"Too Good at Goodbyes" is a song by English singer
Sam Smith
Samuel Frederick Smith (born 19 May 1992) is an English singer and songwriter. In 2012, they rose to prominence when they featured on Disclosure (band), Disclosure's breakthrough single "Latch (song), Latch", which peaked at number eleven on ...
. It was released on 8 September 2017 through
Capitol Records
Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007), and simply known as Capitol, is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-base ...
, as the
lead single
A lead single (or first single) is the first single to be released from a studio album by an artist or a band, usually before the album itself is released and also occasionally on the same day of the album's release date.
A similar term, "debut ...
from their second studio album, ''
The Thrill of It All'' (2017).
The song reached number one in the UK and number four on the
''Billboard'' Hot 100. It also topped the charts in Australia, South Africa and New Zealand, and reached the top 10 in Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, and as well as the top 20 in Austria, Finland, Germany, and Spain.
Background and release
On 31 August 2017, Smith announced new music was coming via social media. On 1 September,
Spotify
Spotify (; ) is a List of companies of Sweden, Swedish Music streaming service, audio streaming and media service provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. , it is one of the largest providers of music streaming services ...
put up billboards in
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
,
Los Angeles
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
, and
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
to announce the release date of Smith's new music.
The song was released worldwide to
download
In computer networks, download means to ''receive'' data from a remote system, typically a server such as a web server, an FTP server, an email server, or other similar systems. This contrasts with uploading, where data is ''sent to'' a remote ...
and
streaming
Streaming media refers to multimedia delivered through a network for playback using a media player. Media is transferred in a ''stream'' of packets from a server to a client and is rendered in real-time; this contrasts with file downl ...
websites on 8 September.
Composition
The song was written by Smith,
James Napier, and
Stargate
''Stargate'' is a military science fiction media franchise owned by Amazon MGM Studios. It is based on Stargate (film), the film directed by Roland Emmerich, which he co-wrote with producer Dean Devlin; production company StudioCanal owns the ...
. They produced the song with
Jimmy Napes
James Napier (born 18 September 1984), known professionally as Jimmy Napes, is an English songwriter and record producer. He has won a number of awards including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, 3 Grammy Awards, and 2 Ivor Novello Awards ...
and
Steve Fitzmaurice
Stephen Fitzmaurice is an Irish mixer and producer based in London, England. His credits include albums for Depeche Mode, Seal, Sam Smith, Ian Brown, Kylie Minogue, Mónica Naranjo, Sting, Paloma Faith, Olly Murs, The Kooks, Alicia Keys, U2, ...
. The sheet music for "Too Good at Goodbyes" shows the key of
D minor
D minor is a minor scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B, and C. Its key signature has one flat. Its relative major is F major and its parallel major is D major.
The D natural minor scale is:
Changes needed ...
in
common time
A time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, and measure signature) is an indication in music notation that specifies how many note values of a particular type fit into each measure ( bar). The time signature indicates the ...
with a
tempo
In musical terminology, tempo (Italian for 'time'; plural 'tempos', or from the Italian plural), measured in beats per minute, is the speed or pace of a given musical composition, composition, and is often also an indication of the composition ...
of 92 beats per minute. The chord progression is Dm–F–C–Gm. Smith's vocals span from F
3 to D
5. Smith explained the meaning of the song, dedicated to a boy they were in a relationship with in 2016:
Critical reception
Jon Blistein from ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason.
The magazine was first known fo ...
'' called Smith's comeback song "poignant" and wrote, "The piano-led song finds the singer pulling away from a volatile relationship. 'But every time you hurt me, the less that I cry / And every time you leave me, the quicker these tears dry,' he sings, soulfully. 'And every time you walk out, the less I love you / Baby, we don't stand a chance / It's sad, but it's true.' The lilting chorus is buoyed by a choir, as they harmonize, 'I'm way too good at goodbyes.'" Chris Willman of
''Variety'' said about the track, "Once again, Smith is plumbing the depths of melancholia with a flawless, effortlessly flexible tenor that seems to be on loan to the underworld from somewhere in the heavens. There's not a lot in the track that he, carry-over collaborator Jimmy Napes, and songwriter-producer duo Stargate have come up with to detract from that instrument. For the first minute of the song, Smith’s voice is joined only by the sparsest and most basic piano chords, along with some finger-snapping. Eventually a light beat kicks in, then a gospel choir, as if to almost mock Smith’s romantic lamentation by raising it to the level of spiritual battle." Marc Hogan of
''Pitchfork'' was more negative, and opined "'Too Good at Goodbyes' doesn't so much reflect a person exceptionally skilled in ending relationships as it feels equal parts calculating and convoluted."
Music video
Smith uploaded the official audio to their
YouTube
YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
and
Vevo
Vevo LLC ( , an abbreviation for "Video Evolution", stylized in all caps until 2013) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational video hosting service, best known for providing music videos to YouTube. The service is also available ...
accounts on 8 September 2017. The audio was later removed when they released the official music video for the song on 18 September 2017.
It was filmed in
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne, or simply Newcastle ( , Received Pronunciation, RP: ), is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is England's northernmost metropolitan borough, located o ...
. On 29 September 2017, Smith released a video of them performing "Too Good at Goodbyes" at the Round Chapel in
Hackney. , the music video has been viewed over 1.2 billion times.
Chart performance
"Too Good at Goodbyes" topped the
UK Singles Chart on 15 September 2017 - for the week ending dated 21 September 2017 - with 33,000 downloads and 4.4 million streams, dethroning
Taylor Swift
Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter. Known for her autobiographical songwriting, artistic versatility, and Cultural impact of Taylor Swift, cultural impact, Swift is one of the Best selling artists, w ...
