Simon and Garfunkel

St. James Encyclopedia of Pop Culture by Kembrew McLeod

Simon and Garfunkel, the extremely popular folk-rock duo of the 1960s, was one of the first groups to emphasize poetry in its lyrics, demonstrating that lyrical complexity and pop music were not mutually exclusive. Simon and Garfunkel were also very influential because, along with the Byrds and a handful of other artists, they were among the first to meld acoustic folk instrumentation with the sounds associated with rock 'n' roll: electric guitar, bass, and drums. Significantly, and symbolically, Simon and Garfunkel's songs were featured prominently in the 1967 Mike Nichols film The Graduate, a film starring Dustin Hoffman that is very much about the 1960s generation's coming of age. Taken as a whole, their albums--Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., Sounds of Silence, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, Bookends, The Graduate soundtrack, and Bridge Over Troubled Water--also provide an eloquent soundtrack to the turbulent second half of the 1960s.

The duo, comprised of Paul Simon (1941--) and Art Garfunkel (1941--), initially met at their elementary school in Forest Hills, New York, and soon realized that they could harmonize to the Doo-Wop songs that were popular on the radio. Soon the two began singing some of the many songs Simon was writing and, when they were both sixteen, the two recorded the song "Hey Schoolgirl." This Everly Brothers-inspired song was released as a single on the independent label, Big Records, under the pseudonym Tom & Jerry, and it sold respectably, reaching the Billboard Top 50. The two continued to work with each other intermittently throughout the late-1950s and early-1960s, though they primarily remained solo artists during this time. Garfunkel recorded as Artie Garr and Simon had modest chart success as a member of Tico and the Triumphs ("Motorcycle" briefly appeared at number 99 in 1962) and as Jerry Landis ("The Lone Teen Ranger" topped off at 97 in 1963).

The two got back together in 1964, playing in coffee houses in New York's Greenwich Village and recording the album Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., which sold poorly. The two split up again, with Simon going to England to eke out a living by performing live and recording his first solo album. While Simon was away, folk-rock producer Tom Wilson added electric bass, guitar, and drums to an obscure track from Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. named "Sounds of Silence," which immediately topped the Billboard pop singles chart in 1965. Hearing of his unexpected overnight success, Simon promptly returned to the States for a promotional tour and to record the duo's second album, which was primarily comprised of songs from Simon's U.K. solo album. That second album, Sounds of Silence, contained the popular remixed version of the title track and another Top 40 hit, "I Am a Rock." The popularity of their subsequent albums made Simon and Garfunkel among the most popular musical artists of the 1960s, and Paul Simon's complex and occasionally pretentious poetry influenced a number of other imitators.

Because Simon was not a prolific writer (most of the material contained on their first three albums was written between 1962 and 1965), the songs came more slowly near the end of their career together. This, along with the duo's increasing inability to get along, was one of the major reasons Simon and Garfunkel's final album, Bridge Over Troubled Water, took two years to record. This album, however, was their most popular and contained their most complex and varied material, from the genre dabbling of "Cecilia" and "El Condor Pasa" to the symphonic grandiosity of the title track (all of which were Top Forty hits). Since their breakup in 1970, the duo have only played together at two major concerts, a 1972 fund-raiser for presidential candidate George McGovern and a 1981 free concert in New York City's Central Park, which yielded the album, The Concert in Central Park.