The Simon and Garfunkel song that became one of the most heard in American history
To a lot of minds, the Simon and Garfunkel classic, which is the lasting legacy of the duo, is understandably ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’.
It’s not an unreasonable assertion to make, given that the album and the single are without question among the most famous of all time. But in reality, it was only the bookend to everything that had come before for the storming folk double act, doing a huge disservice to their tenure to only remember the very end of it.
Simon and Garfunkel were making music together as far back as the mid-1950s, but the mainstream success they built their entire respective careers around lasted only a few short years. All of this is to say that when the acclaim finally arrived, without knowing it, they only had a finite time to make it work.
Thankfully, it should go without saying that they managed to knock it out of the park. There is a whole litany of hits you could single out in this regard, but it was the seminal ‘Mrs Robinson’, released in 1968, that rubber-stamped the pair’s place in the cultural capital, after it became one of the ten most heard songs in the entirety of American history.
It’s one of those songs that, despite being released close to six decades ago now, could have come out at any time during the ensuing period and become a staple that everyone knows, such is its timeless quality. Starting life merely as a shortened version, featured on the soundtrack of The Graduate, ‘Mrs Robinson’ is the prime example of a tune that grew arms and legs and quickly took over the world.
Indeed, putting into context just how short-lived Simon and Garfunkel’s main period of success really was, the song was only their second ever number one hit, and was only three years out from their official break-up. In short, it was an all-or-nothing few years in which to take up as much space as they possibly could – and you could say that it paid off.
With the pair breaking on and off in what can only be described as a ‘situationship’ in modern terms, it was clear that although it may have largely occurred behind closed doors at the time, the relations between Simon and Garfunkel had always been strained. In some ways, you’d think that at least money would talk, and their seismic successes would have made evident that there was only ever one path forward.
But ultimately, that’s not how the fickle business of fame works. You might have created a slew of iconic hits and the seventh most heard song in the history of America, but does that truly ever mean anything if the pressures it brings with it make you not stand the sight of your oldest friend and partner?
That’s a moral dilemma which both Simon and Garfunkel have each had plenty of time to stew over in the course of the years and decades that have followed, and even still, the answer isn’t immediately clear. After all, awards and acclaim can only cover so much, and some cracks are just too big to hide.
