Bridge over Troubled Water (song)
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| "Bridge Over Troubled Water" | ||||||||||||||||
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| Single by Simon & Garfunkel | ||||||||||||||||
| from the album Bridge Over Troubled Water | ||||||||||||||||
| B-side | "Keep the Customer Satisfied" | |||||||||||||||
| Released | January 26, 1970 | |||||||||||||||
| Format | 7" 45 RPM | |||||||||||||||
| Recorded | 1969 | |||||||||||||||
| Genre | Soft rock, folk rock | |||||||||||||||
| Length | 4:55 | |||||||||||||||
| Label | Columbia Records | |||||||||||||||
| Writer(s) | Paul Simon | |||||||||||||||
| Producer | Roy Halee, Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel | |||||||||||||||
| Simon & Garfunkel singles chronology | ||||||||||||||||
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"Bridge Over Troubled Water" is the title song of Simon & Garfunkel's final album together, released January 26, 1970, though it also appears on the live album "Simon & Garfunkel, Live 1969." It reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on February 28, 1970, and stayed at the top of the chart for six weeks. "Bridge Over Troubled Water" also topped the adult contemporary chart in the U.S. for six weeks.[1]
This song's recording process exposed many of the underlying tensions that eventually led to the breakup of the duo after the album's completion. Most notably, Paul Simon has repeatedly expressed regret that he insisted that Art Garfunkel sing this song as a solo, 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. "He felt I should have done it," Paul Simon revealed to Rolling Stone in 1972.
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.
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[edit] Writing and recording
Simon wrote the song in the summer of 1969 while Garfunkel was filming Catch-22 in Europe.
The song originally had two verses and different lyrics. Simon specifically wrote it for Garfunkel and knew it would be a piano song. The chorus lyrics were partly inspired by Claude Jeter's line "I'll be your bridge over deep water if you trust in me," which Jeter sang with his group, the Swan Silvertones, in the 1958 song "Mary Don't You Weep".[2]
Garfunkel reportedly liked Simon's falsetto on the demo and suggested that Simon sing. He and producer Roy Halee also thought the song needed three verses and a 'bigger' sound towards the end. Simon agreed and penned the final verse, though he felt it was less than fully cohesive with the earlier verses.[3]
Garfunkel's first two attempts to record the vocal failed. The first two verses were finally recorded in New York with the final verse recorded first, in Los Angeles. Part of the song was first heard in public on November 30, 1969, when it was included in the soundtrack of a one-hour tv special by the duo aired by CBS; the music appeared in the background of a clip with John F Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr.[4]
Larry Knechtel spent four days working on the piano arrangement. Garfunkel came up with the intermediate piano chords between the verses while working with Knechtel.
As the song ends, drums, strings 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.
[edit] Awards
The single 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.
A gospel-inspired cover version by Aretha Franklin, taken from her album Aretha Live at Fillmore West, reached number one on the U.S. R&B chart and number six on the pop chart. [5]. and 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.
[edit] Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley recorded it in Nashville on 5 June 1970 and it was released on the 1970 album "That's The Way It Is." He included it in his set list for his next engagement in Las Vegas which included the filming of the 1970 documentary "Elvis - That's The Way It Is" and was included in the original theatrical release (included version is from 11 August Dinner Show). During this summer season in Vegas Paul Simon attended one of the shows and after seeing Elvis perform the song he was reported to have said "That's it, we might as well all give up now." Presley continued to use this throughout his live performances including his final live appearance in Indianapolis on 26 June 1977. Another live performance was seen in the Golden Globe winning documentary "Elvis on Tour" filmed at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina on 14 April 1972.
On the studio version Robert Matthew Watson wrote in his book "Heartbreak Hotel": "Presley's outstanding singing is not disguised. This is a fabulous version, burning with sincerity and power, and finding depths not revealed by the composers."
[edit] Other Notable Covers
In addition to Franklin's gospel version, Buck Owens and the Buckaroos also covered the song for the country music market. A departure from Owens' usual Bakersfield Sound, his version reached the top 10 of the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart in March 1971.
The Jackson 5 covered the song on their 1970 Third Album.
Shirley Bassey covered the song on her 1971 album Something Else.
Willie Nelson covered the song on his 1982 album Always on my mind.
Jolin Tsai covered the song on her 2001 album Lucky Number.
Johnny Cash did a cover of this song in his 2002 American IV: The Man Comes Around album.
Annie Lennox performed a live version of this song in 2007 for American Idol's "Idol Gives Back" at the Disney Hall in Los Angeles. This live recording was released as a single on iTunes and the proceeds went to charity.
Chip Harlow performs his own rendition frequently at Hollywood Thai in Los Angeles, CA.
Christian singer Michael W. Smith covered the song on his album Healing Rain.
Clay Aiken performed this song during the Top 2 Finale of American Idol Performance Night in 2003.
Charlotte Church covered this song in her 2002 'best of' album Prelude: The Best of Charlotte Church
Leona Lewis performed this song on November 18, 2006, during week 6 of The X Factor's third series. [6]
Spanish singer Camilo Sesto covered the song in his language. His version was called "Puente sobre aguas turbulentas".
Eva Cassidy on her album Live at Blues Alley, 1997
[edit] See also
- Songs on album: "The Boxer" / "Cecilia" / "El Condor Pasa".
[edit] Notes
- ^ Whitburn, Joel (1996). The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits, 6th Edition (Billboard Publications)
- ^ Sisario, Ben. "Claude Jeter, Gospel Singer With Wide Influence, Dies at 94 ", The New York Times, January 10, 2009. Accessed January 11, 2009.
- ^ Kingston, Victoria, Simon and Garfunkel: the Definitive Biography, Sidgwick & Jackson, UK, 1996 p.101-02
- ^ Kingston 1996, p.104-05
- ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942-2004. Record Research. p. 215.
- ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_X_Factor_(UK_series_3)
[edit] References
- "Simon & Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water" (notes/reviews), Super Seventies RockSite!/Amazon.com, 2006, webpage: SPSimGarf.
| Preceded by "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)" / "Everybody Is a Star" by Sly & the Family Stone |
Billboard Hot 100 number-one single (Simon and Garfunkel version) February 28, 1970 (six weeks) |
Succeeded by "Let It Be" by The Beatles |
| Preceded by "Never Can Say Goodbye" by The Jackson 5 |
Billboard Best Selling Soul Singles number-one single (Aretha Franklin version) May 22, 1971 June 5, 1971 |
Succeeded by "Want Ads" by Honey Cone |
| Preceded by "Wand'rin' Star" by Lee Marvin |
UK Singles Chart number-one single (Simon and Garfunkel version) March 28, 1970 |
Succeeded by "All Kinds of Everything" by Dana |
| Preceded by "There there" by Radiohead |
Canadian number-one single (Clay Aiken version) June 28, 2003 (13 weeks) |
Succeeded by "Someday" by Nickelback |
| Preceded by "Sugar, Sugar" by The Archies |
Billboard Hot 100 Number one single of the year 1970 |
Succeeded by "Joy to the World" by Three Dog Night |
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