50 Ways to Leave Your Lover

"50 Ways to Leave Your Lover"
Single by Paul Simon
from the album Still Crazy After All These Years
Released	December 1975
Genre	Rock
Length	3:35
Label	Columbia
Writer(s)	Paul Simon
Paul Simon singles chronology
"Gone at Last" / "Tenderness" (1975) "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" / "Some Folks' Lives Roll Easy" (1975) "Still Crazy After All These Years" / "I Do It For Your Love" (1976)

"50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" is a 1975 hit song by Paul Simon, from his album Still Crazy After All These Years. Backing vocals on the single were performed by Patti Austin, Valerie Simpson and Phoebe Snow.

Creation

Written after Simon's divorce from first wife Peggy Harper, the song is a mistress's humorous advice to a husband on ways to end a relationship: Just slip out the back, Jack/Make a new plan, Stan. The song is anchored by a "linear" drum pattern performed by studio drummer Steve Gadd, which became the hook and color for the song. The song was recorded in a small New York City studio on Broadway.

Chart positions

"50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" broke in the U.S. in late December 1975 becoming number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 on February 7, 1976, and remaining there for three weeks. It was certified gold on March 11, 1976, and remained a best seller for nearly five months. The song also topped the adult contemporary chart for two weeks. It remains Simon's biggest solo hit.

On the UK Singles Chart, the song reached position number 23 in January 1976.

Chart (1975)	Peak Position
Canadian Singles Chart	1
French Singles Chart	2
German Singles Chart	42
New Zealand Singles Chart	18
UK Singles Chart	23
US Hot 100 Singles Chart	1

Cover Versions

• Kid Cudi covered 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover on his 2008 mixtape "A Kid Named Cudi". His version was called "50 Ways to Make a Record". The beat performed by Gadd used is also prevalent on Common's "Forever Begins" from his "Finding Forever" album.
• Floyd and Janice performed this song on the Paul Simon episode of The Muppet Show with Rowlf coming on to the stage to ask for Paul Simon if there were 50 ways to love your leaver.
• G. Love covered the song on his album Fixin' To Die (2011) which he recorded with the folk-rock band The Avett Brothers.
• An Eminem song leaked titled "50 Ways" where the chorus sampled the song. Eminem also sampled this song on the track "Murder, Murder" on The Slim Shady EP in 1997
• Platinum Pied Pipers covered 50 Ways to Leave Your Love on their 2005 release of "Triple P" on Ubiquity Records, featuring Rogiérs of Fibby Music.
• The album "Duplex Ride" from 1998 by Sidsel Endresen & Bugge Wesseltoft features a cover of this song.
• A Filipino band called Bamboo (band) also made a cover version of this song. It was in their 3rd studio album called We Stand Alone Together.
• A French group Pink Turtle produce a jazzy version of this song in their album "Back Again".
• Phish covered the song for the first time during their first performance at the Hollywood Bowl on August 8th, 2011.
• Pigeon John creates his own cover version of this song called "Passion (feat Tapwater)" off of his 2002 album called Is Clueless (2002).
• Brad Mehldau does an elliptical version on his album "Day is Done".
• Tok Tok Tok covered the song in their homonymous 1999 album.
• Rapper Kool Moe Dee interpolated the song and sampled Simon's vocals on the song "50 Ways" from his 1987 album How Ya Like Me Now.
• Joanna Wang (王若琳) covered the song which was published on an EP 4 Tracks (Sony Music Taiwan).

See also

• Hot 100 number-one hits of 1976 (United States)

External links

• Paul Simon biography

Preceded by "Love Rollercoaster" by Ohio Players	Billboard Hot 100 number-one single February 7, 1976 – February 21, 1976	Succeeded by "Theme From "S.W.A.T."" by Rhythm Heritage
Preceded by "Break Away" by Art Garfunkel	Billboard Easy Listening Singles number-one single February 28, 1976 (2 weeks)	Succeeded by "Lonely Night (Angel Face)" by Captain & Tennille