After serving in the U.S. Army in World War II (where he worked under Walter Schumann), he was hired by Mitch Miller, then head of A & R at Columbia Records as their home arranger, and he worked with several artists, including Rosemary Clooney, Marty Robbins, Frankie Laine, Johnny Mathis, Guy Mitchell and Johnnie Ray. He wrote a top 10 arrangement for Don Cherry's "Band of Gold" in 1955, a single that sold more than a million copies.
Amongst the hit singles he backed with his orchestra (and eventually with a male chorus) were "Yes Tonight Josephine" and "Just Walkin' in the Rain" by Johnnie Ray; "Chances Are" and "It's Not for Me to Say" by Johnny Mathis; "A White Sport Coat" and "The Hanging Tree" by Marty Robbins; "Up Above My Head," a duet by Frankie Laine and Johnnie Ray, and "Pet Me, Poppa" by Rosemary Clooney. He also backed up the albums "Tony" by Tony Bennett, "Blue Swing" by Eileen Rodgers, "Swingin' for Two" by Don Cherry. and half the tracks of "The Big Beat" by Johnnie Ray.
In these early years he also produced some similar sounding records for Columbia's Epic label under the name of Jay Raye (which stands for "Joseph Raymond") amongst them a backing album and singles with Somethin' Smith & The Redheads, an American male vocal group.
Because of the success of his backings Mitch Miller allowed him to make his own record, and this became the successful "'S Wonderful", a collection of standards that were recorded with an orchestra and a wordless singing chorus (four men, four women). He released many more albums in the same vein, including "Dance The Bop" (1957), "'S Marvelous" (1957, gold album), "'S Awful Nice" (1958), "Concert in Rhythm" (1958, gold album), "Hollywood in Rhythm" (1958), "Broadway in Rhythm" (1959), and "Concert in Rhythm, Volume II" (1959, gold album).
In 1959 he started the Ray Conniff Singers (12 women and 13 men) and released the album "It's the Talk of the Town. This group of word— not just syllable — singing singers brought him the biggest hit he ever had in his career: "Somewhere My Love" (1966). The title track of the album was written to the music of Lara's Theme from the film Doctor Zhivago (1965), and was a top 10 single in the US. The album also reached the US top 20 and went platinum, and Conniff won a Grammy. The single and album reached high positions in the international charts (a.o. Australia, Germany, Great Britain, Japan) as well. Also extraordinarily successful was the first of four Christmas albums by the Singers, "Christmas with Conniff" (1959). Nearly fifty years after its release, in 2004, Conniff posthumously was awarded with a platinum album/CD.
Musically different highlights in Conniff's career are two albums he produced in cooperation with Billy Butterfield, an old buddy from earlier swing days. "Conniff Meets Butterfield" (1960) featured Butterfield's solo trumpet and a small rhythm group; "Just Kiddin' Around" (after a Conniff original composition from the 1940's), released 1963, featured additional trombone solos by Ray himself. Both albums are pure light jazz and did not feature any vocals.
Later in the 1960's he produced an average of two instrumental and one vocal album a year. Among these are (Original albums only):
* "'s Wonderful" (1956)
* "Dance the Bop!" (1957)
* "'s Marvelous" (1957)
* "'s Awful Nice" (1958)
* "Concert in Rhythm, Vol.1" (1958)
* "Broadway in Rhythm" (1958)
* "Hollywood in Rhythm" (1958)
* "It's The Talk of the Town" (1959)
* "Conniff Meets Butterfield" (1959)
* "Christmas with Conniff" (1959)
* "Concert in Rhythm, Vol.2" (1959)
* "Young at Heart" (1960)
* "Say It with Music (A Touch of Latin)" (1960)
* "Memories Are Made of This" (1960, gold album)
* "Somebody Loves Me" (1961)
* "'S Continental" (1961)
* "So Much in Love" (1962, gold album)
* "Rhapsody in Rhythm" (1962)
* "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" (1962, gold album)
* "The Happy Beat" (1962)
