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Goodbye Cruel World (James Darren song)
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Wikipedia article
"'Goodbye Cruel World'" is a song written by Gloria Shayne most famously recorded by James Darren in 1961.
Background
The song is about a man whose heart was broken by a "mean fickle woman", and his plan to join the circus as a brokenhearted clown. He does not mind being shot out of a cannon, and plans to tell the world that she "made a crying clown" out of him.
According to disc jockeys at the time the song was released, the calliope-like riff used in the song based on the "Entrance of the Gladiators" theme, was a synthesized recording of a woman's voice rather than a musical instrument.
Chart history
Darren scored his first top ten hit on the U.S. 'Billboard' Hot 100, at number three. On the 'Cash Box' Top 100, it spent two weeks at number two.[http://tropicalglen.com/Archives/60s_files/19611216.html Cash Box Top 100 Singles, December 16, 1961] It would prove the biggest hit of his career on this chart, as well as on the UK Singles Chart (no. 28).
Popular culture
*Darren, playing pop idol "Kip Dennis", performed the song on a late 1961 episode of 'The Donna Reed Show'. (He had previously played a different character in a 1959 episode of the sitcom). The song's lyrics were changed to "join the Army" instead of "join the circus" to reflect his character's reason to exit the show as Shelley Fabares' "love interest" ala Elvis' zeitgeist Army stint.
*The song was also used in a film on Pop Art directed by Ken Russell for the BBC TV series 'Monitor' which was aired in March 1962; its context here was the escape from the dying culture of the British Empire.
References
Category:1961 singles
Category:James Darren songs
Category:Songs written by Gloria Shayne Baker
Category:Number-one singles in Canada
Category:1961 songs
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