Simon & Garfunkel also performed the song when they reunited at Madison Square Garden in 2009. The source presents that appearance as evidence that their familiar musical touch remained present during the reunion. Art Garfunkel’s lead, the piano part, and Paul Simon’s later vocal entrance retained the qualities that had made the song an important feature of their live repertoire. The 2009 performance therefore provided another version of the composition alongside the later treatment by Groban and McKnight, whose arrangement emphasized two different vocal ranges within a fuller instrumental production.

The song itself arrived on January 20, 1970, when Simon & Garfunkel issued it as a single. It was the second single drawn from Bridge Over Troubled Water, the pair’s fifth album, which shared its title with the track. Paul Simon was the songwriter. Production duties were credited jointly to Simon, Art Garfunkel, and Roy Halee. These details establish the original recording and release context for the composition that Groban and McKnight subsequently performed as part of Hitman: David Foster & Friends in Las Vegas.

One element of the song’s lyrical conception came from an earlier recording. While writing, Simon found inspiration in the Swan Silvertones’ “Mary Don’t You Weep.” The particular contribution identified by the source was Claude Jeter’s image involving a bridge over deep water. Simon later met Jeter personally and acknowledged that creative debt directly. During their meeting, Simon gave Jeter a check, recognizing the earlier image that had helped inform the writing of “Bridge Over Troubled Water.”