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Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon & Garfunkel — album cover
№ 46 of 100

Bridge Over Troubled Water

Simon & Garfunkel · 1970 · Folk / Country

Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon & Garfunkel (1970), № 46 in The Lead-In’s 100 greatest albums. Cut by two ex-folkies who weren't really speaking. The title track took 800 hours to mix; they split after the tour. Roy Halee's reverb on Garfunkel's vocal is the most-imitated reverb in pop.

Simon & Garfunkel's fifth and final album. Released January 26, 1970. Won six Grammys. The album that broke up the duo.

Released
January 26, 1970
Label
Columbia Records
Producer(s)
Roy Halee · Simon & Garfunkel
Runtime
36:27 (11 tracks)
Chart peak (US)
#1 (Billboard 200, 10 weeks)
Chart peak (UK)
#1 (Record Retailer, 33 weeks)
Certifications
8× Platinum (RIAA); 25M units globally
Awards & honours
Grammy Album of the Year (1971); Grammy Record of the Year (title track); Library of Congress National Recording Registry (2003); ranked #51 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums (2020)

The duo's final studio album, recorded across 1969 at Columbia Studios NYC and Los Angeles. The album's title track became one of the most-covered songs in popular music.

By 1969, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel had been recording together for fifteen years. They had released four studio albums and were preparing their fifth. Garfunkel had been increasingly absent, filming Mike Nichols's Catch-22 in Mexico, while Simon wrote the album's songs alone.

The title track 'Bridge Over Troubled Water' was written by Simon alone and given to Garfunkel to sing. The song's gospel-influenced arrangement (Larry Knechtel's piano) and Garfunkel's vocal performance became one of the most-celebrated moments in popular music.

The album's 11 tracks include the title track, 'El Condor Pasa (If I Could),' 'Cecilia,' 'Keep the Customer Satisfied,' 'So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright,' 'The Boxer,' 'Baby Driver,' 'The Only Living Boy in New York,' 'Why Don't You Write Me,' 'Bye Bye Love' (live), 'Song for the Asking.'

Bridge Over Troubled Water belongs at number forty-six because it is the album that defined late-1960s songwriter-pop and won the duo six Grammys. The album was their last; the duo broke up shortly after its release.

Pressing guide — the one to own

The 1970 US first pressing is on Columbia, stereo, catalog KCS 9914. The original carries the red '2-eye' label with '360 Sound Stereo' at the bottom; plain-Columbia labels without '360 Sound' are slightly later. It is a single sleeve (not gatefold) with no poster, issued in a Columbia company inner sleeve advertising the duo's songbooks. Preferred plant pressings (Pitman, Santa Maria, Terre Haute) carry single-letter stampers in the deadwax.

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