Simon & Garfunkel were an American folk rock duo comprising the singer-songwriter Paul Simon and the singer Art Garfunkel. They were one of the best-selling music acts of the 1960s. Their most famous recordings include three US number ones: "The Sound of Silence" (1965) and the two winners of the Grammy Award for Record of the Year, "Mrs. Robinson" (1968) and "Bridge over Troubled Water" (1970). Other hits include "The Boxer" (1969), "Cecilia" (1970) and the four 1966 releases "Homeward Bound", "I Am a Rock", "Scarborough Fair/Canticle" (a single in 1968) and "A Hazy Shade of Winter", as well as the 1968 album track (and 1972 UK hit) "America".
Simon and Garfunkel met in elementary school in Queens, New York City, in 1953, where they learned to harmonize and Simon began writing songs. As teenagers, under the name Tom & Jerry, they had minor success with "Hey Schoolgirl" (1957), a song imitating their idols, the Everly Brothers. In 1963, they regrouped and were signed to Columbia Records as Simon & Garfunkel. Their debut album, Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. (October 1964), sold poorly; Simon returned to a solo career, this time in England. In 1965, an edited version of "The Sound of Silence", became a US AM radio hit, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100. They released their second album, Sounds of Silence, in 1966) and toured colleges nationwide. They assumed more creative control on their Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, released in 1966). Their music featured prominently in Mike Nichols's 1967 film The Graduate, and in 1968 the soundtrack album and the duo's fourth album, Bookends, featuring the hit version of "Mrs. Robinson", alternated at number one on the Billboard Top 200.
Simon and Garfunkel had a troubled relationship, leading to artistic disagreements and their breakup in 1970. Their final studio album, Bridge over Troubled Water, released that January, became one of the world's best-selling albums. Following their split, Simon hit big on both the singles chart (13 top-40 hits, 1972–1986) and the album chart, including the acclaimed Graceland (1986). Garfunkel charted with hits such as "All I Know" (1973) and the two UK number ones "I Only Have Eyes for You" (1975) and "Bright Eyes" (Britain's top single of 1979), and briefly pursued an acting career, with leading roles in the Mike Nichols films Catch-22 (1970) and Carnal Knowledge (1971) and in Nicolas Roeg's Bad Timing (1980). The duo have reunited several times; their 1981 concert in Central Park may have attracted more than 500,000 people, one of the largest concert attendances in history.
Simon & Garfunkel won seven Grammy Awards—plus four Grammy Hall of Fame Awards—and in 1990 were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Richie Unterberger described them as "the most successful folk-rock duo of the 1960s" and one of the most popular artists from the decade. They are among the best-selling music artists, having sold more than 100 million records. They were ranked 40th on Rolling Stone's 2010 list of the Greatest Artists of All Time and third on its list of the greatest duos. (Full article...)
