Bridge over Troubled Water
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| Bridge over Troubled Water | |||||
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| Studio album by Simon and Garfunkel | |||||
| Released | January 26, 1970 | ||||
| Recorded | November 1968 and November 1969 |
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| Genre | Folk rock | ||||
| Length | 36:29 | ||||
| Label | Columbia Records | ||||
| Producer | Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel, Roy Halee |
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| Professional reviews | |||||
| Simon and Garfunkel chronology | |||||
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Bridge over Troubled Water is the fifth and final studio album by Simon and Garfunkel. [1] First released on January 26, 1970, it reached number one 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.[1] It has since sold over 25 million worldwide.
The album proved to be a vast 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 the 1970s.[1] 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 2001 the TV network VH1 named Bridge over Troubled Water the thirty-third greatest album of all time. In 2003, the album was ranked number 51 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.[1]
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 an November 11, 1969 concert by Simon & Garfunkel at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, while the demo recording of "Feuilles-O" was released on October 4, 1997 on the boxed set Old Friends.
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".
Contents |
[edit] Track listing
All songs by Paul Simon except 2., by Paul Simon, Jorge Milchberg, and Daniel A. Robles, and 10., by Felice and Boudleaux Bryant.
- "Bridge over Troubled Water" – 4:52
- "El Condor Pasa (If I Could)" – 3:06
- "Cecilia" – 2:54
- "Keep the Customer Satisfied" – 2:33
- "So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright" – 3:47
- "The Boxer" – 5:08
- "Baby Driver" – 3:14
- "The Only Living Boy in New York" – 3:58
- "Why Don't You Write Me" – 2:45
- "Bye Bye Love"* (live recording from Ames, Iowa) – 2:55
- "Song for the Asking" – 1:49
[edit] Bonus tracks (2001 CD reissue)
- "Feuilles-O"
- "Bridge over Troubled Water" (demo)
[edit] 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 and Dobro
- Jimmy Haskell and Ernie Freeman — strings
- ? - flute, saxophones, horn section
[edit] Awards and ratings
In the 1971 GRAMMY Awards' ceremony the album (and its contents) won six GRAMMYs:
- Category --- Title
- 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 Song (Pop) --- "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"
[edit] Chart positions
[edit] Album
| Year | Chart | Position |
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| 1970 | Billboard Pop Albums (Billboard 200) | 1 |
[edit] Singles
Billboard Music Charts (North America) — singles
| Year | Single | Chart | Position |
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| 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 Only I Could)" | Pop Singles | 18 |
| 1970 | "El Condor Pasa (If Only I Could)" | Adult Contemporary | 6 |
[edit] Trivia
- Half Man Half Biscuit released an album with the punning title Trouble over Bridgewater.
- The Bridge over Troubled Water LP is Columbia Records' best selling album [1].
- The album is fourth on most cumulative weeks at number 1 on the UK Charts.[2]
- The song was also covered by Johnny Cash on his album American IV: The Man Comes Around
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b c d "Bridge over Troubled Water - Simon & Garfunkel" (notes), Super Seventies RockSite!/Amazon.com, 2006, webpage: SPSimGarf.
[edit] References
- "Simon & Garfunkel - Bridge over Troubled Water" (notes/reviews), Super Seventies RockSite!/Amazon.com, 2006, webpage: SPSimGarf.
| Preceded by Led Zeppelin II by Led Zeppelin |
Billboard 200 number-one album March 7 - May 15, 1970 |
Succeeded by Déjà Vu by Crosby, Stills & Nash (and Young) |
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