Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)

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"Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)"

Single cover art
Single by Green Day
from the album Nimrod
B-side "Desensitized"
"Rotting"
Released October 17, 1997
Format CD single
Recorded June 1996
Genre Acoustic rock
Length 2:34 (album version)
2:28 (clean album remix)
Label Reprise
Writer(s) Billie Joe Armstrong / Green Day
Producer Rob Cavallo, Green Day
Certification Platinum (RIAA)
Green Day singles chronology
"Hitchin' a Ride"
(1997)
"Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)"
(1997)
"Redundant"
(1998)

"Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" is a song by the American rock band Green Day. Although written by lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong just after the release of the band's third album Dookie (1994), the song was not released until Green Day's fifth album, Nimrod (1997), and was the second single released from that album. An alternate version (in a different key, with a faster tempo and sparer arrangement) did appear as a b-side to the 1995 German import single for "Brain Stew/Jaded".[1] As of January 2012, "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" has sold 2,072,000 copies.[2]

Contents

[edit] Writing and composition

In comparison to previous Green Day material, "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" features more mellow, contemplative lyrics with acoustic music. Band member Mike Dirnt went on to state that the release of this song was probably the "most punk" thing they could have done.[3] The song is more commonly promoted on the radio as "Time of Your Life", and it became a Billboard Rock chart-topper and an international hit, and was the only song from Nimrod that was a crossover success when released in single form.[4]

The song began entirely differently as a b-side to the Insomniac album. This early version featured strummed (as opposed to arpeggiated) chords, and lacked the orchestral strings found on the more well-known version. The former can also be found on the "Brain Stew" single.

Billie Joe Armstrong in an interview in Guitar Legends magazine, May 2005: "At the time I wrote 'Good Riddance', I was breaking up with a girl that was moving to Ecuador, and I was trying to be as understanding about it as I could. I wrote the song as kind of a bon voyage. I was trying not to be bitter, but I think it came out a little bit bitter anyway... I thought that calling the song "Time of Your Life" was just a little too level-headed for me, so I had to come up with something different."

On the album version, at the beginning, Billie Joe Armstrong makes a mistake (the 3rd string of the open G chord is played instead of the 4th), tries again, repeats the mistake, and in anger swears in a barely audible voice. In between tries, the faint click of a digital metronome can be discerned as well.

The song is set in common time and composed in the key of G major. The first verse features arpeggiated chords, but Billie Joe begins strumming a typical folk rhythm after the first chorus. The song uses three chord progressions:

  • The verse progression is I-IV-V (G-Cadd9-D);
  • The pre-chorus progression is vi-V-IV-I (Em-D-Cadd9-G);
  • The chorus progression is vi-I-vi-I-vi-V-I (Em-G-Em-G-Em-D-G). The interlude with strings also uses these chords.

[edit] Appeal

Despite the fact that the song is actually written about a break-up, its sentimental quality has made it a popular choice for play at events involving young people, including high-school and university graduation parties, funerals, award presentations and photo montages.

Billie Joe plays an acoustic electric version of the song as their traditional show-closer for live Green Day concerts, including the performance on their live album Bullet in a Bible. In addition, an acoustic cover of the song is played by the full cast as an encore to the Broadway musical American Idiot. The song also features on their greatest hits compilation International Superhits!, and as part of the video game Green Day: Rock Band where it is one of only two songs (along with the a capella Song of the Century) to be missing an instrument. As the song has no bass part, the player playing bass in the game takes up the string part. Also, a fully acoustic version appears on the band's 2011 live release Awesome as Fuck.

The song has also received play as backing music in several television shows. Notable broadcasts to large TV audiences include:

It has also received recognition by both the record industry and the public:

[edit] Music video

The music video was directed by Mark Kohr, and features Billie Joe Armstrong singing and playing an acoustic guitar in a bedroom, intercut with "pull-in" shots of various people involved in mundane activities. All of the subjects are shown seemingly staring into space absent-mindedly. Band members Mike Dirnt and Tré Cool make cameo appearances in the video as a person pumping gas (Dirnt), and an injured bike rider being attended by paramedics (Cool). When the video came out, the name of the song was inverted, hence the video's title is "Time of Your Life (Good Riddance)", this name was also used on the single cover.

In 1998 Green Day won their first MTV Video Music Award for Best Alternative Video for "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" and they were also nominated for Viewer's Choice.[5]

The video can be found on their music video compilation DVD, International Supervideos!.

[edit] Tracklist

CD
No. Title Length
1. "Good Riddance" (Clean Remix) 2:28
2. "Desensitized" (Non-LP Track) 2:47
3. "Rotting" (Non-LP Track) 2:50
4. "Good Riddance"    
Total length:
8:40
EU CD
No. Title Length
1. "Time of Your Life (Good Riddance)" (Clean Album Remix) 2:28
2. "Desensitized" (Non-LP Track) 2:47
3. "Rotting" (Non-LP Track) 2:50
Total length:
8:05
AUS CD
No. Title Length
1. "Redundant"   3:18
2. "Good Riddance(Time of Your Life)" (Album Version) 2:34
3. "Redundant" (Video) 3:20
4. "Good Riddance(Time of Your Life)" (Video) 2:29
Total length:
11:41

[edit] Charts

Chart (1998) Peak
position
UK Singles Chart 11[6]
Australia Singles Chart 2[7]
Canadian RPM Singles Chart 5[8]
Canadian RPM Alternative 30 7[9]
New Zealand Singles Chart 40[10]
U.S. Billboard Hot Adult Top 40 Tracks 11[11]
U.S. Billboard Top 40 Mainstream 13[11]
U.S. Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks 7[11]
U.S. Billboard Modern Rock Tracks 2[11]

[edit] Covers

[edit] References

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