"50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Paul Simon. It was the second single from his fourth studio album, Still Crazy After All These Years (1975), released on Columbia Records. Backing vocals on the single were performed by Patti Austin, Valerie Simpson, and Phoebe Snow. The song features a recognizable repeated drum riff performed by drummer Steve Gadd.
One of his most popular singles, "50 Ways" was released in December 1975 and began to see chart success within the new year. It became Simon's sole number-one hit as a solo artist on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States, and was his highest position in France, where it peaked at number two. Elsewhere, the song was a top 20 hit in Canada and New Zealand. The single was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), denoting sales of over one million copies.
Creation
Following Simon's divorce from first wife Peggy Harper, Simon opted to take a more humorous approach to document the event. He recorded the song in a small New York City studio on Broadway, and built the song around the drums in order to "avoid clutter".
As with "American Tune" three years earlier, Simon found inspiration in classical music. The melody of the tune is based on "Tit er jeg glad" (Danish: Often I am happy), a 1917 love song by the Danish composer Carl Nielsen.
Reception
Billboard called it an "excellent song" that has "very clever lyrics" and an "easy to listen to melody." Cash Box said that it is "a clever, commercial song about the elasticity of love, how easy it is to pull away and equally easy to snap back with it." Record World said that the song "finds Simon aided by a crack team of sessionmen and the unmistakable vocals of Phoebe Snow."
Charts and certifications
"50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" was Paul Simon's biggest solo hit and broke in the US in late 1975. It hit number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 on February 7, 1976 (his only number one on that chart as a solo act), soaring from number ten the previous week, and remained there for three weeks; it topped the adult contemporary chart for two weeks. Overseas, on the UK Singles Chart, the song reached number 23 in January 1976. It was certified gold on March 11, 1976, and remained a best seller for nearly five months. Billboard ranked it as the No. 8 song of 1976.
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications
Personnel
Paul Simon – vocals, acoustic guitar
John Tropea, Hugh McCracken – electric guitars
Tony Levin – bass guitar
Kenny Ascher – Hammond organ
Steve Gadd – drums
Ralph MacDonald – tambourine, shaker
Patti Austin – background vocals
Valerie Simpson – background vocals
Phoebe Snow – background vocals
Legacy
Electronic group Plummet covered the song in 2005. The song was sampled by American rapper Common for his track "Forever Begins" on his 2007 album Finding Forever. American Rapper Eminem sampled this song for his track "Murder, Murder" on his 1997 extended play Slim Shady EP and in an unreleased & leaked track named "50 Ways" in 2007. Fellow American musician Kid Cudi interpolated and sampled the song when he recorded his own rendition titled "50 Ways To Make A Record", taken from his debut mixtape A Kid Named Cudi (2008). The song was sampled by American rapper Ab-Soul for his track "A Rebellion" on his 2012 album Control System. The song was parodied by Julia Louis Dreyfus in HBO comedy Veep as '50 Ways To Win In Denver'. The song was sampled by Lisa Lindsley in her 2023 release The Paul Simon Project.