Goodnight, Sweetheart, Goodnight

Words & Music by James Hudson & Calvin Carter
Recorded by The McGuire Sisters, 1954 (#7)


Refrain (sing twice):

C                Am7               Dm7     G7*
Goodnight, sweetheart, well, it's time to go,

C                Am7               Dm7     G7*
Goodnight, sweetheart, well, it's time to go.

C          C7               F          Fm7
I hate to leave you, but I really must say 

     C     G/B   G7    G/B   C
Goodnight, sweetheart, goodnight.


C7          Dm7     Fdim         C       C7
Well, it's three o'clock in the morning;

Dm7     Fdim        G7        C    C7 
Baby, I just can't treat you right.

      F                   Fm7 
Oh, I hate to leave you, baby,

C      C/B  A7       F      Dm7      G7
Don't mean maybe, because I love you so.



Repeat Refrain


C7      Dm7   Fdim         C       C7
Now, my mother     and my father,

      Dm7 Fdim   G7             C    C7
Might hear if I stay here too long,

     F              Fm7            C     C/B  A7
One kiss and we'll part, and you'd better be going,

  F                Dm7      G7  G#7   A7
Although I hate to see you go.



Final Refrain:



D                Bm7               Em7     A7
Goodnight, sweetheart, well, it's time to go,

D                Bm7               Em7     A7
Goodnight, sweetheart, well, it's time to go.

D  DM7      D7        D6     G    G/F# F/E    
I hate to leave you, but I really must say 

     D     D9    A7    Em7   D
Goodnight, sweetheart, goodnight.

*The G7 chord that ends the first line of each verse suggests a variety of "walking bass" progressions of leading back to the C. A favorite of mine would voice the G7 as 323003, follwed by a G9 of 303203 and back to the G7 formation. The basic G-A-B to the C chord works just as well.

The lyric and guitar chord transcriptions on this site are the work of The Guitarguy and are intended for private study, research, or educational purposes only. Individual transcriptions are inspired by and and based upon the recorded versions cited, but are not necessarily exact replications of those recorded versions.