Country singer Earl Thomas Conley's 1983 hit "Holding Her And Loving You" was structurally inspired by Simon & Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water", according to co-writer Walt Aldridge. The song, one of only two on Conley's album Don't Make It Easy On Me that he did not write himself, tackles infidelity through an unconventional structure of several verses without a chorus, a choice Aldridge says helped it stand out amid competing songs pitched at the time.

Aldridge, who wrote the track with Tom Brasfield, told The Tennessean he had long admired older songs built around closing refrains rather than choruses, citing Simon & Garfunkel's classic as a key influence. The writing session was sparked by Brasfield's opening line "It's the third hardest thing I'll ever do", prompting Aldridge to add "Leaving here without you" and build a "countdown" structure around the song's central dilemma of a man torn between two women. Aldridge credited Conley's emotive vocal performance, alongside producer Nelson Larkin, with elevating the song into one of the singer's biggest hits.