Song · Leon Russell
“Tight Rope” by Leon Russell
From the album Carney (1972)
“Tight Rope” by Leon Russell appears on 4 radio countdowns from 3 stations between 2002 and 2023. It was first released in 1972 on the album Carney. Its best result is #450 on the KGON Top 923 Classic Rock Songs of All Time (2002). In the combined RockLists rankings it is #7,067 indie & aaa song of all time.
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"Tight Rope" leads off Carney, the album Leon Russell released on Shelter in 1972, and it was his first hit single, rising to 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 and to five in Canada. Russell wrote it alone and Denny Cordell produced.
The song works one long circus metaphor, somebody up on the high wire trying to hang on to their life. Then the instrumental break turns genuinely strange: Russell drops in a slowed, spooky quote of the march "Entrance of the Gladiators", a couple of times over, sliding it down a descending scale before he finishes off the back half of the bridge. On the flip side of the 45 sat "This Masquerade", another Russell song, which George Benson rode into the Top 10 in 1976.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Indie & Adult Alternative
Classic Rock
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | 450 | 92.3 KGON | KGON Top 923 Classic Rock Songs of All Time (2002) | 923 |
| 2004 | 476 | 92.3 KGON | KGON Top 923 Classic Rock Songs of All Time (2004) | 923 |
| 2020 | 1745 | WXPN | WXPN 2020 Greatest Songs of All Time | 2020 |
| 2023 | 1152 | WYEP | WYEP Countdown to Fall 2023 | 1229 |
Also listed as: Tightrope.
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