"Let the River Run" is a song first featured in the 1988 film Working Girl

Working Girl

Working Girl is a 1988 romantic comedy film written by Kevin Wade and directed by Mike Nichols. It tells the inspiring story of a Staten Island-raised secretary, Tess McGill , working in the mergers and acquisitions department of a Wall Street investment bank...

, with music and lyrics by Carly Simon

Carly Simon

Carly Elisabeth Simon is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and children's author. She rose to fame in the 1970s with a string of hit records, and has since been the recipient of two Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, and a Golden Globe Award for her work...

. The song won the Academy Award for Best Original Song

Academy Award for Best Original Song

The Academy Award for Best Original Song is one of the awards given annually to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences . It is presented to the songwriters who have composed the best original song written specifically for a film...

 at the 61st Academy Awards

61st Academy Awards

The 61st Academy Awards were presented on March 29, 1989 at the Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles. The date had been moved from its usual Monday telecast due to Easter, which was on March 26. For this show, there was no "official" host as the show opened with a stage-show featuring Merv Griffin, Snow...

 in 1989. The song also won a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song

Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song

Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song was awarded for the first time in 1962 and has been awarded annually since 1965 by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.-1960s:...

 at the 46th Golden Globe Awards

46th Golden Globe Awards

The 46th Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best in film and television for 1988, were held on January 28, 1989.-Best Actor - Drama:Dustin Hoffman - Rain Man*Gene Hackman - Mississippi Burning*Tom Hulce - Dominick and Eugene...

 in 1989 and the Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or Television

Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media

The Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media has been awarded since 1988 and is awarded to songs written for films, television, video games or other visual media...

 at the 32nd Grammy Awards in 1990.

It was the first of only two songs to have won all three awards (Oscar, Golden Globe, Grammy) while being composed and written, as well as performed, entirely by a single artist – the other being "Streets of Philadelphia

Streets of Philadelphia

"Streets of Philadelphia" is an Oscar winning song, written and performed by American rock musician Bruce Springsteen for the first mainstream film on HIV/AIDS in the 1993 film, Philadelphia...

" by Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...

 from Philadelphia

Philadelphia (film)

Philadelphia is a 1993 American drama film that was one of the first mainstream Hollywood films to acknowledge HIV/AIDS, homosexuality and homophobia. It was written by Ron Nyswaner and directed by Jonathan Demme. The film stars Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington...

(1993: Oscar, 1994: Golden Globe and two Grammys.) Barbra Streisand

Barbra Streisand

Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...

 shared the Oscar (1976), Golden Globe (1977) and Grammy (1977) for "Evergreen (Love Theme from A Star is Born

A Star Is Born (1976 film)

A Star Is Born is a 1976 American rock music musical film telling the story of a young woman, played by Barbra Streisand who enters show business, and meets and falls in love with an established male star, played by Kris Kristofferson, only to find her career ascending while his goes into decline...

)" which she composed and wrote with lyricist Paul Williams

Paul Williams (songwriter)

Paul Hamilton Williams, Jr. is an Academy Award-winning American composer, musician, songwriter, and actor. He is perhaps best known for popular songs performed by a number of acts in the 1970s including Three Dog Night's "An Old Fashioned Love Song", Helen Reddy's "You and Me Against the World",...

 (for which she also won the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance

Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance

The Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance is the latest in a series of awards recognizing superior vocal performance by a female in the pop category, the first of which was presented in 1959. The award goes to the artist...

). Annie Lennox

Annie Lennox

Annie Lennox, OBE , born Ann Lennox, is a Scottish singer-songwriter, political activist and philanthropist. After achieving minor success in the late 1970s with The Tourists, with fellow musician David A...

 won all three awards – 2003 Oscar and Golden Globe, 2004 Grammy – for "Into the West

Into the West (song)

"Into the West" is an Oscar winning song, written by Fran Walsh, Howard Shore, and Annie Lennox, and performed by Lennox. The song plays during the closing credits of the film, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King...

" from The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is a 2003 epic fantasy-drama film directed by Peter Jackson that is based on the second and third volumes of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings...

, sharing all three with co-composer and lyricists Fran Walsh

Fran Walsh

Frances "Fran" Walsh, Lady Jackson, MNZM is a screenwriter, film producer and occasional musician. She is the spouse of filmmaker Peter Jackson. They have two children: Billy and Katie....

 and Howard Shore

Howard Shore

Howard Leslie Shore is a Canadian composer, notable for his film scores. He has composed the scores for over 80 films, most notably the scores for The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, for which he won three Academy Awards. He is also a consistent collaborator with director David Cronenberg,...

.

Carly Simon has stated that she found inspiration for the lyrics by first reading the original script, and then by the poems of Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman

Walter "Walt" Whitman was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse...

. Musically, she wanted to write a hymn to New York with a contemporary jungle beat under it, so as to juxtapose those opposites in a compelling way.
The phrases "Silver Cities Rise" and "The New Jerusalem" seem to have taken on a new meaning for many people, but the song was not originally composed with any particular political and/or religious overtones.

The Working Girl soundtrack

Soundtrack

A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...

 also contained a choral version featuring The St. Thomas Choir of Men and Boys

Saint Thomas Choir School

Saint Thomas Choir School is a church-affiliated boarding choir school in Manhattan, New York. It was founded in 1919 and is supported by the nearby Saint Thomas Church, an Episcopal church continuing the Anglican tradition of all-male choral ensembles...

 of New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

.

As a single

Single (music)

In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...

, the song reached peak positions of number 49 on the Billboard Hot 100

Billboard Hot 100

The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

, and number 11 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart in early 1989.

In 2001, the song was used for an advertisement for the United States Postal Service

United States Postal Service

The United States Postal Service is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States...

 in the wake of the 2001 anthrax attacks

2001 anthrax attacks

The 2001 anthrax attacks in the United States, also known as Amerithrax from its Federal Bureau of Investigation case name, occurred over the course of several weeks beginning on Tuesday, September 18, 2001, one week after the September 11 attacks. Letters containing anthrax spores were mailed to...

. In 2004, the song was used in the end scene of the film Little Black Book

Little Black Book

Little Black Book is a 2004 satirical comedy film directed by Nick Hurran.-Plot:Stacy Holt , an associate producer on a daytime talk show , is convinced that her boyfriend Derek is the right man for her, though he has an apparent phobia of commitment, and he's vague about his past relationships...

.

"Let the River Run" was re-released on Carly Simon's album Never Been Gone on October 27, 2009.