Bridge Over Troubled Water is the fifth and final studio album by the American folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel, released on January 26, 1970, by Columbia Records.

Other reissues contain bonus tracks, such as the 2001 version, which covers the demo tapes of "Feuilles-O" and "Bridge Over Troubled Water."

[6] Despite the accolades, the duo decided to split up, and parted company later in 1970; Garfunkel continued his film career, while Simon worked intensely with music.

[15][16] Simon wanted a gospel piano sound on "Bridge over Troubled Water",[17] so he hired session musician Larry Knechtel.

[19][20][21] The vocal style in "Bridge over Troubled Water" was inspired by Phil Spector's technique in "Old Man River" by the Righteous Brothers.

[25] "Bridge Over Troubled Water" was influenced by the gospel music to which Simon was listening at that time, especially the Swan Silvertones and their song "Mary Don't You Weep".

The "silver girl" in the song refers to her, and her first gray hairs, and not to a drugged hypodermic needle, as was believed by some in the United States.

Simon relied on erroneous information from Jorge Milchberg of Los Incas about the collection of royalties for his arrangement of song.

Simon wrongfully thought it to be a traditional song and thus not restricted by copyright law, but in reality it was written by Peruvian Daniel Alomía Robles.

In this session, the duo experimented on a new song with numerous objects to create unusual sounds, such as a falling bundle of drum sticks.

[32] Featuring the rockabilly style of the Everly Brothers,[35] "Keep the Customer Satisfied" recounts the exhausting tours that Simon grew tired of, a similar theme to that of their earlier song "Homeward Bound".

[38] The recordings for the folk ballad "The Boxer", which was already partly written by Simon in 1968 and released in March 1969 (it debuted on the WLS 89 Hit Parade at No.

[44] "Baby Driver", an uptempo and happy rock and roll song,[45] already released as a B-side of "The Boxer", tells about a boy who lives a comfortable life in a protected home, but who searches for adventures and one day decides to have his first sexual experience.

[48] Edgar Wright's 2017 action comedy film Baby Driver is named after the song, which is played at the end credits.

[50] In an interview with SongTalk, Simon guessed that 12 to 15 voices were used to record the "aaah"s, while Garfunkel said that he proposed those lines, stating "It's us around eight times screaming, and we mixed it down very softly ...

[50] In this song Simon experimented with the nascent genre of reggae for the first time,[34] a style he later explored in his solo career, most notably in "Mother and Child Reunion".

[59] The songs "Cuba Si, Nixon No", "Groundhog", and the demo "Feuilles-O" were recorded during sessions but not released on the album.

Songs of America comprised footage of the 1969 tour, intimate backstage conversations, and historic news clips; it had elicited controversy owing to the duo's political comments regarding the Vietnam War and the direction of American society at the time.

The Harmony Game featured new 2010 interviews with Simon, Garfunkel, producer Roy Halee, and more principals involved with the making of the album.

A booklet of liner notes, photos, and essays by critics Michael Hill and Anthony DeCurtis was also included.

Writing in Melody Maker in February 1970, Richard Williams identified "a few dull moments" on the album, while adding that "they're worth enduring for the jewels they surround".

Williams concluded: "Not, perhaps, another classic like Bookends, but still worth hearing for Simon's constantly surprising timing, and for the way he can make his guitar sound like a small orchestra and the orchestra sound like a big guitar ..."[74] Village Voice critic Robert Christgau was lukewarm about the album in 1970, giving it a "B" grade in his "Consumer Guide" column and notoriously reviewing it with one word: "Melodic".

[75][76] He later expounded on the problematic nature of the record's "smooth, well made" music, writing in Newsday that the album is "often funny and honest.

[65] Parke Puterbaugh of Rolling Stone assessed the album as "a casually ambitious look back" at both the decade and the duo's musical partnership, which concluded the latter "on an exhilarating note".

"[4] In a 2001 review for Uncut, Ian MacDonald found the album "overproduced and underwritten", adding: "Where Bookends is succinct, dry, and disciplined, Bridge ... is self-satisfied, sentimental, mediocre, and overblown.

"[73] Writing for MusicHound, Leland Rucker acknowledged that Bridge over Troubled Water "is considered their masterpiece", while noting that he found that "it sounds top-heavy, overproduced, and too precious for its own good.

"[78] Conversely, Q magazine deemed the album to be Simon & Garfunkel's best and most consistent work, "notable for the strength of its melodies, the force of its lyrics and the Abbey Road-style sophistication of its production".

[70] In his book The Encyclopedia of Popular Music, Colin Larkin admires the album as a "celebrated" work that includes a "classic single" ("The Boxer") and a title song that "became a standard with Garfunkel's angelic vocal set perfectly matched to the lush, orchestral arrangement and contrasting tempo".

[79] Joe Nolan of American Songwriter notes that "the pair were never more popular or commercially successful than they were with the release of Bridge over Troubled Water".

[85] Chris Charlesworth, author of The Complete Guide to the Music of Paul Simon and Simon & Garfunkel, gave a mixed reception, noting that seven songs ("Bridge over Troubled Water", "El Condor Pasa", "So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright", "The Boxer", "The Only Living Boy in New York", "Bye Bye Love" and "Song for the Asking") were outstanding or good, while the rest, mainly uptempo ones, were for him "throwaway" recordings.