Hearts and Bones

Hearts and Bones is the sixth solo studio album by Paul Simon. It was released in 1983.

For the BBC TV Series, see Hearts and Bones (TV series).
Hearts and Bones
Studio album by
Paul Simon
ReleasedNovember 4, 1983
Recorded1981–1983
StudioWarner Bros. Recording Studios, North Hollywood, Atlantic Studios, New York City, The Power Station, New York City; Sigma Sound Studios, New York City; Regent Sound Studios, New York City; Media Sound Studios, New York City[1]
GenrePop, rock
Length40:30
LabelWarner Bros.
ProducerRoy Halee
Paul Simon
Russ Titelman
Lenny Waronker
Paul Simon chronology
One-Trick Pony
(1980)		 Hearts and Bones
(1983)		 Graceland
(1986)

The album was originally intended to be called Think Too Much, but Mo Ostin, president of Warner Bros. Records at the time, persuaded Simon to change it to Hearts and Bones.[2] 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,[3] with an intention that the finished product would be an all-new Simon & Garfunkel studio album.[4] Garfunkel left the project and Simon erased all his vocals and worked the material into a solo album.

Reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[5]
Chicago Tribune[6]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music[7]
Entertainment WeeklyB[8]
Rolling Stone[9]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[10]
The Village VoiceB+[11]

Overall the album was a commercial failure[12][13] In a retrospective review, William Ruhlmann of Allmusic called Hearts and Bones Simon's "most personal collection of songs, one of his most ambitious, and one of his best." He praised the lyrical handling of the subject of romance and the music's blending of doo wop and rock and roll roots with contemporary stylistics.[5] Robert Christgau later referred to the album as being "a finely wrought dead end."[14]

Singles

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 No. 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).

Track listing

All songs written by Paul Simon, with one-minute coda on Track 10 written by Philip Glass.

Side one
  1. "Allergies" – 4:37
  2. "Hearts and Bones" – 5:37
  3. "When Numbers Get Serious" – 3:25
  4. "Think Too Much (b)" – 2:44
  5. "Song About the Moon" – 4:07
Side two
  1. "Think Too Much (a)" – 3:05
  2. "Train in the Distance" – 5:11
  3. "Rene and Georgette Magritte with Their Dog After the War" – 3:44
  4. "Cars Are Cars" – 3:15
  5. "The Late Great Johnny Ace" – 4:45
  • Sides one and two were combined as tracks 1–10 on CD reissues.
Bonus tracks
  1. "Shelter of Your Arms" (Unreleased Work-in-Progress) – 3:11
  2. "Train in the Distance" (Original acoustic demo) – 3:13
  3. "Rene and Georgette Magritte with Their Dog After the War" (Original acoustic demo) – 3:46
  4. "The Late Great Johnny Ace" (Original acoustic demo) – 3:22

11-14 are bonus tracks on the remastered Rhino Records CD-release (July 2004):

Personnel

The uncredited horn section on "Allergies" and "Cars Are Cars" are Mark Rivera (saxophone), Jon Faddis & Alan Rubin (trumpet)

Chart positions
Chart (1983) Peak
position
Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart[15] 99
Canadian Albums Chart[16] 50
Dutch Mega Albums Chart[17] 14
French SNEP Albums Chart [18] 19
German Media Control Albums Chart[19] 51
Japanese Oricon Albums Chart[20] 30
Norwegian VG-lista Albums Chart[21] 3
Spanish Albums Chart[22] 27
Swedish Albums Chart[23] 11
Swiss Albums Chart[24] 25
UK Albums Chart[25] 34
US Billboard Top LPs[26] 35

References
  1. http://albumlinernotes.com/Hearts_and_Bones.html
  2. Marc Eliot (18 Oct 2010). Paul Simon: A Life. John Wiley & Sons. p. 181. Retrieved 10 September 2012.
  3. Jeffrey Perlah (30 May 1998). "Billboard review". Billboard. Retrieved 10 September 2012.
  4. Don Shewey (24 Nov 1983). "Paul Simon: Hearts And Bones : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved 10 September 2012.
  5. Ruhlmann, William. "Hearts and Bones – Paul Simon". AllMusic. Retrieved July 20, 2012.
  6. Kot, Greg (October 14, 1990). "The Evolution Of Simon's Diverse Solo Career". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
  7. Larkin, Colin (2011). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th concise ed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0-85712-595-8.
  8. Browne, David (January 18, 1991). "Rating Paul Simon's albums". Entertainment Weekly. New York. Retrieved February 17, 2016.
  9. Shewey, Don (November 24, 1983). "Paul Simon: Hearts and Bones". Rolling Stone. New York. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
  10. Sheffield, Rob (2004). "Paul Simon". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). London: Fireside Books. pp. 736–37. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
  11. Christgau, Robert (January 24, 1984). "Christgau's Consumer Guide". The Village Voice. New York. Retrieved April 29, 2013.
  12. Disco, Punk, New Wave, Heavy Metal, and More: Music in the 1970s and 1980s. Britannica Educational. December 2012. ISBN 9781615309122.
  13. https://www.popmatters.com/152039-paul-simon-80s-remasters-2495910758.html
  14. Christgau, Robert (September 23, 1986). "South Africa Romance". The Village Voice. New York. Retrieved June 15, 2015.
  15. Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992. St Ives, NSW: Australian Chart Book. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
  16. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-11-18. Retrieved 2011-10-23.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  17. "dutchcharts.nl Paul Simon - Hearts And Bones". dutchcharts.nl. MegaCharts. Retrieved 2011-08-19.
  18. "InfoDisc : Tous les Albums classés par Artiste > Choisir Un Artiste Dans la Liste : Paul Simon". infodisc.fr. Archived from the original on 2010-12-28. Retrieved 2011-08-19.
  19. "Album Search: Paul Simon" (in German). Media Control. Retrieved 2011-08-19.
  20. Oricon Album Chart Book: Complete Edition 1970-2005. Roppongi, Tokyo: Oricon Entertainment. 2006. ISBN 4-87131-077-9.
  21. "norwegiancharts.com Paul Simon - Hearts And Bones". Retrieved 2011-08-19.
  22. Salaverri, Fernando (September 2005). Sólo éxitos: año a año, 1959–2002 (1st ed.). Spain: Fundación Autor-SGAE. ISBN 84-8048-639-2.
  23. "swedishcharts.com Paul Simon - Hearts And Bones". Sverigetopplistan. Retrieved 2011-08-19.
  24. "Paul Simon - Hearts And Bones - hitparade.ch". Retrieved 2011-08-19.
  25. "The Official Charts Company - Paul Simon - Hearts And Bones". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 2011-08-19.
  26. Allmusic - Hearts and Bones > Charts & Awards > Billboard Albums
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