Hello, Goodbye

"Hello, Goodbye" is a song written by Lennon/McCartney and first recorded by the English rock band The Beatles. The song was released as a single in November 1967, and topped the charts in both the United States and Britain. Though the songwriting credit is Lennon/McCartney, it was written only by Paul McCartney. Alistair Taylor, who worked for the Beatles' manager, Brian Epstein, had asked McCartney how he wrote his songs, and McCartney took him into his dining room to give him a demonstration on his harmonium. He asked Taylor to shout the opposite of whatever he sang as he played the instrument—black and white, yes and no, stop and go, hello and goodbye. Taylor later said, "I wonder whether Paul really made up that song as he went along or whether it was running through his head already." Under the working title "Hello Hello", the Beatles recorded the backing track on 2 October 1967, and added vocals and a guitar overdub on the 19th. After further overdubs of bass guitar and viola, recording was completed on the 2nd November, and mixing on the 6th. The final lines of the song, where the entire band sings "Hela, hey-ba hello-a" came spontaneously in the studio. McCartney said "I remember the end bit where there's the pause and it goes 'Heba, heba hello'. We had those words and we had this whole thing recorded but it didn't sound quite right, and I remember asking Geoff Emerick if we could really whack up the echo on the tom-toms. And we put this echo full up on the tom-toms and it just came alive."

[Verse 1] You say yes, I say no You say stop and I say go go go, oh no [Chorus] You say goodbye and I say hello Hello, hello I don't know why you say goodbye, I say hello Hello, hello I don't know why you say goodbye, I say hello [Verse 2] I say high, you say low You say why and I say I don't know, oh no [Chorus] You say goodbye and I say hello (Hello, goodbye, hello, goodbye) Hello, hello (Hello, goodbye) I don't know why you say goodbye, I say hello (Hello, goodbye, hello, goodbye) Hello, hello (Hello, goodbye) I don't know why you say goodbye, I say hello (Hello, goodbye) [Bridge] Why why why why why why do you say goodbye? Goodbye, bye bye bye bye Oh no [Chorus] You say goodbye and I say hello Hello, hello I don't know why you say goodbye, I say hello Hello, hello I don't know why you say goodbye, I say hello [Verse 3] You say yes (I say yes) I say no (But I may mean no) You say stop (I can stay) And I say go go go (Till it's time to go) Oh, oh no [Chorus] You say goodbye and I say hello Hello, hello I don't know why you say goodbye, I say hello Hello, hello I don't know why you say goodbye, I say hello Hello, hello I don't know why you say goodbye, I say hello, oh, oh Hello [Outro] Hela, heba helloa Hela, heba helloa, cha cha cha Hela, heba helloa, woo! Hela, heba helloa, hela! Hela, heba helloa, cha cha cha Hela, heba helloa, woo-hoo! Hela, heba helloa, cha cha cha Hela, heba helloa, cha cha cha