- published: 16 Nov 2009
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Bridge Over Troubled Water is the fifth and final studio album by Simon & Garfunkel. Released on January 26, 1970 on both Quadraphonic and Stereo formats, it reached No. 1 on Billboard Music Charts pop albums list.
It won a Grammy Award for Album of the Year, as well as for Best Engineered Recording, while its title track won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year and Song of the Year in the Grammy Awards of 1971. It has since sold over 25 million copies worldwide.
The album was a major success in the United Kingdom, enjoying several runs at number one, spending some years in the charts and eventually becoming the country's biggest-selling album of 1970 and 1971.
The album won Best International Album at the first Brit Awards in 1977. In 2003, it was ranked at #51 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list. In August 2006, the continued popularity of the album was proven when it charted 7th place in The BBC Radio 2 Music Club Top 100 Albums.
All songs by Paul Simon except where noted.
Brian McKnight (born June 5, 1969) is an American singer-songwriter, arranger, producer, and R&B musician. He is a multi-instrumentalist who plays eight instruments including piano, guitar, bass guitar, percussion, trombone, tuba, flugelhorn and trumpet.. McKnight is perhaps most recognized for his strong falsetto range, and is widely regarded as one of the strongest talents in the adult urban contemporary R&B genre, although his recent efforts have received mixed reviews.
McKnight's work has earned him 16 Grammy Awards nominations, but currently holds the record for having won none.
McKnight was born in Buffalo, New York. His musical career began in childhood when he became a member of his church choir and a band leader for his high school, Sweet Home High School..
In 1987, McKnight's older brother, Claude McKnight III, and his band, Take 6, signed a record deal with Warner Brothers. This encouraged McKnight to shop his own demo tapes and by the age of 19, he'd signed his first recording deal with Mercury Records subsidiary, Wing Records. In 1992, Brian McKnight was released, and his self-titled debut peaked at fifty-eight in the Billboard 200 chart, which primarily featured the ballad (and top twenty single) "One Last Cry". It was followed by two more albums for Mercury, 1995's I Remember You and 1997's Anytime. Anytime, McKnight's final album with Mercury, sold over two million copies and was nominated for a Grammy. The video for "Anytime", directed by Darren Grant, was nominated for Best Male Video at the 1998 MTV Video Music Awards.
Whitney Elizabeth Houston (August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012) was an American recording artist, actress, producer, and model. In 2009, the Guinness World Records cited her as the most-awarded female act of all-time. Houston was one of the world's best-selling music artists, having sold over 170 million albums, singles and videos worldwide. She released seven studio albums and three movie soundtrack albums, all of which have diamond, multi-platinum, platinum or gold certification. Houston's crossover appeal on the popular music charts, as well as her prominence on MTV, starting with her video for "How Will I Know", influenced several African American female artists to follow in her footsteps.
Houston is the only artist to chart seven consecutive No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 hits. She is the second artist behind Elton John and the only female artist to have two number-one Billboard 200 Album awards (formerly "Top Pop Album") on the Billboard magazine year-end charts. Houston's 1985 debut album Whitney Houston became the best-selling debut album by a female act at the time of its release. The album was named Rolling Stone's best album of 1986, and was ranked at number 254 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Her second studio album Whitney (1987) became the first album by a female artist to debut at number one on the Billboard 200 albums chart.