Won't You Please Say Goodbye

“Won’t You Please Say Goodbye” is an early Lennon – McCartney composition, written in 1958. The Beatles covered it on the second day of the “Get Back” sessions (January 3rd, 1969).

From Tune In: The Beatles: All These Years, by Mark Lewisohn:

[…] By early 1958, John had amassed a fair collection (some bought, others stolen) of Elvis and Lonnie Donegan. Paul remembers how they spent time trying to anticipate the next music trend, so they could write a song in that style. Convinced that rock and roll would die at any moment, corporate America was tying to kill it, to save time, by kicking off the next kooky craze. John and Paul gave it some thought too, conjuring odd fusions like Latin-rock and rock-rumba and then gave up. They leamed that forcing an idea never worked, that songs had to come naturally. Plenty did: they hoped to write at least one in every session, and in this early period amassed perhaps twenty.

Few are known beyond their title. “I’ve Been Thinking That You Love Me,” “If Tomorrow Ever Comes,” “That’s My Woman” and “Won’t You Please Say Goodbye.” A song called “Years Roll Along” (“It might have been winter when you told me …”) was never completed. One that was, which they both recognized as the best of this first batch of Lennon McCartney Originals, was “Love Me Do.” Paul would recall it as a 50:50 effort with John, written in the front parlor at Forthlin Road, but John said it was almost entirely Paul’s. No recording of “Love Me Do” exists before the song changed shape and musical direction after four years had rolled along, but John and Paul both said how everything they wrote in this period was heavily influenced by Buddy Holly, including the vocal style. […]

Lyrics

Bootlegs

Live performances

Paul McCartney has never played this song in concert.

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