Bridge over Troubled Water (song)

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"Bridge over Troubled Water"
Song

"Bridge over Troubled Water" is the title song of Simon and Garfunkel's final album together, Bridge over Troubled Water, released January 1970. It's considered the swan song for Simon and Garfunkel. [1] It reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on February 28, 1970,[1] and stayed at the top of the chart for six weeks. It was replaced at the number-one spot by The Beatles' "Let It Be" (ironically, another swan song for a musical band).

This song's recording process exposed many of the underlying tensions that eventually led to the breakup of the group after the album's completion. Most notably, Paul Simon has repeatedly expressed regret that he allowed Art Garfunkel to sing this song as a solo,[1] as it focused attention on Garfunkel and relegated Simon to a backing position. Art Garfunkel initially did not want to sing lead vocal, feeling it was not right for him.[1] "He felt I should have done it," Paul Simon revealed to Rolling Stone in 1972.[1] Garfunkel said that the moment when he performed it in Madison Square Garden in 1972 was "almost biblical". In recent performances on the "Old Friends" tour, Simon and Garfunkel have taken turns singing alternate verses of the vocal.

As the song ends, drums and piano build in a crescendo to an extraordinary climax. The last note, on a violin, is a long, drawn out E-flat that lasts ten seconds.

Writing and recording

Simon wrote the song in the summer of 1969 while Garfunkel was filming Catch-22 in Mexico.[1] It was written on the guitar in the key of G, though on an early demo version Paul Simon detuned the song on his guitar to an F.

The song originally had two verses and different lyrics. He specifically wrote it for Art and knew it was going to be a piano song. He based the lyrics on a line, "I'll be your bridge over deep water if you trust in me," by Swan Silvertones (in the song "Oh Mary Don't You Weep For Me").[1] It has elements of a Bach chorale as well.

Art reportedly knew Paul should sing it as he liked Paul's falsetto on the demo. Once in the studio Roy Halee, their producer, and Art thought the song needed three verses[1] and needed to be 'bigger' sounding. Paul agreed and spent two hours writing a third verse, which he claimed one could tell was added on later.[1]

Art attempted the lead vocal on two occasions but it did not meet with his satisfaction. He then went to St. Bartholomews Church at 109 E. 50th Street, in Manhattan (two blocks from the recording studio) and thought about the song. That day he nailed the lead vocal. Verse one and two of the song were recorded in New York City, but the vocal for the final verse was later recorded in Los Angeles.

Larry Knechtel spent four days working on the piano arrangement.[1] Art came up with the intermediate piano chords between the verses while working with Knechtel.

Awards

It won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year and Song of the Year in the Grammy Awards of 1971, with its album also winning several awards in the same year.[1]

A gospel-inspired cover version by Aretha Franklin, taken from her album Aretha Live at Fillmore West, later won the Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance in the 1972 awards. In 1999, BMI named it as the 19th-most performed song of the 20th century. Rolling Stone named it number 47 on The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. In 2006, it was awarded 4th place[citation needed] in Australian TV show 20 to 1's Greatest Songs of All Time episode, beaten by "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" by The Rolling Stones, "Stairway to Heaven" by Led Zeppelin and "Imagine" by John Lennon.

Releases, covers and various versions

"Bridge over Troubled Water" has been rerecorded by a number of artists since its original release in 1970:

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Bridge Over Troubled Water - Simon & Garfunkel" (notes), Super Seventies RockSite!/Amazon.com, 2006, webpage: SPSimGarf.
  2. ^ Yahoo! Music, webpage: Yahoo979291.

References

  • "Simon & Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water" (notes/reviews), Super Seventies RockSite!/Amazon.com, 2006, webpage: SPSimGarf.


Preceded by Billboard Hot 100 number-one single (Simon and Garfunkel version)
February 28 1970 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs number-one single (Aretha Franklin version)
May 22 1971 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs number-one single (Aretha Franklin version)
June 5 1971 		Succeeded by
Preceded by UK Singles Chart number-one single
(Simon and Garfunkel version) for (3 weeks)
March 28 1970 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Canadian number-one single (Clay Aiken version)
June 28 2003 (13 weeks) 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Billboard Hot 100 Number one single of the year
1970 		Succeeded by
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