Simon & Garfunkel

Two radically different personalities and performers, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel nevertheless established one of the most successful duets in history, the combination of Garfunkel's soaring voice and Simon's crafted, poetic songs resulting in classic hits like The Sounds Of Silence, The Boxer, Mrs Robinson and, especially, Bridge Over Troubled Water. Friends from childhood they were heavily influenced by the Everly Brothers and first started performing at school as Tom And Jerry, and their first single Hey Schoolgirl became a minor hit in 1957. They later became popular on the Greenwich Village folk scene, releasing their Wednesday Morning 3am album in 1964, after which Simon travelled alone to Europe, recording his first solo album. In his absence, one of the Wednesday Morning 3am tracks, The Sounds Of Silence, was remixed in a folk-rock style by producer Tom Wilson and became a hit single, topping the US charts in 1966. Simon & Garfunkel swiftly reformed to record the equally successful Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme (1966), Bookends (1968) and Bridge Over Troubled Water (1970) albums. The song Mrs Robinson also featured in the hit movie The Graduate and Simon subsequently launched a solo career while Garfunkel moved into acting. However, they have reunited several times in the intervening years, including for a Grammy Awards appearance in 2003, which led to their first major tour together for over 20 years, and resulted in the live album and DVD Old Friends. They toured again in 2009 but cancelled 2010 dates due to Garfunkel suffering from throat problems.

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