Goodbye, France

"Goodbye, France"
Sheet music cover, 1918
Song by the Peerless Quartet
Published	1918
Released	January 1919
Songwriter(s)	Irving Berlin
Audio sample
Goodbye, Franco, performed by the Peerless Quartet (1918) file help

Goodbye, France or "Good-bye France (You'll Never Be Forgotten by the U.S.A.)" is a World War I era song written and composed by Irving Berlin and published by Waterson, Berlin & Snyder, Inc., in New York City.^[1] The sheet music cover, illustrated by Albert Wilfred Barbelle, features French and American soldiers shaking hands with the Statue of Liberty in the background.^[2]

Popular recordings of Goodbye, France in 1919 were by The Peerless Quartet and by Nora Bayes.^[3]

1st Verse:

I can picture the boys 'over there,'
Making plenty of noise 'over there,'
And if I'm not wrong,
It won't be long,
Ere a certain song will fill the air;
It's all very clear,
The time's drawing near
When they'll be marching down to the pier,
singing:

Chorus:

Goodbye, France,
We'd love to linger longer,
But we must go home.
Folks are waiting to welcome us
Across the foam;
We were glad to stand side by side with you,
Mightily proud to have died with you.
So goodbye, France,
You'll never be forgotten by the U.S.A.

2nd Verse:

Goodbye, France,
They are waiting for one happy day,
When the word comes to start on their way;
With a tear-dimmed eye
They'll say goodbye,
But their hearts will cry hip-hip hooray!
The friends that they made
Will wish that they stayed,
As they start on their homeward parade, singing

'Chorus

• Audio file of Goodbye, France "Goodbye, France". Library of Congress. Retrieved 13 November 2015.
• Berlin, Irving (1918). Good-bye France: (you'll never be forgotten by the U.S.A.). New York: Waterson, Berlin & Snyder. OCLC 74491292.