{"id":367459,"date":"2025-11-09T18:45:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-09T18:45:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/367459\/"},"modified":"2025-11-09T18:45:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-09T18:45:16","slug":"on-this-day-in-1969-simon-garfunkel-recorded-a-legendary-song-with-a-creative-decision-that-paul-simon-would-eventually-regret","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/367459\/","title":{"rendered":"On This Day in 1969, Simon & Garfunkel Recorded a Legendary Song With a Creative Decision That Paul Simon Would Eventually Regret"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paul Simon<\/a> and Art Garfunkel recorded what would become one of their signature songs, \u201cBridge Over Troubled Water\u201d, on this very day in 1969. Simon & Garfunkel already had a string a huge hits up until that point, starting with the late bloomer No. 1 hit \u201cThe Sound Of Silence\u201d in 1965, and ending with \u201cThe Boxer\u201d in 1969, which hit No. 7 in the US.<\/p>\n

The duo was ready to put out what would be their final studio album, and it wouldn\u2019t be complete without a title track. Simon & Garfunkel recorded that title track on this very day in 1969, and the song included a creative decision that Simon apparently still regrets to this very day.<\/p>\n

Simon & Garfunkel\u2019s Paul Simon Regretted Providing the Vocals To \u201cBridge Over Troubled Water\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to imagine Paul Simon regretting anything about \u201cBridge Over Troubled Water\u201d. This is such a gorgeous soft rock folk song, and one of the most recognizable Simon & Garfunkel tunes, other than \u201cThe Sound Of Silence\u201d. It\u2019s so well-written that it almost sounds like a spiritual gospel tune.<\/p>\n

And yet, Paul Simon had one big regret about this song. The story goes that when the time came to record the song with Larry Knechtel of Bread on piano, Art Garfunkel insisted that Paul Simon provide the main vocals on the song. However, Simon apparently thought Garfunkel\u2019s voice was better for the tune. Later, Simon would say that he regretted that particular creative decision.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe [Garfunkel] felt I should have done it, and many times on a stage, though, when I\u2019d be sitting off to the side and Larry Knechtel would be playing the piano and Artie would be singing \u2018Bridge\u2019, people would stomp and cheer when it was over, and I would think, \u2018That\u2019s my song, man\u2026\u2019\u201d Simon said<\/a> around the time the duo broke up in 1970.<\/p>\n

Despite Simon\u2019s feelings about the song, \u201cBridge Over Troubled Water\u201d was an enormous hit. It hit No. 1 in the US (among other countries) and took home a whopping five Grammy Awards in 1971.<\/p>\n

Simon & Garfunkel\u2019s album Bridge Over Troubled Water, which featured the above-mentioned title track, would drop in early 1970 and become a massively successful work for the duo. In fact, the album hit No. 1 across the board and is widely considered the duo\u2019s most successful album. Sadly, it would also be their last studio album as Simon & Garfunkel. All great things must come to an end, after all.<\/p>\n

Photo by Michael Ochs Archives\/Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel recorded what would become one of their signature songs, \u201cBridge Over Troubled Water\u201d,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":367460,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[171,152162,975,2891,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-367459","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-folk-music","10":"tag-music","11":"tag-simon-garfunkel","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115521227152869791","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}