''There Goes Rhymin' Simon'' is the third solo studio album by American musician

Paul Simon Paul Frederic Simon (born October 13, 1941) is an American musician, singer, songwriter and actor whose career has spanned six decades. He is one of the most acclaimed songwriters in popular music, both as a solo artist and as half of folk roc ...

released on May 5, 1973. It contains songs spanning several styles and genres, such as

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...

Loves Me Like a Rock "Loves Me Like a Rock" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Paul Simon. It was the second single from his third studio album, ''There Goes Rhymin' Simon'' (1973), released on Columbia Records. It features background vocals from the Dixie ...

") and

Dixieland Dixieland jazz, also referred to as traditional jazz, hot jazz, or simply Dixieland, is a style of jazz based on the music that developed in New Orleans at the start of the 20th century. The 1917 recordings by the Original Dixieland Jass Band ( ...

Take Me to the Mardi Gras "Take Me to the Mardi Gras" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Paul Simon. It was the fourth single from his third studio album, ''There Goes Rhymin' Simon'' (1973), released on Columbia Records. Smooth jazz keyboardist Bob James made ...

"). It received two nominations at the

Grammy Awards of 1974 The 16th Annual Grammy Awards were held March 2, 1974, and were broadcast live on American television. They recognized accomplishments by musicians from the year 1973. Award winners * Record of the Year **Joel Dorn (producer) & Roberta Flack f ...

, which were for

Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male The Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance was a Grammy Award recognizing superior vocal performance by a male in the pop category, the first of which was presented in 1959. It was discontinued after the 2011 Grammy season. The award wen ...

and

Album of the Year Album of the Year, often abbreviated to AOTY, may refer to: Awards * ARIA Award for Album of the Year, Australia * Brit Award for British Album of the Year, UK * Grammy Award for Album of the Year, US * Juno Award for Album of the Year, CA * Lati ...

. As foreshadowed by the lead single "

Kodachrome Kodachrome is the brand name for a color reversal film introduced by Eastman Kodak in 1935. It was one of the first successful color materials and was used for both cinematography and still photography. For many years Kodachrome was widely used ...

" (which reached No. 2 on the Billboard charts, behind

Billy Preston William Everett Preston (September 2, 1946 – June 6, 2006) was an American keyboardist, singer and songwriter whose work encompassed R&B, rock, soul, funk, and gospel. Preston was a top session keyboardist in the 1960s, during which he ba ...

's "

Will It Go Round in Circles "Will It Go Round in Circles" is a song by American Soul music, soul musician Billy Preston from his 1972 album ''Music Is My Life''. It was written by Preston and Bruce Fisher and released as a single in March 1973. The record topped the Billboard ...

"), ''There Goes Rhymin' Simon'' was a bigger hit than its predecessor, reaching No. 2 on the ''Billboard'' 200 chart (behind

George Harrison George Harrison (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) was an English musician and singer-songwriter who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. Sometimes called "the quiet Beatle", Harrison embraced Indian c ...

's ''

Living in the Material World ''Living in the Material World'' is the fourth studio album by English musician George Harrison, released in 1973 on Apple Records. As the follow-up to 1970's critically acclaimed ''All Things Must Pass'' and his pioneering charity project, the ...

''), and No. 1 on ''Cashbox'' for one week from June 30, 1973. In the United Kingdom, the album peaked at No. 4. Subsequent singles were also the No. 2 single "Loves Me Like a Rock" (kept out of the top spot by

Cher Cher (; born Cherilyn Sarkisian; May 20, 1946) is an American singer, actress and television personality. Often referred to by the media as the Honorific nicknames in popular music, "Goddess of Pop", she has been described as embodying female ...

's "

Half-Breed Half-breed is a term, now considered offensive, used to describe anyone who is of mixed race; although, in the United States, it usually refers to people who are half Native American and half European/white. Use by governments United States In ...

", but reaching No. 1 on Cashbox on September 29, 1973), and the Top 40 hit "American Tune". Also, "Take Me to the Mardi Gras" was released in the UK reaching the Top 10. The song "Kodachrome" is named after the

Kodak The Eastman Kodak Company (referred to simply as Kodak ) is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in analogue photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorpor ...

film of the same name. Kodak required the album to note that

is a trademark. The song was not released as a single in

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

, where it could not be played on

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

radio due to its trademarked name.

Reception

Critics praised the album. The ''

Denver Post ''The Denver Post'' is a daily newspaper and website published in Denver, Colorado. As of June 2022, it has an average print circulation of 57,265. In 2016, its website received roughly six million monthly unique visitors generating more than 13 ...

''s Jared Johnson called it "a brilliantly executed masterpiece, and surely the finest album in three years," citing such 1970 releases as '' Bridge Over Troubled Water'' and ''

After the Gold Rush ''After the Gold Rush'' is the third studio album by the Canadian-American musician Neil Young, released in September 1970 on Reprise Records, catalogue number RS 6383. It is one of four high-profile albums (all charting within the top fifteen) ...

