My 100 Favorite Charted Pop Songs: Bridge Over Troubled Water
By Four Walls
@FourWalls (86891)
United States
September 11, 2024 10:42am CST
You cannot plan something like this. With today being the 23rd anniversary of 9/11, this is one of the perfect songs for solace and comfort…so much so that, if you remember my “Clear Channel Memo” countdown from last August (songs that Clear Channel [now I Heart Radio] advised against playing in the aftermath of the attacks 
), I just couldn’t explain this song’s inclusion. After yesterday saw an obscure Art Garfunkel song, here’s one that “everybody” knows.
Bridge Over Troubled Water - Simon & Garfunkel
Paul Simon wrote one of the greatest songs of our generation, period. The problem is, Art Garfunkel delivered one of the greatest vocal performances of our generation, period. The song has been covered over six hundred times, and to me, that’s 600 times too many.
Coca-Cola learned the hard way back in the 1980s that you can’t mess with perfection. There is no way to improve on this song. The only thing most covers did was make people nauseous. I think I’ve established the fact that I’m a big Buck Owens fan. Given that, I’ll tell you that his version of this song is downright PAINFUL.
Even Paul can’t sing it that well. (I’ve read in recent years that he said he thought he should’ve sung lead on this. That’s his disdain for Art coming through.) While the incredible poetry is Paul Simon’s, this delivery is, was, and ever shall be Art Garfunkel’s.
Bridge Over Troubled Water
Written by Paul Simon
Recorded by Simon & Garfunkel
From Bridge Over Troubled Water, 1970
Peak chart position: #1
Today’s country song: “Blanket on the Ground”
Sail on, silver girl:
), I just couldn’t explain this song’s inclusion. After yesterday saw an obscure Art Garfunkel song, here’s one that “everybody” knows.
Bridge Over Troubled Water - Simon & Garfunkel
Paul Simon wrote one of the greatest songs of our generation, period. The problem is, Art Garfunkel delivered one of the greatest vocal performances of our generation, period. The song has been covered over six hundred times, and to me, that’s 600 times too many.
Coca-Cola learned the hard way back in the 1980s that you can’t mess with perfection. There is no way to improve on this song. The only thing most covers did was make people nauseous. I think I’ve established the fact that I’m a big Buck Owens fan. Given that, I’ll tell you that his version of this song is downright PAINFUL.
Even Paul can’t sing it that well. (I’ve read in recent years that he said he thought he should’ve sung lead on this. That’s his disdain for Art coming through.) While the incredible poetry is Paul Simon’s, this delivery is, was, and ever shall be Art Garfunkel’s.
Bridge Over Troubled Water
Written by Paul Simon
Recorded by Simon & Garfunkel
From Bridge Over Troubled Water, 1970
Peak chart position: #1
Today’s country song: “Blanket on the Ground”
Sail on, silver girl:Your browser isn’t supported anymore. Update it to get the best YouTube experience and our latest features. Learn moreRemind me later
11 people like this
11 responses
@FourWalls (86891)
• United States
11 Sep 24
Usually any time I see the song listed on an album I skip it. Sorry, Elvis.
2 people like this
@porwest (112933)
• United States
12 Sep 24
I agree. Simon should go down right along many of the great songwriters of our time. It's amazing when you ge these handfuls of people who can just put them out one after another and they were actually good songs...
Unlike people like Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran. Few of their songs will stand the test of time IMO.
I like this one.
1 person likes this
@FourWalls (86891)
• United States
13 Sep 24
To prove it, I mentioned the song “Tubthumping” a few years ago — which is from 1997, mind you, not 1967 — and people had forgotten it. But they remember “The Sounds of Silence.”
1 person likes this
@porwest (112933)
• United States
14 Sep 24
@FourWalls And yet I know of Tubthumping, but I can see how that song will not have the lasting power of something like Sound of Silence for sure.
1 person likes this
@RasmaSandra (98127)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
11 Sep 24
Don't remember a time I have not shed a tear to this song, I really speaks to me,
1 person likes this
@FourWalls (86891)
• United States
12 Sep 24
Absolutely. I’ve heard good versions (friends of mine recorded it, for instance), but nothing that matches Garfunkel’s delivery.
1 person likes this
@dgobucks226 (37621)
•
28 Sep 24
Hard to top a voice of an angel Paul, but you'll always have the wonderful solo period of your own blessing us with some great music. 
I guess at a certain point the relationship just became too contentious to go on. So, it was time to "Make a new plan, Stan."
I guess at a certain point the relationship just became too contentious to go on. So, it was time to "Make a new plan, Stan."1 person likes this
@FourWalls (86891)
• United States
28 Sep 24
The way Paul describes it, I’m surprised they stayed together to make five albums!
1 person likes this
@FourWalls (86891)
• United States
11 Sep 24
Great! I barely can play “Chopsticks” on piano. I love the piano intro of this song.
1 person likes this
@FourWalls (86891)
• United States
12 Sep 24
I wish they could have gotten along better so we could’ve had more music from them.
@Beestring (15372)
• Hong Kong
11 Sep 24
This is one of my favorite songs, by Simon & Garfunkel.
1 person likes this
