Hearts and Bones is the sixth solo studio album by American singer-songwriter Paul Simon. It was released in 1983 by Warner Bros. Records.

Background

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. 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. This greatly annoyed Garfunkel and ensured that there would never again be another Simon & Garfunkel album. Garfunkel left the project and Simon erased all his vocals and reworked the material into a solo album.

On "Think Too Much (a)", Steve Ferrone was contacted by Nile Rodgers to attend a recording session at the Power Station to record drums. After the initial attempts at recording the song were met with silence from Simon, Rodgers experimented with various effects on his rhythm guitar, which made the instrument out of synch with the original drum track. Despite Rodgers' insistence that the effects would render it difficult to overdub a new drum track, Ferrone eventually achieved a satisfactory take.

Reception

Hearts and Bones charted for 18 weeks on the Billboard 200, peaking at No. 35, although it is considered to be a relative commercial failure compared to Simon's other recordings.

In retrospective reviews, 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". Ruhlmann praised the lyrical handling of the subject of romance and the music's blending of doo-wop and rock and roll roots with contemporary styles.

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| style="text-align:left;"|Canadian Albums (RPM)

|50

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| style="text-align:left;"|Dutch Mega Albums (MegaCharts)

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|19

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|51

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|30

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|3

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| style="text-align:left;"|Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)

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| style="text-align:left;"|UK Albums

|34

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| style="text-align:left;"|US Billboard Top LPs

|35

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References

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  • Hearts and Bones (Adobe Flash) at Spotify (streamed copy where registered)