Tight Rope (song)

"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 and number 10 on the Cash Box Top 100. In Canada, it reached number five.

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.