'' and as a single in December 1985 that went to #47 in 1986."Hot Country Singles"

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

, February 15, 1986

Bobby Goldsboro Robert Charles Goldsboro (born January 18, 1941) is an American pop and country singer and songwriter. He had a string of pop and country hits in the 1960s and 1970s, including his signature No. 1 hit "Honey", which sold over 1 million copies in ...

took a version of the song to #17 on the

Billboard Country chart Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data from Nielsen BDS along with digital sal ...

in December 1980.
The Billboard Book of Top 40 Country Hits
'. pg. 434."His other Top 20 country singles include "Muddy Mississippi Line" (1969), "Goodbye Marie" (1980), ...",
The comprehensive country music encyclopedia
' by Country Music Magazine Editors, Times Books, 1994, Pg. 146 Mel McDaniel also released the song on his 1981 album, ''

I'm Countryfied ''I'm Countryfied'' is the third studio album by Mel McDaniel released in 1980. The album peaked at number 24 on the Top Country Albums charts. The biggest hit on the album, and also one of McDaniel's biggest hits, was " Louisiana Saturday Night," ...

'', and as the B-side of his single "I Call It Love." Bluegrass group Merle Monroe covered the song for a hit in 2021 with Tim Raybon as lead singer (the group later renamed itself Tim Raybon Band).

Chart performance

Bobby Goldsboro

Kenny Rogers

References

{{authority control 1981 singles 1986 singles Bobby Goldsboro songs Kenny Rogers songs Songs written by Dennis Linde Songs written by Mel McDaniel 1980 songs