''.

Robert Hilburn Robert Hilburn (born September 25, 1939) is an American pop music critic, author, and radio host. As critic and music editor at the ''Los Angeles Times'' from 1970 to 2005, his reviews, essays and profiles appeared in publications around the wor ...

of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' said, "Combining a variety of musical textures (from a touch of gospel to an infectious trace of Jamaican rhythm to a hint of the old Simon and Garfunkel grandeur), Simon's new album firmly establishes him as one of our most valuable and accessible artists."

Stephen Holden Stephen Holden (born July 18, 1941) is an American writer, poet, and music and film critic. Biography Holden earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Yale University in 1963. He worked as a photo editor, staff writer, and eventually be ...

of ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'' praised the album as "a rich and moving song cycle, one in which each cut reflects on every other to create an ever-widening series of refractions." However, ''

Stereo Review ''Sound & Vision'' is an American magazine, purchased by AVTech Media Ltd. (UK) in March 2018, covering home theater, audio, video and multimedia consumer products. Before 2000, it had been published for most of its history as ''Stereo Review''. ...

''s Noel Coppage, while giving the album an "excellent" rating, nonetheless felt that it was "deficient in spontaneity, excitement, strain", calling its arrangements "clean and sensible" but "oddly predictable". In 2003, the album was ranked number 267 on ''

'' magazine's list of

the 500 greatest albums of all time "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" is a recurring opinion survey and music ranking of the finest albums in history, compiled by the American magazine ''Rolling Stone''. It is based on weighted votes from selected musicians, critics, and indust ...

. In 2000 it was voted number 421 in

Colin Larkin Colin Larkin (born 1949) is a British writer and entrepreneur. He founded, and was the editor-in-chief of, the ''Encyclopedia of Popular Music'', described by ''The Times'' as "the standard against which all others must be judged". Along wit ...

's ''

All Time Top 1000 Albums ''All Time Top 1000 Albums'' is a book by Colin Larkin, creator and editor of the ''Encyclopedia of Popular Music''. The book was first published by Guinness Publishing in 1994. The list presented is the result of over 200,000 votes cast by the ...

''.

Track listing

All tracks written by

Personnel

* Paul Simon – vocals, acoustic guitar (1, 3, 4, 6-10) *

Barry Beckett Barry Edward Beckett (February 4, 1943 – June 10, 2009) was an American keyboardist, session musician, record producer, and studio founder. He is best known for his work with David Hood, Jimmy Johnson, and Roger Hawkins, his bandmates in th ...

– keyboards (1, 3, 9), acoustic piano (5),

vibraphone The vibraphone is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone is called a ''vibraphonist,'' ''vibraharpist,' ...

(9) * Paul Griffin – acoustic piano (2) * Bob James – keyboards (4, 6) * Bobby Scott – acoustic piano (4) *

Carson Whitsett James Carson Whitsett (May 1, 1945 – May 8, 2007) was an American keyboardist, songwriter, and record producer. Biography Carson Whitsett was born in Jackson, Mississippi. He joined his older brother Tim's band, Tim Whitsett & The Imperials ( ...

–

Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated s ...

(8) *

Pete Carr Jesse Willard "Pete" Carr (April 22, 1950 – June 27, 2020) was an American guitarist. Carr contributed to successful recordings by Joan Baez, Luther Ingram, Bob Seger, Paul Simon, Willie Nelson, Joe Cocker, Boz Scaggs, The Staple Singers, Rod ...

– acoustic guitar (1), electric guitar (3, 5, 9) * Jimmy Johnson – electric guitar (1, 3) *

Cornell Dupree Cornell Luther Dupree (December 19, 1942 – May 8, 2011) was an American jazz and R&B guitarist. He worked at various times with Aretha Franklin, Bill Withers, Donny Hathaway, King Curtis and Steve Gadd, appeared on David Letterman,

– electric guitar (2) *

Al Gafa Alexander "Al" Gafa (born April 9, 1941, New York City) is an American jazz guitarist. Career Gafa worked extensively as a session musician for recordings in the mid and late 1960s in New York. In jazz he worked in that decade with Kai Winding, ...

– guitar (4) *

David Spinozza David Spinozza is an American guitarist and producer. He worked with former Beatles Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and John Lennon during the 1970s, and had a long collaboration with singer-songwriter James Taylor, producing Taylor's album ''Walking ...

– guitar (4) *Jerry Puckett – electric guitar (8) *

David Hood David Hood (born September 21, 1943) is an American bassist from Muscle Shoals, Alabama. He also plays the trombone. He is a member of the Alabama Music Hall of Fame. Early life and education Hood was born in Sheffield, Alabama and attende ...

