This is a request that I am playing. Simon wrote it as "a little hymn." Garfunkel and producer Roy Halee thought it was more epic, and convinced him to write a third verse. His "little hymn" thus got a grand production, and after hearing it, he thought it was too long, too slow and too orchestral to be a hit single. However, Clive Davis at Columbia Records heard the commercial appeal of the song, and insisted they put a lot of marketing budget behind it use it as the album title. The song's title concept was inspired by Claude Jeter's line 'I'll be your bridge over deep water if you trust in me', which Jeter sang with his group, the Swan Silvertones, in the 1958 song 'Mary Don't You Weep'. According to gospel historian Anthony Heilbut, Simon later acknowledged his debt to Jeter in person, and even handed Jeter a check. Simon also named Johann Sebastian Bach's 'O Sacred Head, Now Wounded' as a source of inspiration for certain parts of the melody. I hope you enjoy it.