This Day in Music
January 26th
Some album anniversaries are so important that the entire day’s publication must be dedicated to their stories. The full blog was recently committed to Pink Floyd's "Animals," and today another truly remarkable achievement in the Rock and Roll oeuvre is explored. However, Miles and Elvis are not overlooked on this day in music.
Releases
1970: Legendary American folk-rock duo Simon & Garfunkel get a little rockier (in more ways than one), a little jazzier, and a little more gospel, with the release of their fifth and final studio album, the seminal masterpiece, “Bridge Over Troubled Water.”
After the release of their previous album, “Bookends,” Garfunkel went to work in Mexico for his first acting role, starring in Mike Nichols’s Catch-22. Garfunkel had previously worked with Nichols when he and Simon did the music for The Graduate. Simon was also set to appear in the film as Dunbar, but the character was written out when screenwriter Buck Henry deemed the story to be too character-heavy. Paul instead got to work in New York on new songs, penning all the tracks on the album with the exception of the Bryant brothers’ “Bye Bye Love,” previously a hit for The Everly Brothers, and the music to Robles’s “El Condor Pasa,” for which Simon wrote the English lyrics, “If I Could.”
The protracted length of producing Catch .22 interrupted the usual process Art and Paul would follow when making an album. This intensified an already-growing rift between the two, leading to the dissolution of their partnership for several years, as they each pursued individual interests. According to one view of history, the pair argued over who would sing lead on the song “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” with each believing the other was better suited.
Initial reviews of the album were surprisingly mixed. Melody Maker noted that there were “a few dull moments” on the album, and Robert Christgau graded it a B in the Village Voice. His main criticism? The record’s “…flawless, rather languid loveliness is ultimately soporific.” Yes, critics tend to fall in love a little too deeply with their own prose at times, particularly Christgau. Retrospectively, reviewers got over themselves so to speak, and have universally acclaimed the album as the near-perfect creation that it is.
The audience that really counts of course is the record-buying public, who knew the album was a masterpiece from the day of its release. Buying it up as fast as it could be pressed, fans and casual listeners alike caused the LP to be certified 8x Platinum in the US, 4x Platinum in Canada, and 11x Platinum in the UK, along with Gold and Platinum awards around the world, for total estimated sales exceeding 25 million copies. It was No. 1 on the Billboard 200, No. 1 on the Canada Albums chart, No. 1 on the UK Albums list, and No. 1 in Australia, Austria, France, Germany, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, and Sweden, and Top-10 everywhere else.
Some of the duo’s most-enduring classics appear on the album, including the aforementioned “Bye Bye Love” and “El Condor Pasa,” along with “The Boxer,” “Baby Driver,” “The Only Living Boy in New York,” “Cecilia,” and the best pop song ever written and recorded, the title track, “Bridge Over Troubled Water.”
At the 1971 Grammy Awards, it was chosen for Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Contemporary Song, Best Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s), and Best Engineered Recording. It ranks No. 66 on Larkin’s All Time Top 1000 Albums, 3rd edition.
Today is a great day to listen to this album. Twice.
The Monday Miles
1984: Recording sessions begin at Record Plant Studios in New York for what would become Miles’s 49th album, “You’re Under Arrest.” Several famous musicians appear on the record, including John Scofield, John McLaughlin, and Sting, who voices the French policeman.
The Daily Elvis
1970: The second season of Elvis’s residency at The International Hotel in Las Vegas opens. Among many others, the King would perform the classics “All Shook Up,” “That’s Alright,” and “Kentucky Rain.”
Attached: Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel perform “Bridge Over Troubled Water” at Madison Square Garden, January 10, 2010.