Goodbye-ee!

‘Goodbye-ee’ was written in 1917 by R.P. Weston and Bert Lee and performed by music hall stars Florrie Forde, Daisy Wood and Charles Whittle. Weston and Lee had the idea for the song from watching factory girls call out to soldiers marching to Victoria station. The song also lends its name to the final, poignant episode of Blackadder, Blackadder Goes Forth. In my medley of First World War songs, I have used ‘Goodbye-ee!’ to open the work and provide a dramatic finale, with the solo Soprano soaring at the end to a sustained high B.