Bridge Over Troubled Water

Bridge Over Troubled Water
Studio album by Simon & Garfunkel
Released January 26, 1970
Recorded November 1968 and
November 1969
Genre Folk rock
Length 36:29
Label Columbia
Producer Paul Simon,
Art Garfunkel,
Roy Halee
Simon & Garfunkel chronology
Bookends
(1968)
Bridge Over Troubled Water
(1970)
Simon and Garfunkel's Greatest Hits
(1972)
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic [1]
Pitchfork Media (9.4/10)[2]
Robert Christgau (B)[3]
Rolling Stone [4]

Bridge Over Troubled Water is the fifth and final studio album by Simon & Garfunkel.[5] Released on January 26, 1970 on both Quadraphonic and Stereo formats, 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.[5] It has since sold over 25 million copies worldwide.[6]

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.[5] 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.

Contents

Track listing

All songs by Paul Simon except where noted.

Side 1

  1. "Bridge Over Troubled Water" – 4:52
  2. "El Condor Pasa (If I Could)" (Daniel Alomía Robles, English lyrics by Paul Simon, arranged by Jorge Milchberg) – 3:06
  3. "Cecilia" – 2:55
  4. "Keep the Customer Satisfied" – 2:33
  5. "So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright" – 3:41

Side 2

  1. "The Boxer" – 5:08
  2. "Baby Driver" – 3:14
  3. "The Only Living Boy in New York" – 3:58
  4. "Why Don't You Write Me" – 2:45
  5. "Bye Bye Love" (Felice and Boudleaux Bryant) (live recording from Ames, Iowa) – 2:55
  6. "Song for the Asking" – 1:39

Bonus tracks (2001 CD reissue)

  1. "Feuilles-O" [Demo] (Traditional) – 1:45
  2. "Bridge over Troubled Water" [Demo Take 6] – 4:46

40th Anniversary Edition

CD1 - as per original album

CD2 - Live 1969

  1. Homeward Bound
  2. At The Zoo
  3. The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)
  4. Song For The Asking
  5. For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her
  6. Scarborough Fair / Canticle
  7. Mrs. Robinson (from the motion picture The Graduate)
  8. The Boxer
  9. Why Don't You Write Me
  10. So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright
  11. That Silver-Haired Daddy Of Mine
  12. Bridge Over Troubled Water
  13. The Sound Of Silence
  14. I Am A Rock
  15. Old Friends / Bookends Theme
  16. Leaves That Are Green
  17. Kathy's Song

DVD

  1. Songs Of America - Originally aired on CBS, and unavailable since its 1969 broadcast, this TV special is composed of footage of the 1969 tour, intimate backstage conversations, historic news footage and more. (running time approx 52min 37sec)
  2. The Harmony Game - brand new documentary about the making of Bridge Over Troubled Water, featuring new 2010 interviews with Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel, Roy Halee and more key principals involved with the making of the album. (running time approx 1hr 10min 54 sec)

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

Awards and ratings

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

Chart positions

Album

Year Chart Position
1970 Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart 1 (15 weeks)
2011 Belgian Albums Chart (Flanders) 43
2011 Belgian Albums Chart (Wallonia) 33
1970 Chile Albums Chart 1 (20 weeks)
1970 Finland Albums Chart 1
1970 France Albums Chart 1 (2 weeks)
1970 Germany Albums Chart 1 (17 weeks)
2000 Irish Albums Chart 41
1970[7] Italian Albums Chart 4
1970 Japan Albums Chart 1
1970 The Netherlands Albums Chart 1 (17 weeks)
1970 Norway Albums Chart 1 (14 weeks)
1970 Spain Albums Chart 1 (20 weeks)
1970-71 United Kingdom Albums Chart 1 (41 weeks)
1970 US Billboard Pop Albums (Billboard 200) 1 (10 weeks)

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

Notes

  1. ^ Allmusic review
  2. ^ Pitchfork Media review
  3. ^ Robert Christgau review
  4. ^ Rolling Stone review
  5. ^ a b c "Bridge over Troubled Water - Simon & Garfunkel" (notes), Super Seventies RockSite!/Amazon.com, 2006, webpage: SPSimGarf.
  6. ^ "Simon and Garfunkel heading to NZ". The New Zealand Herald. 2 April 2009. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/music/news/article.cfm?c_id=264&objectid=10564668. Retrieved 18 April 2009. 
  7. ^ http://www.hitparadeitalia.it/hp_yenda/lpe1970.htm

References

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 & Young
Preceded by
Led Zeppelin II by Led Zeppelin
Australian Kent Music Report number one album
April 6 – May 17, 1970
June 1–14, 1970
July 27 – September 13, 1970
Succeeded by
Hey Jude by The Beatles
Preceded by
Motown Chartbusters Volume 3 by Various artists
Let It Be by The Beatles
Self Portrait by Bob Dylan
Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! The Rolling Stones in Concert by The Rolling Stones
Paranoid by Black Sabbath
Andy Williams's Greatest Hits by Andy Williams
Tarkus by Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Top of the Pops, Volume 18 by Various Artists
UK Albums Chart number-one album
February 14 – May 22, 1970 (13 weeks)
June 13 – July 11, 1970 (4 weeks)
July 18 – August 22, 1970 (5 weeks)
October 3–10, 1970
October 17–24, 1970
January 16 – February 6, 1971 (3 weeks)
July 3 – August 7, 1971 (5 weeks)
September 11–18, 1971
Succeeded by
Let It Be by The Beatles
Self Portrait by Bob Dylan
A Question of Balance by The Moody Blues
Paranoid by Black Sabbath
Atom Heart Mother by Pink Floyd
All Things Must Pass by George Harrison
Hot Hits 6 by Various artists
Who's Next by The Who
Preceded by
Abbey Road by The Beatles
Let It Be by The Beatles
Let It Be by The Beatles
Cosmo's Factory by Creedence Clear Water Revival
Norwegian VG-lista number-one album
15–19/1970
25/1970
27–33/1970
52/1970 – 02/1971
Succeeded by
Let It Be by The Beatles
Let It Be by The Beatles
Cosmo's Factory by Creedence Clearwater Revival
Pendulum by Creedence Clearwater Revival
Preceded by
Simon and Garfunkel (Japanese compilation) by Simon & Garfunkel
Japanese Oricon LP Chart number-one album
February 1 – March 15, 1971 (7 weeks)
Succeeded by
That's the Way It Is by Elvis Presley