Hearts and Bones | ||||
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Studio album by Paul Simon | ||||
Released | November 4, 1983 | |||
Recorded | 1981–1983 | |||
Genre | Pop, Rock | |||
Length | 40:30 | |||
Label | Warner Bros. | |||
Producer |
Roy Halee Paul Simon Russ Titelman Lenny Waronker |
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Paul Simon chronology | ||||
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Professional ratings | |
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Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
Allmusic | |
Robert Christgau | B+ |
Rolling Stone |
Hearts and Bones is the sixth solo studio album by Paul Simon. It was released in 1983.
The album was originally intended to be called Think Too Much, but Mo Ostin, president of Warner Bros. Records, persuaded Simon to change it to Hearts and Bones. The album was written and recorded following Simon & Garfunkel's The Concert in Central Park in 1981, and the world tour of 1982-1983. Several songs intended for Think Too Much were previewed on tour, and Art Garfunkel worked on some of the songs with Simon in the studio, with an intention that the finished product would be an all-new Simon & Garfunkel studio album. Garfunkel left the project and Simon worked the material into a solo album.
Although in 1983 the album was considered somewhat of a commercial failure and signaled a low point in Simon's career, the passage of time has been kind to the album. It has been re-examined and considered to be one of Simon's more important records and a lyrically strong one.Robert Christgau later referred to the album as being "a finely wrought dead end."
There were two songs from this album released as singles. The first single with "Allergies" as the A-side and "Think Too Much (b)" as the B-side peaked at #44 in the U.S. Hot 100. The second single failed to chart, this being "Think Too Much (a)" (A-side) and "Song About the Moon" (B-side). (Also, the title track was released as the flipside to "Graceland" in the U.S. in 1986, and as the B-side of "The Boy in the Bubble" elsewhere in the world).
All songs written by Paul Simon, with one-minute coda on Track 10 written by Philip Glass.
11-14 are bonus tracks on the remastered Rhino Records CD-release (July 2004):
The uncredited horn section on "Allergies" and "Cars Are Cars" are Mark Rivera (saxophone), Jon Faddis & Alan Rubin (trumpets)