's "
Look What You Made Me Do
"Look What You Made Me Do" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift and the lead single from her sixth studio album, ''Reputation'' (2017). Big Machine Records released the song on August 24, 2017, following an approximately yea ...
" from the summit and giving Smith their sixth number-one single on the chart. It also stayed atop the UK charts for three consecutive weeks giving Smith their longest run at number one there. It is also Smith third most successful song with over 1.9 million copies sold in the country as of 2023. It also debuted at number one in Australia and New Zealand. It is Smith's first number one single in Australia.
In the United States, the song entered at number five on the
''Billboard'' Hot 100 on the issue dated 30 September with 90,000 downloads and 20.8 million streams, topping the
Digital Songs
The Digital Song Sales (previously named Digital Songs and Hot Digital Songs) ranks the best-selling digital songs in the United States, as compiled by Luminate and published by '' Billboard'' magazine. Although it originally started tracking ...
chart and receiving an audience of 35 million in radio airplay. It is also Smith's highest debut in the country and their second song to top the Digital Songs chart after "
Stay with Me" in 2014.
"Too Good at Goodbyes" later ascended to number four on the issue dated 25 November, after the release of ''The Thrill of It All''.
In November 2017, the song was certified platinum in the US for shipments of one million units.
Live performances
Smith announced four live dates in September to help promote the song. They also performed it at the We Can Survive concert on 21 October.
Formats and track listings
*Digital download
#"Too Good at Goodbyes" – 3:21
*Digital download
(Acoustic)
#"Too Good at Goodbyes" – 3:40
*Digital download
(Galantis Remix)
#"Too Good at Goodbyes" – 3:12
*Digital download
(Snakehips Remix)
#"Too Good at Goodbyes" – 3:58
Credits and personnel
Personnel
* Lead vocals, Additional Background vocals –
Sam Smith
Samuel Frederick Smith (born 19 May 1992) is an English singer and songwriter. In 2012, they rose to prominence when they featured on Disclosure (band), Disclosure's breakthrough single "Latch (song), Latch", which peaked at number eleven on ...
* Choir arrangement – Lawrence Johnson
* Choir vocals – The LJ Singers
* Songwriting – Sam Smith, James Napier, Mikkel Storleer Eriksen, Tor Erik Hermansen
* Production – Jimmy Napes, Steve Fitzmaurice, Stargate
* Recording engineers –
Steve Fitzmaurice
Stephen Fitzmaurice is an Irish mixer and producer based in London, England. His credits include albums for Depeche Mode, Seal, Sam Smith, Ian Brown, Kylie Minogue, Mónica Naranjo, Sting, Paloma Faith, Olly Murs, The Kooks, Alicia Keys, U2, ...
, Darren Heelis, Gus Pirelli
* Assistant engineers – Tom Archer, Henri Davies, Isabel Gracefield Grundy, Steph Marziano, John Prestage, Will Purton
* Mixing – Steve Fitzmaurice
* Mastering –
Bob Ludwig
Robert Carl Ludwig (born December 11, 1944), is a retired American mastering engineer. He mastered recordings on all the major recording formats for all the major record labels, and on projects by more than 1,300 artists, including Led Zeppeli ...
* Drums –
Earl Harvin
Earl Harvin is an American drummer, percussionist and multi-instrumentalist who has lived in Dallas, Texas and Los Angeles and is now residing in Berlin, Germany.
Harvin studied at the University of North Texas College of MusicEnsoulment.html" ...
* Percussion –
StarGate
''Stargate'' is a military science fiction media franchise owned by Amazon MGM Studios. It is based on Stargate (film), the film directed by Roland Emmerich, which he co-wrote with producer Dean Devlin; production company StudioCanal owns the ...
,
Jimmy Napes
James Napier (born 18 September 1984), known professionally as Jimmy Napes, is an English songwriter and record producer. He has won a number of awards including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, 3 Grammy Awards, and 2 Ivor Novello Awards ...
, Earl Harvin
* Drum programming – Steve Fitzmaurice, Darren Heelis
* Bass – Jodi Milliner
* Acoustic and Rhodes electric pianos – Reuben James
* Guitar – Ben Jones
* String leaders – Richard George, Everton Nelson, Bruce White, Ian Burdge
In popular culture
On February 6, 2020, former Clasher
Carl Malone Montecido covered this song and went viral in the world.
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications
Release history
See also
*
List of number-one singles of 2017 (Australia)
The ARIA Singles Chart ranks the best-performing singles in Australia. Its data, published by the Australian Recording Industry Association, is based collectively on the weekly physical and digital sales and streams of singles. In 2017, e ...
*
List of number-one songs of 2017 (Malaysia)
*
List of number-one singles from the 2010s (New Zealand)
This is the Recorded Music NZ list of number-one singles in New Zealand during the 2010s decade, starting from Monday 4 January 2010. From 7 November 2014, the chart also included data from audio on demand streaming services.
Chart
Key
: – Nu ...
*
List of Scottish number-one singles of 2017
*
List of UK Singles Chart number ones of the 2010s
*
List of highest-certified singles in Australia
This is a list of highest-certified singles in Australia according to the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). Since 1983, ARIA certifies a single Platinum for shipment of 70,000 copies across Australia. Single figures can include "qu ...
References
External links
*
{{Sam Smith
2017 songs
2017 singles
2010s ballads
Sam Smith (singer) songs
Capitol Records singles
Number-one singles in Australia
Number-one singles in Malaysia
Number-one singles in Scotland
Pop ballads
Torch songs
Songs written by Sam Smith (singer)
Songs written by Mikkel Storleer Eriksen
Songs written by Tor Erik Hermansen
Songs written by Jimmy Napes
UK singles chart number-one singles