Cecilia (Simon & Garfunkel song)
Written by Paul Simon, the song's origins lie in a late-night party, in which the duo and friends began banging on a piano bench.[5] Simon states in the 2011 documentary The Harmony Game that, during the song's initial success, he came upon a recently returned Vietnam War veteran.[1] In 2008, Stephen Colbert facetiously asked Simon why the narrator of the song would need to get up and wash his face after making love."[6] In 2023, during an interview on the Howard Stern Show, Simon mentioned that the opening of the song was not recorded on drums, and was actually 3-4 people hitting guitar cases near a Nagra over 8-9 minutes, which gave off the slapback.St. Cecilia is mentioned in another Paul Simon song, "The Coast" (from his 1990 album The Rhythm of the Saints): "A family of musicians took shelter for the night in the little harbor church of St.Simon & Garfunkel initially imagined "Cecilia" to be the first real single from Bridge over Troubled Water, following an early release of "The Boxer" in April 1969.Columbia Records chairman Clive Davis instead pressed the duo to instead issue the title track as the lead single.