Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life) 1997 – Green Day

Today we arrive at one of the most recognisable acoustic songs of the modern era. It is easily Green Day’s most emblematic track and is typically played as their final song in concert. I always thought of it as a tender ballad, which is why it surprised me to learn that Time of Your Life is preceded by Good Riddance.

I strongly associate this song with its use in a late episode of Seinfeld, The Chronicle. Whenever I watch that segment, it makes me nostalgic and reflective. It also remains a favourite show of my children. I think I first came to know Green Day through their 1995 release When I Come Around, though I’m hardly cognisant of much of their wider catalogue.

Lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong wrote Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) after his girlfriend, Amanda, left for Ecuador, south of Colombia here. Green Day toured here in Bogotá as recently as August 2025. Armstrong told Guitar World that he was more than a little pissed off at the time, which is why he added Good Riddance to the title. The song’s wording and tone are therefore meant to be sarcastic – something you could easily miss, as I certainly did after all these decades.

The song was originally written during the Dookie sessions in 1993, the album that includes When I Come Around, but it was deemed too out of place for that record. Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) marked a clear departure from the band’s punk sound, and perhaps that contrast is exactly why it has endured.

When the time came to record Nimrod, Armstrong decided to record the song again, and Cavallo suggested they add strings to the track. He sent the band to play foosball in another room while he recorded the strings, which took “like fifteen, twenty minutes, maybe a half an hour at the most”. Cavallo reflected on his decision to add the strings: “I knew we had done the right thing. It was a hit the second I heard it.”

The album version of the song begins with Armstrong messing up the opening chords twice, muttering “f&ck” under his breath before starting over and getting it right, thus starting the song. The mistakes were deliberately kept to add a lighthearted introduction to a song with emotionally deep lyrics. Radio versions and the music video omitted Armstrong’s second attempt with the expletive.

The song was released in 1997 as the second single from Green Day’s 5th studio album Nimrod. The song peaked at No. 11 in the US and top 20 in a host of other countries. As of November 2022, the song had sold over five million copies making it the band’s most commercially successful single.

When the video (below) came out, the name of the song was inverted, hence the video’s title is “Time of Your Life (Good Riddance)“. This title was also used on the single cover (above).

[Intro]
F&ck

[Verse 1]
Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road
Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go
So make the best of this test and don’t ask why
It’s not a question, but a lesson learned in time

[Chorus]
It’s something unpredictable, but in the end is right
I hope you had the time of your life

[Verse 2]
So take the photographs and still frames in your mind
Hang it on a shelf in good health and good time
Tattoos of memories and dead skin on trial
For what it’s worth, it was worth all the while

References:
1. Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) – Wikipedia