Bridge over Troubled Water

For the song, see Bridge Over Troubled Water (song).

Untitled

Bridge Over Troubled Water is the fifth and final studio album by Simon & Garfunkel. Released on January 26, 1970, it reached No. 1 on Billboard Music Charts pop albums list. It won a Grammy Award for Album of the Year, as well as for Best Engineered Recording, while its title track won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year and Song of the Year in the Grammy Awards of 1971. It has since sold over 25 million copies worldwide.

The album attained a great success in the United Kingdom, enjoying several runs at number one, spending some years in the charts and eventually becoming the country's biggest-selling album of 1970 and 1971. In August 2006, the continued popularity of the album was proven when it charted 7th place in The BBC Radio 2 Music Club Top 100 Albums. In 2003, it was ranked at #51 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list. The album won Best International Album at the first Brit Awards in 1977.

Track listing

All songs by Paul Simon except where noted.

1. "Bridge over Troubled Water" – 4:52
   ^{Recorded: November 9, 1969}
2. "El Condor Pasa (If I Could)" (Daniel Alomía Robles, English lyrics by Paul Simon, arranged by Jorge Milchberg) – 3:06
   ^{Recorded: November 2, 1969}
3. "Cecilia" – 2:55
   ^{Recorded: November 2, 1969}
4. "Keep the Customer Satisfied" – 2:33
   ^{Recorded: November 2, 1969}
5. "So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright" – 3:41
   ^{Recorded: November 9, 1969}
6. "The Boxer" – 5:08
   ^{Recorded: November 8, 1969}
7. "Baby Driver" – 3:14
   ^{Recorded: November 2, 1969}
8. "The Only Living Boy in New York" – 3:58
   ^{Recorded: November 15, 1969}
9. "Why Don't You Write Me" – 2:45
   ^{Recorded: November 8, 1969}
10. "Bye Bye Love" (Felice and Boudleaux Bryant) (live recording from Ames, Iowa) – 2:55
    ^{Recorded: November 14, 1969}
11. "Song for the Asking" – 1:49
    ^{Recorded: November 1, 1969}

Bonus tracks (2001 CD reissue)

1. "Feuilles-O" [Demo] (Traditional) – 1:45
   ^{Recorded: August 11, 1969}
2. "Bridge over Troubled Water" [Demo Take 6] – 4:46
   ^{Recorded: August 13, 1969}

Outtakes

The songs "Cuba Si, Nixon No," "Groundhog," and the demo "Feuilles-O" (later Garfunkel released "Feuilles-Oh/Do Space Men Pass Dead Souls on Their Way to the Moon?" as the flip to his "I Shall Sing") were recorded during sessions but not released on the album. "Cuba Si, Nixon No" was later released on a bootleg copy of a November 11, 1969 concert by Simon and Garfunkel at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, while the demo recording of "Feuilles-O" was later released on the Old Friends and The Columbia Studio Recordings (1964–1970) box sets.

A remastered and expanded version of the album was released on CD in 2001, also containing "Feuilles-O" and a previously unreleased demo version of "Bridge over Troubled Water."

Personnel

• Paul Simon — lead vocals, guitar
• Art Garfunkel — lead vocals
• Los Incas — Peruvian instruments
• Joe Osborn — bass guitar
• Larry Knechtel — piano
• Fred Carter, Jr. — guitar
• Hal Blaine — drums
• Pete Drake — Steel guitar, Dobro
• Jimmy Haskell and Ernie Freeman — strings
• ? - flute, saxophones, horn section

Awards and ratings

In the 1971 Grammy Awards' ceremony the album (and its contents) won six Grammys:

• Record of the Year — "Bridge over Troubled Water" (relates to one track)
• Album of the Year — Bridge over Troubled Water (relates to the whole album)
• Best Contemporary Pop Song — "Bridge over Troubled Water"
• Song of the Year — "Bridge over Troubled Water"
• Best Engineered Recording (Non-Classical) — Bridge over Troubled Water
• Best Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s) — "Bridge over Troubled Water"

Chart positions

Album

Year	Chart	Position
1970	Billboard Pop Albums (Billboard 200)	1 (10 weeks)
1970	Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart	1 (15 weeks)
1970	United Kingdom Albums Chart	1 (33 weeks)
1970	Germany Albums Chart	1 (17 weeks)
1970	The Netherlands Albums Chart	1 (17 weeks)
1970	Norway Albums Chart	1 (14 weeks)
1970	Spain Albums Chart	1 (20 weeks)
1970	France Albums Chart	1 (2 weeks)
1970	Chile Albums Chart	1 (20 weeks)
1970	Japan Albums Chart	1

Singles

Billboard Music Charts (North America) — singles

Year	Single	Chart	Position
1969	"The Boxer"	Pop Singles	7
1969	"The Boxer"	Adult Contemporary	3
1970	"Bridge over Troubled Water"	Pop Singles	1
1970	"Bridge over Troubled Water"	Adult Contemporary	1
1970	"Cecilia"	Pop Singles	4
1970	"El Condor Pasa (If I Could)"	Pop Singles	18
1970	"El Condor Pasa (If I Could)"	Adult Contemporary	6

See also

• List of best-selling albums worldwide
• Top best-selling albums by UK Chart

References

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