Simon and/or Garfunkel
FORMED: 1964, New York, NY
DISBANDED: 1970
The most successful folk-rock duo of the 1960s, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel
crafted a series of memorable hit albums and singles featuring their choirboy
harmonies, ringing acoustic and electric guitars, and Simon's acute, finely
wrought songwriting. The pair always inhabited the more polished end of the
folk-rock spectrum, and were sometimes criticized for a certain collegiate
sterility. Many also feel that Simon, as both a singer and songwriter, didn't
truly blossom until he began his own hugely successful solo career in the
1970s. But the best of S&G's work can stand among Simon's best material,
and the duo did progress musically over the course of their five albums,
moving from basic folk-rock productions into Latin rhythms and gospel-influenced
arrangements that foreshadowed Simon's eclecticism on his solo albums.
Simon and Garfunkel's recording history actually predated their first mid-'60s
hit by almost a decade. Childhood friends while growing up together in Forest
Hills, NY, they began making records in 1957, performing (and often writing
their own material) in something of a juvenile Everly Brothers style. Calling
themselves Tom and Jerry, their first single, "Hey Schoolgirl," actually
made the Top 50, but a series of follow-ups went nowhere. The duo split up,
and Simon continued to struggle to make it in the music business as a songwriter
and occasional performer, sometimes using the names of Jerry Landis or Tico
& the Triumphs.
By the early '60s, both Simon and Garfunkel were coming under the influence
of folk music. When they reteamed, it was as a folk duo, though Simon's pop
roots would serve the act well in their material's synthesis of folk and
pop influences. Signing to Columbia, they recorded an initially unsuccessful
acoustic debut (as Simon and Garfunkel, not Tom and Jerry) in 1964, Wednesday
Morning, 3 A.M. They again went their separate ways, Simon moving to England,
where he played the folk circuit and recorded an obscure solo album.
The Simon & Garfunkel story might have ended there, except for a brainstorm
of their producer, Tom Wilson (who also produced several of Bob Dylan's early
albums). Folk-rock was taking off in 1965, and Wilson, who had helped Dylan
electrify his sound, took the strongest track from S&G's debut, "Sounds
of Silence," and embellished it with electric guitars, bass, and drums. It
got to number one in early 1966, giving the duo the impetus to reunite and
make a serious go at a recording career, Simon returning from the U.K. to
the U.S. In 1966 and 1967 they were regular visitors to the pop charts with
some of the best folk-rock of the era, including "Homeward Bound," "I Am
a Rock," and "A Hazy Shade of Winter."
Simon & Garfunkel's early albums were erratic, but they steadily improved
as Simon sharpened his songwriting, and as the duo became more comfortable
and adventurous in the studio. Their execution was so clean and tasteful
that it cost them some hipness points during the psychedelic era, which was
a bit silly. They were far from the raunchiest thing going, but managed to
pull off the nifty feat of appealing to varying segments of the pop and rock
audience -- and various age groups, not just limited to adolescents -- without
compromising their music. Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme (late 1966) was
their first really consistent album; Bookends (1968), which actually blended
previously released singles with some new material, reflected their growing
maturity. One of its songs, "Mrs. Robinson," became one of the biggest singles
of the late '60s after it was prominently featured in one of the best films
of the period, The Graduate (which also had other Simon & Garfunkel songs
on the soundtrack).
It was unsurprising, in retrospect, that the duo's partnership began to weaken
in the late '60s. They had known each other most of their lives, and been
performing together for over a decade. Simon began to feel constrained by
the limits of working with the same collaborator; Garfunkel, who wrote virtually
none of the material, felt overshadowed by the songwriting talents of Simon,
though Art's high tenor was crucial to their appeal. They started to record
some of their contributions separately in the studio, and barely played live
at all in 1969, as Garfunkel began to pursue an acting career.
Their final studio album, Bridge Over Troubled Waters, was an enormous hit,
topping the charts for ten weeks, and containing four hit singles (the title
track, "The Boxer," "Cecilia," and "El Condor Pasa"). It was certainly their
most musically ambitious, with "Bridge Over Troubled Waters" and "The Boxer"
employing thundering drums and tasteful orchestration, and "Cecilia" marking
one of Simon's first forays into South American rhythms. It also caught the
confused, reflective tenor of the times better than almost any other popular
release of 1970.
That would be their last album of new material; although they didn't necessarily
intend to break up at the time, the break from recording eventually became
permanent, as Simon began a solo career that brought him as much success
as the S&G outings, and Garfunkel pursued simultaneous acting and recording
careers. They did reunite in 1975 for a Top Ten single, "My Little Town,"
and have periodically performed together since without ever coming close
to generating albums of new material. A 1981 concert in New York's Central
Park attracted half a million fans, and was commemorated with a live album;
they also toured in the early '80s, but a planned studio album was canceled
due to artistic differences. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide
Paul Simon
Paul Frederick Simon
BORN: October 13, 1941, Newark, NJ
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."
Simon took his time following this success, though he did release a greatest
hits album featuring a new hit, "Slip Slidin' Away," and contributed to a
remake of "What a Wonderful World" with Garfunkel and James Taylor. Moving
to Warner Bros. Records, he wrote and starred in the film One Trick Pony
(August 1980), the soundtrack of which contained the Top Ten hit "Late in
the Evening."