– bass guitar (1, 3, 5, 9, 10) *

Gordon Edwards Gordon Edwards is a Canadian scientist and nuclear consultant. Edwards was born in Canada in 1940, and graduated from the University of Toronto in 1961 with a gold medal in Mathematics and Physics and a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship. At the Univer ...

– bass guitar (2) *

Bob Cranshaw Melbourne Robert Cranshaw (December 3, 1932 – November 2, 2016) was an American jazz bassist. His career spanned the heyday of Blue Note Records to his recent involvement with the Musicians Union. He is perhaps best known for his long associa ...

– bass guitar (4, 6, 7) * Richard Davis –

double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...

(4) * Verne Robbins – bass guitar (8) * Roger Hawkins – drums (1, 3, 5, 10), percussion (9) *

Rick Marotta Richard Thomas Marotta (born January 7, 1948) is an American drummer and percussionist. He has appeared on recordings by leading artists such as Aretha Franklin, Carly Simon, Steely Dan, James Taylor, Paul Simon, John Lennon, Hall & Oates, Ste ...

– drums (2) *

James Stroud James Stroud is an American musician and record producer who works in pop, rock, R&B, soul, disco, and country music. He played with the Malaco Rhythm Section for Malaco Records. In the 1990s, he was the president of Giant Records (a subsidiar ...

– drums (8) *

Grady Tate Grady Tate (January 14, 1932 – October 8, 2017) was an American jazz and soul-jazz drummer and baritone vocalist. In addition to his work as sideman, Tate released many albums as leader and lent his voice to songs in the animated '' Schoolhou ...

– drums (4, 6) *

Don Elliott Don Elliott Helfman (October 21, 1926 – July 5, 1984) was an American jazz trumpeter, vibraphonist, vocalist, and mellophone player. Elliott recorded over 60 albums and 5,000 advertising jingles throughout his career. Career Elliott played m ...

– vibraphone (4) *

Airto Moreira Airto Guimorvan Moreira (born August 5, 1941) is a Brazilian jazz drummer and percussionist. He is married to jazz singer Flora Purim, and their daughter Diana Moreira is also a singer. Coming to prominence in the late 1960s as a member of the ...

– percussion (7) * Uncredited – horns (1, 8), Hammond organ (2), strings (3),

flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

(4), shaker (4), choir (5) *

Onward Brass Band The Onward Brass Band was either of two brass bands active in New Orleans for extended periods of time. Onward Brass Band (c. 1886–1930) This incarnation of the Onward Brass Band played often in its early history at picnics, festivals, parades, ...

– horns (3) *

Allen Toussaint Allen Richard Toussaint (; January 14, 1938 – November 10, 2015) was an American musician, songwriter, arranger and record producer. He was an influential figure in New Orleans rhythm and blues from the 1950s to the end of the century, descri ...

– horn arrangements (2) *

Quincy Jones Quincy Delight Jones Jr. (born March 14, 1933) is an American record producer, musician, songwriter, composer, arranger, and film and television producer. His career spans 70 years in the entertainment industry with a record of 80 Grammy Award n ...

– string arrangements (4) *

Del Newman Derrick Martin "Del" Newman (5 October 1930 – 10 August 2020) was a British conductor, orchestral arranger and music producer. His orchestral arrangements appeared on songs by many rock and pop artists from the 1960s to the 1990s, including Ca ...

– string arrangements (6) *

The Dixie Hummingbirds The Dixie Hummingbirds are an influential American gospel music group, spanning more than 80 years from the jubilee quartet style of the 1920s, through the "hard gospel" quartet style of gospel's golden age in the 1940s and 1950s, to the eclecti ...

– group vocals (2, 10) *

Claude Jeter Claude A. Jeter (October 26, 1914 – January 6, 2009) was an American gospel music singer. Originally a coal miner from Kentucky, Jeter formed the group that would eventually become one of the most popular gospel quartets of the post-war era � ...

– falsetto vocals (3) * Maggie and Terre Roche – backing vocals (7)

Production

* Paul Simon – producer, arrangements * The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section – co-producers (1, 3, 5, 9, 10) * Roy Halee – co-producer (2, 7), engineer (2, 7) * Paul Samwell-Smith – co-producer (6) * Jerry Masters – supervising engineer, engineer (1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 10) * Phil Ramone – supervising engineer, engineer (2, 4-7, 10), co-producer (4, 7, 8, 10) * Roger Quested – engineer (6) * Gerald Stephenson – engineer (8) * Richard Blakin – assistant engineer * Milton Glaser – cover design

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{Authority control 1973 albums Paul Simon albums Albums arranged by Quincy Jones Albums produced by Roy Halee Albums produced by Phil Ramone Albums produced by Paul Samwell-Smith Albums produced by Paul Simon Columbia Records albums Warner Records albums Albums recorded at Morgan Sound Studios Albums recorded at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio Albums with cover art by Milton Glaser