| "Tight Rope" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Side A of the US single | ||||
| Single by Leon Russell | ||||
| from the album Carney | ||||
| B-side | "This Masquerade" | |||
| Released | August 1972 | |||
| Genre | Blue-eyed soul [1] | |||
| Length | 2:59 | |||
| Label | Shelter 7325 | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Leon Russell | |||
| Producer(s) | Denny Cordell Leon Russell | |||
| Leon Russell singles chronology | ||||
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"Tight Rope" is the debut 1972 hit single by singer-songwriter Leon Russell. It was the lead track on his LP, Carney .
The song reached number 11 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 [2] and number 10 on the Cash Box Top 100. [3] In Canada, it reached number five. [4]
This song is a circus metaphor about clinging to life while being on a high wire.
In the instrumental section, this song quotes a couple of times, a slow version of the "Entrance of the Gladiators" March, played in a mysterious descending scale, before Russell finishes the last half of the bridge section.
The B-side of 45 RPM for "Tight Rope" was "This Masquerade", also penned by Russell, which became a Top 10 hit for George Benson in 1976.