* "You Make Me Feel So Young" (1963)
* "Speak to Me of Love" (1963)
* "Friendly Persuasion" (1964)
* "Invisible Tears" (1964)
* "Love Affair" (1965)
* "Music From 'Mary Poppins', 'The Sound of Music', 'My Fair Lady' & Other Great Movie Themes" (1965)
* "Here We Come A-Caroling" (1965)
* "Happiness Is" (1965)
* "Ray Conniff's World of Hits" (1966)
* "En Español (The Ray Conniff Singers Sing It in Spanish)" (1966)
* "This Is My Song" (1967)
* "Ray Conniff's Hawaiian Album" (1967)
* "It Must Be Him" (1967, gold album)
* "Honey" (1968, gold album)
* "Turn Around Look at Me" (1968)
* "I Love How You Love Me" (1968)
* "Live Europa Tournee 1969/Concert in Stereo" (1969)
* "Jean" (1969)
* "Concert In Stereo: Live At 'The Sahara Tahoe'" (1969)
* "Bridge Over Troubled Water" (1970)
* "We've Only Just Begun" (1970)
* "Love Story" (1970)
* "Great Contemporary Instrumental Hits" (1971)
* "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" (1971)
* "Love Theme from "The Godfather" (1972)
* "Alone Again (Naturally)" (1972)
* "I Can See Clearly Now" (1972)
* "Ray Conniff in Britain" (1973)
* "You Are the Sunshine of My Life" (1973)
* "Harmony" (1973)
* "The Way We Were" (1973)
* "The Happy Sound of Ray Conniff" (1974)
* "Ray Conniff In Moscow" (1974)
* "Laughter in the Rain" (1975)
* "Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song" (1975)
* "Love Will Keep Us Together" (1975)
* "I Write the Songs" (1975)
* "Live in Japan" (1975)
* "Send in the Clowns" (1976)
* "Theme from 'SWAT' and Other TV Themes" (1976)
* "After the Lovin'" (1976)
* "Exitos Latinos" (1977)
* "Ray Conniff Plays the Bee Gees and Other Great Hits" (1978)
* "I Will Survive" (1979)
* "The Perfect '10' Classics" (1980)
* "Exclusivamente Latino" (1980)
* "Siempre Latino" (1981)
* "The Nashville Connection" (1982)
* "Musik für Millionen" (partly produced for a German TV show in 1982)
* "Amor Amor" (1982)
* "Fantastico" (1983)
* "Supersonico" (1984)
* "Campeones" (1985)
* "Say You Say Me" (1986)
* "30th Anniversary Edition" (1986)
* "Always in My Heart" (1987)
* "Interpreta 16 Exitos De Manuel Alejandro" (1988)
* "Ray Conniff Plays Broadway" (1990)
* "'S Always Conniff" (1991)
* "Latinisimo" (1993)
* "40th Anniversary" (1995)
* "Live in Rio (aka Mi Historia)" (1997)
* "I Love Movies" (1997)
* "My Way" (1998)
* "'S Country" (1999)
* "'S Christmas" (1999)
* "Do Ray Para O Rei" (2000).
Between 1957 and 1968, he had 28 albums in the American Top 40, the most famous one being "Somewhere My Love" (1966). He topped the album list in Britain in 1969 with "His Orchestra, His Chorus, His Singers, His Sound". He also was the first American popular artist to record in Russia—in 1974 he recorded "Ray Conniff in Moscow" with the help of a local choir. His later albums like "Exclusivamente Latino", "Amor Amor" and "Latinisimo" made him very popular in Latin-American countries, even more so after performing in the Viña del Mar International Song Festival. In Brazil and Chile he was treated like a young pop superstar in the 1980s and 1990s when he was in his 70s and 80s. He even played live with his orchestra and eight-person chorus in large football stadiums as well as in Viña del Mar.
Ray Conniff was a quiet, modest sympathetic artist. He always worked in the background so that in the fifties there were rumours that this man didn't even exist and his name was just a name fake as then his orchestral sound was so sensational. Nevertheless he sold about 70 million albums world-wide and continued recording and performing until his death in 2002.
He died in Escondido, California, and is interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles, California.
In 2004, a memorial two-CD compilation set, "The Essential Ray Conniff", was released, featuring many rare and previously unreleased tracks. "The Singles Collection, Vol.1" was released on the Collectables label in 2005. This also features many rare tracks.
