Song:Bridge Over Troubled Water
Album:The Best Of Simon & Garfunkel
In the mid-60s, Simon & Garfunkel had become the premiere folk rock duo in music and were consistent chart toppers. But Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel had been performing together for over a decade and by 1968, their relationship was getting strained. And of course there's also pressure from the record company to produce more music a lot more quickly. They were getting tired of each other. Simon was looking to go solo anyway as he wrote all the songs and Garfunkel started looking into acting. Fortunately, they bought some time when Mrs. Robinson appeared in the 1968 hit film The Graduate and became a huge hit. While Garfunkel was in Europe filming Catch-22 in 1969, Simon worked on Bridge Over Troubled Water. If you think it sounds like a gospel song, that's not an accident. Simon was a huge fan of Claude Jeter's gospel group Swan Silvertones and based the song on their music. He wrote the song for Garfunkel to sing but Garfunkel liked Simon's vocal on the demo and suggested that Simon sing it. Producer Roy Halee talked Garfunkel into singing it and asked Simon to write a couple more verses. Pianist Larry Knechtel wrote the arrangement. The song reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in Feb. 1970 and stayed on top for six weeks. It also won several Grammy Awards. Bridge Over Troubled Water was Simon & Garfunkel's final album and this comp is a great intro to their music. Of course they have reunited several times over the years including this performance of Bridge Over Troubled Water in Central Park in New York Sept. 19, 1981.
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