In a career dating back to the 1950s,
Paul Simon has established himself among the best and
most popular songwriters of the rock era. Growing up in
Queens, NY, Simon befriended schoolmate Art Garfunkel,
who had an angelic tenor voice, and the two teamed up
as Tom and Jerry, taking the names of the cartoon characters.
In the winter of 1957-1958, they scored a chart hit with
"Hey Schoolgirl"; both were 16 years old.
Simon continued to try to score hits in the late '50s
and early '60s, reaching the charts briefly in 1962 in
the group Tico and the Triumphs with "Motorcycle"
and under the name Jerry Landis in 1963 with "The
Lone Teen Ranger." He and Garfunkel teamed up again
as a folk duo in Greenwich Village, signed to Columbia
Records, and released Wednesday Morning 3 A.M. (October
1964). The album flopped initially, but Simon, who had
been spending a lot of time in England, was picked up
as a solo artist by CBS [UK] and recorded The Paul Simon
Songbook, released only in Great Britain in the spring
of 1965.
In the wake of the folk-rock trend prevalent that year,
producer Tom Wilson took the acoustic track "The
Sound of Silence" from the Wednesday Morning album,
overdubbed electric guitar, bass, and drums, and released
the result as a single in October 1965, a full year
after the album's release. It took off and hit number
one, establishing Simon & Garfunkel.
For the next five years, they were one of the most
successful acts in pop music. Simon wrote the songs,
and the two harmonized on a series of hit singles and
albums. They split up in 1970, after the release of
their most popular album, Bridge Over Troubled Water.
Simon returned to solo work with Paul Simon (January
1972), which could not hope to match the success of
Bridge, but which did sell a million copies and featured
the reggae-tinged Top Ten single "Mother and Child
Reunion." There Goes Rhymin' Simon (May 1973) was
another million-seller, containing the hits "Kodachrome"
and "Loves Me Like a Rock." After a 1974 live
album, Simon released Still Crazy After All These Years
(October 1975), which topped the charts, won the Grammy
for Album of the Year, and included the number-one hit
"50 Ways to Leave Your Lover."
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