The No. 1 Song On July 31, 1976 Sounds Even More Heartbreaking Today

On July 31, 1976, the Manhattans wrapped up a two-week residency at the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 with "Kiss and Say Goodbye," a song created out of professional anguish that realistically expresses personal and romantic heartache. Utterly timeless for its sensitive and painful telling of a relationship that has nowhere to go but an ending, "Kiss and Say Goodbye" is the kind of love song that will have every boomer crying into their coffee. With its bluntly vulnerable lyrics and soulful delivery, it's even more heartbreaking today than it was 50 years ago. 

A lot of good came out of "Kiss and Say Goodbye." It's an iconic '70s song that went platinum, and only the second single to ever officially move a million copies in the U.S. It was also the first time that the five members of the Manhattans took their lush, nuanced vocal stylings to the upper reaches of the pop chart after more than a decade of scoring mostly minor hits on the R&B list. The group would continue to craft resonant love songs, but "Kiss and Say Goodbye" remains their greatest commercial triumph, and it came with a lot of hard creative labor.

The road to No. 1 was long and difficult for the Manhattans. After a third-place finish at an Apollo Theater talent show in 1964, the group got a deal with a small label, and then another one, and member George Smith died of a brain tumor. It's indicative of the messed up 1970s music industry that the Manhattans didn't really break through until they landed with the major Columbia Records. Finally, in 1973, the group nearly made the Top 40 with "There's No Me Without You."

Meanwhile, the Manhattans' Winfred "Blue" Lovett struggled with songwriting. "I did big arrangements on 'em, worked on 'em for a week, and nothing happened," he recalled in "The Top Ten" (via "The Billboard Book of Number 1 Hits"). He'd often wake in the middle of the night with a new song in his head, and while he sometimes wouldn't bother to work on them, the down-tempo "Kiss and Say Goodbye" arrived that way. "I always thought that when you write slow songs, they have to have meaning. In this case, it's the love triangle situation we've all been through." "Kiss and Say Goodbye" is boldly emotional, opening with the line "This has got to be the saddest day of my life," before Lovett delicately and reluctantly breaks up with his also-attached lover.

As palpably weepy as it was, Columbia Records sat on "Kiss and Say Goodbye" for 14 months before it released it. But when it did reach the public, the song was excitedly embraced, hitting No. 1 on the pop and R&B charts.