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"Mrs. Robinson" is a song written by Paul Simon and first performed by Simon & Garfunkel. When released as a single in 1968, it hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the US, for their second chart-topping hit after "The Sound of Silence". An early version of the song appeared in the motion picture The Graduate (1967) and its subsequent soundtrack, while the complete song debuted on their album Bookends (1968).^[1] The song earned the duo a Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 1969.

Context[link]

In the film The Graduate, listless recent college graduate Benjamin Braddock has an affair with an older married woman, Mrs. Robinson. The song as it appears in the film is different from the familiar hit single version, as only the chorus of the song appears late in the film and with slightly different lyrics: "Stand up tall, Mrs. Robinson, God in heaven smiles on those who pray." It was only later on that Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel re-recorded the song by employing additional lyrics to form the hit single.

According to a Variety article by Peter Bart in the May 15, 2005 issue,^[2] director Mike Nichols had become obsessed with Simon & Garfunkel's music while shooting the film. Larry Turman, his producer, made a deal for Simon to write three new songs for the movie. By the time they were nearly finished editing the film, Simon had only written one new song. Nichols begged him for more but Simon, who was touring constantly, told him he didn't have the time. He did play him a few notes of a new song he had been working on; "It's not for the movie... it's a song about times past — about Mrs. Roosevelt and Joe DiMaggio and stuff." Nichols advised Simon, "It's now about Mrs. Robinson, not Mrs. Roosevelt." During an appearance on Dick Cavett's television show, Simon told the story of how the song was originally called "Mrs. Roosevelt," to which Cavett quipped: "That would have changed the plot of the movie."

Later references in film and Internet culture[link]

The film Rumor Has It... is based on the assumption that The Graduate is based on real events which become uncovered. The song "Mrs. Robinson" is featured in this film as well. Much of the last 20 minutes of Wayne's World 2 parodies the final sequence of The Graduate, and the version of "Mrs. Robinson" from the film is heard multiple times in a similar scene in which Wayne rushes to get to a wedding. One line from the film version is also heard near the end of the film American Pie when Stifler's mother seduces the young character Finch. The song also is used in the films Forrest Gump, My Mom's New Boyfriend, The Holiday and The Other Sister.

In early January 2010, after news of Iris Robinson (wife of Northern Ireland First Minister Peter Robinson) having an extramarital affair with the (40 years younger) adult child of a family friend became public, a group was set up on Facebook attempting to get the song "Mrs. Robinson" to No.1 in the Official UK Singles Chart for that week via download sales. It received coverage in The Telegraph and other British media.^[3][4] It also received coverage in gay-related publications because of the anti-gay stand of Peter Robinson.^[5]

The 2011 Doctor Who episode "The Impossible Astronaut" has the young-looking Eleventh Doctor introduce his middle-aged female friend River Song in 1969 to President Nixon as "Mrs. Robinson," a nod towards a hinted-at romantic relationship between the two in the Doctor's future and in River's past (due to time-travel paradoxes).^[6] River's line "Hello, Benjamin" spoken in the Doctor Who episode "Let's Kill Hitler" is a quote from a line spoken by Anne Bancroft as Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate.^[7]

Joe DiMaggio[link]

References in the last verse to Joe DiMaggio are perhaps the most discussed. Paul Simon, a fan of Mickey Mantle, was asked during an intermission on The Dick Cavett Show why Mantle wasn’t mentioned in the song instead of DiMaggio. Simon replied, "It's about syllables, Dick. It's about how many beats there are."^[8] For himself, DiMaggio initially complained that he had not gone anywhere, but soon dropped his complaints after a cordial meeting with Paul Simon when he explained what the lines meant. In a New York Times op-ed in March 1999,^[9] shortly after DiMaggio's death, Simon discussed this meeting and explained that the line was meant as a sincere tribute to DiMaggio's unpretentious heroic stature, in a time when popular culture magnifies and distorts how we perceive our heroes. He further reflected: "In these days of Presidential transgressions and apologies and prime-time interviews about private sexual matters, we grieve for Joe DiMaggio and mourn the loss of his grace and dignity, his fierce sense of privacy, his fidelity to the memory of his wife and the power of his silence." Simon subsequently performed "Mrs. Robinson" at Yankee Stadium in DiMaggio's honor the month after his death.