Another three years passed before Simon returned with Hearts and Bones (October
1983), which did not match his usual level of commercial success. Simon experimented
with songwriting styles and became interested in South African music, resulting
in Graceland (August 1986), which became his biggest-selling solo album and
won him another Album of the Year Grammy. Four years later, he delivered
The Rhythm of the Saints (October 1990), which did for Brazilian music what
Graceland had done for South African music and was another multi-platinum
seller. Simon played a free concert in Central Park in August 1991 (ten years
after Simon & Garfunkel had done one) and released a live album from
the show. In 1993, Warner Bros. released a box set retrospective on Simon's
career, and he undertook a tour that featured Garfunkel on their old hits,
as well as covering other aspects of his career. He spent the next several
years writing a stage musical, The Capeman, and released his own version
of its score as Songs From the Capeman (November 1997). The show, which starred
Ruben Blades and Marc Anthony, opened on Broadway in early 1998 and was a
quick failure. In 1999, Simon toured on a double bill with Bob Dylan. His
next album, You're the One, was released in October 2000. It went gold and
earned a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year. ~ William Ruhlmann, All
Music Guide
Rhymin' Paul Simon was writing songs with his future partner, Art Garfunkel,
as far back as 1955, when both were New Jersey high schoolers. Achieving
brief fame as the singing team of Tom and Jerry in 1957, Simon and Garfunkel
broke up and re-teamed several times before "officially" emerging as Simon
& Garfunkel in 1964. During this period, Simon attended Queens College
as an English major, wrote songs for other recording artists, and worked
as a rock show promoter. Largely a college campus attraction at first, Simon
& Garfunkel attained mainstream popularity when they contributed the
songs heard on the soundtrack of the 1967 film hit The Graduate. The two
performers went their separate ways after the 1972 album Bridge Over Troubled
Water. Like Garfunkel before him, Simon tentatively launched a film acting
career, appearing as Diane Keaton's L.A.-based boyfriend in the Oscar-winning
Annie Hall (1977). Thus far, Simon's only starring film has been 1980's One
Trick Pony, in which he played an over-the-hill rock star planning a comeback.
Paul Simon was once married to film actress Carrie Fisher, who nowadays has
nothing but nice things to say about her former husband (which is more than
can be said for her many ex-boyfriends). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
BORN: November 5, 1941, Queens, NY
After Simon & Garfunkel, one of the most successful duos in pop history,
split up in 1970, Art Garfunkel became a solo artist, as well as pursuing
an acting career. Garfunkel's pure, high tenor had been one of the most distinctive
elements of the duo's music, yet he wasn't responsible for the songwriting
-- Simon wrote all of the group's hits. Not surprisingly, Garfunkel relied
on other songwriters, from Jimmy Webb and Randy Newman to rock & roll
standards like "I Only Have Eyes for You," throughout his solo career. As
a solo performer, he was never quite as successful as he was with Simon &
Garfunkel, yet he did have a number of Top 40 hits in the mid-'70s.
Garfunkel didn't begin a solo career until 1973. Between 1970 and 1973, he
acted, appearing in two Mike Nichols films, Catch 22 and Carnal Knowledge.
Angel Clare, his first solo record, was co-produced with Simon & Garfunkel
producer Roy Halee and released in the fall of 1973. It established the style
-- a light, carefully arranged and constructed melodic soft rock -- he would
follow throughout his solo career. The album became a Top Ten hit on the
strength of the single "All I Know," which peaked at number nine. Two years
later, he returned with the Richard Perry-produced Breakaway, the most successful
album of his solo career. The record peaked at number seven, with a version
of the Flamingos' "I Only Have Eyes for You" reaching number 18 on the U.S.
charts; in Britain, the single topped the charts. That same fall, he reunited
with Paul Simon for the first time, performing on Saturday Night Live. In
December, Simon's "My Little Town," featuring Garfunkel on backing vocals,
became a Top Ten hit.
In the fall of 1977, Garfunkel released his third album, Watermark, which
primarily consisted of Jimmy Webb covers. However, when the first single
from the album failed to chart, the album was reissued in early 1978 with
a cover of Sam Cooke's "Wonderful World" that featured supporting vocals
from Simon and James Taylor. Released as a single, "Wonderful World" peaked
at number 17. The following year, Fate for Breakfast appeared. Although it
performed well in Britain, reaching number two, the album signalled that
his American audience was beginning to shrink: None of the singles made the
Top 40 and the album only reached number 67. In the fall of 1979, he filmed
two movies, Bad Timing and Illusions. Scissors Cut, a reunion with producer
Roy Halee released in 1981, did nothing to reverse his sliding commercial
potential -- it didn't even break into the Top 100 albums.
After the release of Scissors Cut, Simon & Garfunkel reunited for a concert
in New York's Central Park. The concert was so successful, the duo decided
to embark on a year-long world tour. During the tour, tensions mounted between
the pair and they split again after it was completed. After a lengthy quiet
period, Garfunkel re-emerged in 1988 with Lefty, which spent a mere eight
weeks in the American charts and failed to make the British charts. He did
not release another album until 1993's rarities compilation Up 'til Now.
Following its release, Garfunkel took another extended break, returning in
1997 with the live album Across America. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music
Guide
Tall, lanky, and curly topped Art Garfunkel has one of the most beautiful
tenor voices in pop music. He is best known for performing with singer/songwriter
Paul Simon as Simon and Garfunkel, but he has also had a sporadic acting
career. He made his feature-film debut playing Nately in Mike Nichol's adaptation
of Joseph Heller's Catch-22 in 1970. The following year, Garfunkel appeared
opposite Jack Nicholson in another Mike Nichols film, Carnal Knowledge. ~
Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide