| Paul
Simon, in a career dating back to
the 1950s, 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. 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. |
