Conway Twitty - Goodbye Time

Goodbye Time, a song written by James Dean Hicks and Roger Murrah, was recorded by Conway Twitty for the MCA label, was recorded between September 15 and 17, 1987, at Sound Stage Studio, 10 Music Circle South, Nashville, TN, in The Conway recording session was accompanied by: Richard Bennett (acoustic guitar), Reggie Young (electric guitar), Dave Hungate (bass), Eddie Bayers (drums), Matt Rollings (piano and synthesizer), Mike Lawler (organ and synthesizer) and Vince Gill (vocal background). With the production of Jimmy Bowen, Dee Henry and Conway Twitty, the song was released in February 1988, reaching # 7 on the US Hot Country Songs charts. On the Canadian RPM Country Tracks charts, it would reach # 11.

The song was included in the 53rd Conway studio album, Still in Your Dreams (MCA 1988), on the charts of US Top Country Albums, reached number # 28.

15 years later, in 2004, Blake Shelton re-recorded the song, for his album, Blake Shelton’s Barn & Grill (Warner 2004), on the charts of U.S Hot Country Songs, reached number # 10.

James Dean Hicks and Roger Murrah were inspired to write “Goodbye Time” while Hicks’s brother divorced. According to Hicks, his brother was “clinging to something that was already gone,” and his situation inspired Hicks and Murrah to write the song. Murrah said the two “just started playing music and singing lyrics,” and the song joined.

Initially, the two composers had planned for Reba McEntire to record “Goodbye Time.” However, McEntire felt that she could not sing the song, since she had also divorced at that time, and felt that several of the lyrics of the song coincided with what her ex-husband had told her when they separated. The song was released to Conway Twitty, who recorded it, in 1987.