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Simon and Garfunkel called themselves "Tom Jerry", and it was under this name that the duo first had success. In 1957, they recorded the single "Hey, Schoolgirl", on which reached forty-nine on the pop charts while they were still in their teens.
After graduating from high school, Simon attended , while Garfunkel studied at in .
Simon was a brother in the fraternity. Though Simon earned a degree in , his real passion was . Between 1957 and 1964, Simon wrote, recorded, and released more than thirty songs, occasionally reuniting with Garfunkel as Tom Jerry for some singles, including "Our Song", "That's My Story", and "Surrender, Please Surrender", among others.
He also briefly attended .
However, most of the songs Simon recorded in the six years after 1957 were performed alone or with musicians other than Garfunkel. They were released on several minor record labels, such as Amy, ABC-Paramount, Big, Hunt, Ember, King, Tribute, and Madison.
He used several different pseudonyms for these recordings, including Jerry Landis, Paul Kane (from 's film ), and True Taylor. Simon enjoyed some mediocre success in recording a few singles under the pseudonym Tico as part of a group called Tico and the Triumphs, including a song called "Motorcycle" which reached 99 on the charts in 1962. Tico and the Triumphs released four "45s".
Marty Cooper, a member of the group, sang lead on several of these releases and was actually known as Tico. That same year, Paul reached 97 on the pop charts as Jerry Landis with the hit "The Lone Teen Ranger". Both singles were released on Amy Records.
During this period, Simon met , with whom he recorded several unreleased demos as a duo called The to be recorded and released by other groups. In addition, Simon's experience in the studio led him to produce many singles for other acts, including The Vels, Ritchie Cordell, The Fashions, Jay Walker and the Pedestrians, and Dougie and the Dubs. It was also at this time that he became attracted to the New York scene and made his first forays into the folk-rock genre, as is evident in the songs "Carlos Dominguez" and "He Was My Brother" (1963), the latter of which he dedicated to a friend and former classmate, who had been murdered while working on the project in in 1964.
During the mid-1960s, while living in the UK, Simon co-wrote several songs with of the pop group . "I Wish You Could Be Here", "Cloudy", and "Red Rubber Ball" were written during this period. However, Woodley co-authorship credit was incorrectly omitted from "Cloudy" off the "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, Thyme" album.
When the American group recorded a cover of "Red Rubber Ball", the song reached number one in the US. Simon also contributed his original composition to The Seekers catalogue, "Someday One Day", which was released in March 1966.
In early 1964, Simon and Garfunkel got an audition with , whose executives were impressed enough to sign the duo to a contract to produce an album.
According to a February 2001 writing from Bud Scoppa, Miles Davis was a member of the Columbia Records staff that offered the duo a record deal. Columbia decided that the two would be called simply "Simon Garfunkel", which according to Simon, was the first time that artists' ethnic names had been used in pop music.
Simon and Garfunkel's first LP, was released on and comprised twelve songs in the folk vein, five of them written by Simon.
The album initially flopped, but radio stations on the east coast of the USA began receiving requests for one of the tracks, Simon's " ". Their producer, , overdubbed the track with , , and , releasing it as a single that eventually went to number one on the pop charts in the USA. Simon had gone to after the initial failure of , pursuing a solo career and releasing the album in the in 1965.
But he returned to the USA to reunite with Garfunkel after "The Sound of Silence" had started to enjoy commercial success. Together they recorded several influential albums, including 1966's , , in 1968 and (1969). Simon and Garfunkel also contributed extensively to the soundtrack of the 1967 film (starring and ).
They recorded an early version of " " not intended for the film. (The song was originally entitled Mrs. Roosevelt, about the good old days of and .
Reportedly, when the film's director, Nichols, heard the song, he instructed Paul: "It's Mrs. Robinson now.")
Simon pursued solo projects after the duo released their very popular album Bridge over Troubled Water.
Occasionally, he and Garfunkel did reunite, such as in 1975 for their Top Ten single "My Little Town", which Simon originally wrote for Garfunkel, claiming his work was lacking ‘bite’, until Garfunkel insisted they sing the song together, and put it on both of their solo albums, Paul Simon's , and Garfunkel's . Contrary to popular belief, the song is not at all autobiographical of Simon's early life in . In 1981, they got together again for the famous , followed by an aborted reunion album Think Too Much, which was eventually released (sans Garfunkel) as .
Together, they were inducted into the in 1990.
In 2003, the two reunited again when they received . This reunion led to a U.
S. tour, the acclaimed "Old Friends" concert series, followed by a 2004 international encore, which culminated in a free concert at the in . That final concert drew 600,000 people — 100,000 more than had attended 's concert at the same venue a year earlier.
After Simon and Garfunkel split in 1971, Simon began to write and record solo material. He released in 1972, which contained one of his first experiments with world music, the Jamaican inspired , and in 1973, which featured such popular hit songs as "Something So Right" (a tribute to his first wife, Peggy) and " ". His 1975 album is considered to be among his finest work, particularly the title track and the hit single " .
" Although mostly silent over the next ten years, he kept himself in the public with songs such as "Slip Slidin' Away", "Late in the Evening", " ", and " ", his tribute to slain ex- .
In 1985, Simon lent his talents to and performed on the fundraising single . In 1986 he released the immensely popular , for which he won a Grammy.
The album featured the groundbreaking use of African rhythms and performers such as . In 1990, he followed up Graceland with the commercially successful and consistent successor album , which featured and musical themes. These albums helped to popularize as a genre.
The importance of both albums allowed Simon to stage another New York concert, and on , , almost 10 years after his concert with Garfunkel, Simon staged another concert in Central Park with both African and South American bands. The success led to both a live album and a Emmy winning TV special.
Paul Simon at the Olympia, during the shooting of You're the One in concert
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