About The Song
In mid-August 1974 Lefty Frizzell entered Woodland Sound Studio in Nashville for sessions that would produce some of the most respected recordings of his later career. On August 14 he laid down “I’m Not That Good at Goodbye,” a song written by Bob McDill and Don Williams. Produced by Don Gant for ABC Records, the track appeared on the album *The Classic Style of Lefty Frizzell*, released in the spring of 1975. It also saw release as a single and climbed to number 54 on the Billboard country chart, one of the final chart appearances for the Texas-born singer before his death in July 1975 at age forty-seven.
The song had already been recorded earlier that year by Lynn Anderson, and Don Williams himself had cut a version. When it reached Frizzell, the piece suited the more introspective tone that defined much of his ABC-period work. After leaving Columbia Records in 1972, Lefty had signed with ABC and found fresh creative energy in a changing Nashville scene. These later sessions allowed him to explore quieter, more mature material alongside longtime favorites, proving that his distinctive style still connected with new audiences.
At its core the ballad offers a resigned acceptance of a relationship’s end. The narrator does not want to talk things over one more time or plead for another chance. Instead he simply admits he has never been skilled at farewells, even though he knows the time has come to walk away. The lyrics avoid melodrama and focus on quiet honesty, a quality that gave the song an emotional directness many listeners recognized from their own experiences of love and loss.
Frizzell delivers the performance with the same smooth, slightly slurred phrasing and gentle vocal slides that had defined his sound since the early 1950s. By 1974 his voice had deepened with age and experience, yet it retained the conversational warmth that made every line feel like a private conversation. The understated arrangement features soft steel guitar and piano, keeping the focus squarely on Lefty’s vocal and the song’s reflective mood rather than pushing for radio-friendly flash.
The recording arrived at a poignant moment in Frizzell’s life. He had enjoyed massive early success in the 1950s, faced personal and professional setbacks in the 1960s, and then experienced a late-career renaissance with ABC. Tracks from these final sessions, including “I Never Go Around Mirrors” and “That’s the Way Love Goes,” captured an artist who had lived fully and was now looking back with hard-won perspective. “I’m Not That Good at Goodbye” became a fitting statement from a man who had said hello and goodbye to fame, heartbreak, and the road many times over.
Although it did not become one of his biggest commercial hits, the song has endured as a favorite among fans of Lefty’s mature catalog. It later appeared on the 1982 double album *The Legendary Lefty Frizzell – His Last Sessions*, a collection that gathered material from his ABC years. Other artists have recorded their own versions over the decades, keeping the track alive in playlists and live sets long after its original release.
More than fifty years after it was cut in that Nashville studio, “I’m Not That Good at Goodbye” stands as a quiet highlight from the final chapter of Lefty Frizzell’s remarkable career. It reminds listeners that even as chart success slowed and health issues mounted, his ability to turn simple, honest emotion into lasting country music never dimmed.
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Lyric
I don’t want to talk it over one more time
No there’s not much use in talkin’
If you’ve made up your mind
And darlin’ I don’t need to tell you whyYou know that I’m not that good at goodbye
Please don’t tell me you’re leavin’ if you go
Just let me turn my head while you walk out the door
‘Cause if I see you leavin’ I will dieLord goodbyes just make it harder anyhow
So if you really feel like leavin’ do it now
And let me keep a little of my prideI don’t want to know you’re leavin’ when you go
‘Cause if we reach the part where you’re standin’ at the door
Well I know I’d just break down again and cry