"Goodbye Marie" is a country-pop song written by Mel McDaniel and Dennis Linde.
[1][2] The song is about a man who has to leave his lover to head for "the lonesome highway" back to his home in Houston, Texas.
Although the song was not issued as a single at the time, after Kenny Rogers signed to RCA Records his former label, Liberty Records, issued a newly overdubbed version on a Rogers compilation album called Short Stories and as a single in December 1985 that went to #47 in 1986.
[3][4] Bobby Goldsboro took a version of the song to #17 on the Billboard Country chart in December 1980.
[5][6] Mel McDaniel also released the song on his 1981 album, I'm Countryfied, and as the B-side of his single "I Call It Love."