Art Garfunkel and Paul Simon lived down the road from each other in New York City and had a career and relationship filled with ups, downs, and turmoil. I touch on those things but truly my main focus is the beautiful, one of a kind, and chart topping music that these two gentlemen gifted the world with.
Famous for hits like, “The Sound of Silence,” “Mrs. Robinson,” and “Bridge over Troubled Water,” Simon and Garfunkel are the world’s most famous folk rock duo and we’re going to do a quick look at their career and history of releases. We’ll talk about what makes them interesting and where you should start listening if you haven’t experienced all that this group from New York City has to offer. Paul Simon was born October 13th, 1941 and just a few weeks later, Art Garfunkel was born on November 5th. The two would spend several years living just three blocks away from each and first got to know each other while performing in their 6th grade school play. They became friends and a few years later dubbed themselves Tom and Jerry.
The duo created their first sucessful single when they were 16. The Everly Brothers inspired, “Hey, Schoolgirl” was a top 50 hit in 1957. Afterward they released a couple more singles with little success then Paul released a solo single under the artist name “True Taylor.” This upset Garfunkel and the 2 recorded seperately from each other until regrouping in 1963.
They came to the attention of Columbia Records producer, Tom Wilson and released their first album under the name Simon and Garfunkel, “Wednesday morning, 3 AM.” on October 19th, 1964. The album contains folk classics rearranged by Simon as well as several of his own compositions.
This soothing, melodic, poetic album largely consists of two acoustic guitars and double bass backing the distinctive sound of Art and Paul singing almost every word in unison and incredible harmony. Unfortunately, the album didn’t gain an audience and the duo decided to part ways again. Paul bounced back and forth to London where he continued to pursue a solo folk singer career and recorded and released a stripped down, one man, one microphone album called The Paul Simon Songbook in August 1965.
Earlier in ’65 The Byrds and Bob Dylan had great success with their new folk rock sounds and at the same time, “The Sounds of Silence” was attracting more radio airplay. So without informing the duo that he intended to re-release a new version of their song producer Tom Wilson hired an electric guitarist and rhythm section to record over “The Sound of Silence” and release it into this new folk rock movement. The single was released in September 1965 and by the first week of January 1966 it had made it to number 1 on the billboard charts.
So in December of 65 while the single was gaining more and more attention, Paul returned to New York and the band quickly recorded several new tracks including 5 of Paul’s songs from his “songbook” album. Their second album “Sounds of Silence” was released in Jan 17 1966 and features the electric version of the track as well as songs like “I am a Rock” which would enter the top ten after being released as a single.
Because the Sounds of Silence album was kind of a rush job, Simon took full control of the recording process and spent several months creating their next album, “Parsley Sage Rosemary and Thyme” It’s been seen as their first true masterpiece and though there are lyrics about changes in the world that spoke clearly to the audiences of 1966, it is a timeless album and one that will continue to be cherished for generations to come. The record contains such songs as “Scarborough Fair,” “Homeward Bound,” and “The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy)”
In 1967, Simon and Garfunkel toured all over the US and Canada and also played shows in England but they weren’t really recording any new songs until director Mike Nichols approached the band about including some of their music in his upcoming film, “The Graduate.” At first thought, Simon was oposed to the idea and considered it selling out, but he enjoyed the script and must have hit it off with Mike Nichols so he agreed to create some new music for the film. “Mrs. Robinson” was the only new track chosen and the movie and soundtrack mostly feature older songs.
What would become their fourth album, Bookends was recorded sporadically from late 66 to early 68 and eventually released in April of 1968. It is a concept album that reflects a life cycle. Starting with the Bookends theme and a song about diverging morals of the youth in the 60’s then continuing with songs about different choices and perspectives at different stages in life. This album is a much bigger production than anything we’ve heard from Simon and Garfunkel previously, many different types of instruments come and go and there are moments of interesting psychedelia. Songs you may recognize from this album include “Mrs. Robinson,” “America,” and “Fakin’ It.” With help from the publicity of “The Graduate,” “Bookends” stayed at number 1 for 7 weeks.
Art Garfunkel was getting more interested in acting and Mike Nichols cast both Artie and Paul in his next film, Catch-22. Unfortunately, a screen writer cut Simon’s roll and Art went to Mexico without him to film the movie. Production lasted longer than expected and Paul was left for over half a year without his recording partner, putting a halt to his method and further straining his relationship with his childhood friend.
Once the duo were together again, they were quickly working on the songs Paul had been writing and refused to play shows including Woodstock as they focused on creating what would be their final album before Paul would call it quits and go solo. The album, “Bridge over Troubled Water” continued to see Simon and Garfunkel incorporate even more new sounds and styles into their unique breed of folk rock including our first hint of Paul Simon’s future interest in world music with the Peruvian “El Condor Pasa.”
Somehow it seems that each album by this duo was always arguably better than the previous album and “Bridge over Troubled Water” continues the trend and is therefore potentially their best album. It was certainly their most successful album, it hit number 1 on charts around the world and stayed there for 33 weeks.
Art Garfunkel would go on to be in the next Mike Nichols movie as well and has released 10 studio albums outside of Simon and Garfunkel as of this recording. Paul Simon would prove to be a hit solo artist upon the release of his February 1972 album titled, “Paul Simon.” I’m a huge fan of his solo career so I’m certain I will do a video about it in the future so don’t miss out on what came next in his delicious discography.
So in the end it seems Simon and Garfunkel continued to get better and better as they became more of perfectionists throughout their career. Outside of the fact that they were often leading the way and changing with the times, their song writing was always top notch. If you’re looking for where to start with this band, there’s truly no wrong place. Anything you turn on will give you an idea of who these guys are and all of their songs are lovely. Just don’t turn on “Voices of Old People” as your first listening experience.
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