Goodbye To Love

In the 1940 movie Rhythm On The River, Bing Crosby played a songwriter trying to come up with a song called "Goodbye To Love." Although the song's title was mentioned several times in the movie, no such song ever existed. Richard Carpenter happened to see this movie on late-night television and decided that it was great title and HE would write the song for his sister Karen to sing.

The fuzzy guitar solo was played by Tony Peluso. It was his first contribution to a Carpenters record and he subsequently joined the duo's recording and touring band as lead guitarist. Peluso also provided the voice of the DJ on the Carpenters hit version of "Calling Occupants (Of Interplanetary Craft)." "Tony Peluso was a very talented guy," Richard Carpenter told Mojo magazine in 2022. "He played with Mark Lindsay when he opened some shows for us and I saw him do a couple of solos. So when I wrote the song and pictured the arrangement, I imagined it with the oxymoron of a melodic fuzz guitar solo and asked Tony." Following the death of Karen Carpenter in 1983, Peluso moved on to record producing, working with recording artists such as Smokey Robinson, The Temptations, Michael Jackson and Boyz II Men.

It was Karen Carpenter who called Peluso. She told him she and Richard were working on a song called "Goodbye to Love" and he wanted him to play on it. "He showed up and said, 'I don't read music,'" Richard Carpenter recalled to Mojo. "So I sang and played the melody for him and said, 'When you get to here, just take it away.' And he did. 99% of that solo was done on the first take."