Paul Simon

Paul Simon is an American singer-songwriter from Newark, New Jersey, born in 1941. He grows up in Queens, New York City, and begins performing as a teenager with his schoolfriend Art Garfunkel. The pair first work together in 1956 and later become known as Simon & Garfunkel, with Simon also associated with Tom & Jerry, Tico & The Triumphs and The Cosines.

Simon & Garfunkel

Simon and Garfunkel rise to prominence in the 1960s with a blend of folk and rock. Their songs include “The Sound of Silence”, “Mrs. Robinson”, “America” and “The Boxer”, and their career together reaches a peak with Bridge Over Troubled Water in 1970. That album is at one point the best-selling album of all time.

Solo work

Simon’s solo work continues to move between folk, pop, rock and related forms, including contemporary folk, folk pop and folk rock. His 1970s albums Paul Simon, There Goes Rhymin’ Simon and Still Crazy After All These Years bring commercial and critical success and produce “Mother and Child Reunion”, “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard” and “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover”. Later albums include Graceland, The Rhythm of the Saints, You’re the One, So Beautiful or So What, Stranger to Stranger and Seven Psalms. His music also draws on gospel, reggae, soul and worldbeat.

Recognition and later work

Graceland becomes his biggest album and includes “You Can Call Me Al”. Simon and Garfunkel reunite several times for tours, including the Concert in Central Park, and Simon also stages his own Concert in the Park, which draws a large audience. He writes the Broadway musical The Capeman, which is not well received. Simon is a two-time inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and receives sixteen Grammy Awards, including three Album of the Year wins. Sounds of Silence and Graceland are entered into the National Recording Registry, and he is the first recipient of the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song in 2007.

Other work

Simon co-founds the Children’s Health Fund, a nonprofit that provides medical care to children. He also speaks about songwriting as a process in which music comes before words, with rhythm and themes such as love, family, social commentary, religion, spirituality and God shaping the lyrics.