Kiss and Say Goodbye
Ray Conniff Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Never can say goodbye
Even though the pain and heartache
Seem to follow me wherever I go
Though I try and try to hide my feelings
They always seem to show,
And I always have to say no
Tell me why is it so
That I never can say goodbye, no, no, no, no, now
Never can say goodbye
Every time I think I've had enough
And start heading for the door
There's a very strange vibration
Piercing me right through the core
It says, turn around, you fool
You know you love him more and more
Tell me why is it so
Don't wanna let you go
I never can say goodbye girl
Ooh ooh baby (don't wanna let you go girl)
I never can say goodbye, no no no, no no no
Ooh, oh I never can say goodbye girl
Ooh ooh ooh (don't wanna let you go girl)
I never can say goodbye, no no no, no no no, ooh
Never can say goodbye, no, no, no, no, now
Never can say goodbye
I keep thinking that our problems
Soon are all gonna work out
But there's that same unhappy feeling
There's that anguish, there's that doubt
It's the same old dizzy hangup
Can't do with you or without
Tell me why is it so
Don't wanna let you go
I never can say goodbye girl
Ooh ooh baby (hey baby)
I never can say goodbye, no no no, no no no
Ooh, oh I never can say goodbye girl
Ooh oh (hey baby)
I never can say goodbye, no no no, no no no, ooh
I never can say goodbye girl
Ooh ooh baby (hey baby)
I never can say goodbye, no no no, no no no
Ooh, oh I never can say goodbye girl
Ooh oh (hey baby)
The lyrics to Ray Conniff's "Kiss and Say Goodbye" speak about a love that is difficult to let go, even though the singers know that it is doomed. The opening line, "I never can say goodbye" is a motif that runs throughout the song, reinforcing the idea that even though the relationship is unfulfilling, they cannot bring themselves to leave. The lyrics are filled with regret and longing, with the singer recognizing that the pain and heartache of their relationship will always follow them, no matter where they go.
The chorus of the song repeats the titular phrase, "never can say goodbye," emphasizing the difficulty of leaving someone even when it is the right thing to do. The lyrics suggest that the singer is aware of their own weakness, that they are unable to break free from the situation even though they know it will never bring them happiness. The song is a classic representation of the "emotional push and pull" often present in love relationships, with one partner holding on while the other is ready to let go.
In summary, Conniff's song "Kiss and Say Goodbye" is a ballad that speaks about the difficulties of letting go of a relationship that is unhealthy or unfulfilling. The lyrics feature a protagonist who recognizes that their love is not healthy but cannot bring themselves to say goodbye. Instead, they continue to cling to a hope that the situation will work out, no matter how unlikely that is.
Line by Line Meaning
I never can say goodbye, no, no, no, no, now
I always find it difficult to let go of people, situations or things that matter to me, even if it's for the best
Even though the pain and heartache
Despite the negative emotions and difficult experiences
Seem to follow me wherever I go
They persistently stay with me wherever I am, affecting me in different ways
Though I try and try to hide my feelings
Although I attempt to conceal my emotions
They always seem to show,
They tend to reveal themselves regardless of my efforts
Then you try to say you're leaving me
You attempt to tell me that you're going away
And I always have to say no
But I always refuse to accept it
Tell me why is it so
I am perplexed as to why I cannot say goodbye even though it may be necessary
Every time I think I've had enough
Whenever I believe that I have reached my limit
And start heading for the door
And begin to leave
There's a very strange vibration
A peculiar sensation overcomes me
Piercing me right through the core
Penetrating deeply into me
It says, turn around, you fool
My intuition tells me to return, calling me a fool in the process
You know you love him more and more
I am aware that I am growing increasingly fond of you
Don't wanna let you go
I do not wish to lose you
I keep thinking that our problems
I continue to believe that our issues
Soon are all gonna work out
Will eventually be resolved
But there's that same unhappy feeling
Yet, I am beset by the same negative emotion
There's that anguish, there's that doubt
Those feelings of pain and uncertainty persist
It's the same old dizzy hangup
It's the same old issue causing confusion and distress
Can't do with you or without
I cannot decide if I need you in my life or should let you go
I never can say goodbye girl
I cannot bring myself to say goodbye to you
Ooh ooh baby (don't wanna let you go girl)
I am scared of losing you
Never can say goodbye, no no no, no no no
I will never willingly part ways with you
Ooh, oh I never can say goodbye girl
I cannot find the strength to say farewell to you
Ooh ooh ooh (don't wanna let you go girl)
I am too attached and do not want to let you go
I never can say goodbye, no no no, no no no, ooh
I am unable to bid you a permanent farewell
Hey baby (I never can say goodbye)
My dear, I cannot say goodbye
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: Clifton Davis
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind