Paul Simon's 'Bridge Over Troubled Water', widely regarded as his crowning achievement, drew on a surprisingly varied set of musical sources, according to a 1972 interview he gave to The New York Times. While the song is often remembered as an Art Garfunkel showcase thanks to his vocal performance, the writing and inspiration behind it were entirely Simon's, blending gospel, classical and country influences into a single work.

Simon explained that the song's structure and arrangement were shaped by the gospel group the Swan Silvertones, whose track 'Oh, Mary Don't You Weep' contains a similar line about being a "bridge over deep water", while a couple of bars echoed a Bach chorale. Most notably, he revealed that the initial idea for the song came from Tex Ritter's 1946 country track 'Long Time Gone', co-written with Frank Hartford, which shares comparable lyrical phrasing and imagery, though Simon reworked its message of loss and absence into one of comfort and constant presence.