Chart performance[link]

Cover versions[link]

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Sinatra's changing the lyrics

• One of the earliest well-known cover versions of this song was by Frank Sinatra for his 1969 album My Way. This version changes a number of lines, including replacing "Jesus" with "Jilly" (Sinatra's close friend) and including a new verse directly referring to Mrs. Robinson's activities in The Graduate. Writing in The complete guide to the music of Paul Simon and Simon & Garfunkel, Chris Charlesworth writes that Sinatra's word-change was "senseless", motivated by the refusal of some radio stations to play the song because of the word "Jesus".^[12]

New songs about the character Mrs. Robinson

• The folk punk band Andrew Jackson Jihad based their song "People II: The Reckoning" on the song. Its final verse repeats the line "Here's to you, Mrs. Robinson" but asserts that no one cares rather than the original sentiment that Jesus loves her.^[13]
• Dutch band The Nits wrote a continuation of the romance between Mrs. Robinson and Benjamin, with new lyrics and music. Simon considered refusing to let the band re-use a few lines of his song, forcing them to delay release of the CD to record a version that used none of Simon's lyrics.^[14] The song, "Robinson", appeared on their 1998 album Alankomaat and was released as a single in the Netherlands. The live version contains lyric snippets from many other Simon and Garfunkel songs including opening with the line from "Sounds of Silence": "Hello darkness, my old friend."^[15]
• George Watsky & Mody based their song on a love of "older women" with Mrs. Robinson being the focus of the song.^[16]

Covers in different musical styles

• The James Taylor Quartet released an instrumental version in a jazz funk style (just like Booker T. & the M.G.'s in 1969) on their premiere album Mission Impossible, which consisted largely of covers of '60s film music.^[13]
• American soul singer Billy Paul did a rhythm and blues version in the 1970s.^[13]
• American glam metal band Kik Tracee has a cover version on their 1991 album No Rules.^[17]
• The Coolies' first album, dig..?, released in 1986 by DB Records, consisted of nine tongue-in-cheek covers of Simon & Garfunkel classics, including an instrumental version of "Mrs. Robinson."
• The Lemonheads recorded a punk-inflected cover version of this song that made #19 in December 1992. Although not originally included on The Lemonheads' album It's A Shame About Ray, the album was re-released with the cover of "Mrs. Robinson" included after the single's chart success.^[18]
• Stadium rockers Bon Jovi recorded the song on one of their live performances. The song was included on the limited edition bonus disc of their 1995 These Days album.^[13]
• Booker T & The MG's recorded an instrumental version in 1969 which first appeared on their album The Booker T. Set.

Foreign language covers

• In 1968 Francesco Guccini translated "Mrs. Robinson" into Italian; it was first covered in this version by the Italian beat group Royals and later was recorded by Bobby Solo on his LP Bobby Folk in 1970.^[19]
• In 1999 the Finnish band Eläkeläiset released a song "Herra Kekkonen" (Mr. Kekkonen, in reference to former president of Finland Urho Kekkonen) on their EP Humppaorgiat.^{[20][better source needed]} While the melody is identical to Paul Simon's song, the lyrics are entirely new and different and are not a translation of the original lyrics.

Trivia[link]

Top session drummer Hal Blaine played on the record, and considers it one of his favorites.^[21]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Paul Simon's tribute in the New York Times
• Here’s to You, Paul Simon: "Mrs. Robinson" and Her Legacy - Analysis of the lyrics at SoundStage.com

Simon & Garfunkel
Paul Simon (right) and Art Garfunkel performing live in Dublin.
Background information
Also known as	Tom and Jerry
Origin	Forest Hills, Queens, New York City, New York, USA
Genres	Folk rock, world music, soft rock, folk music
Years active	1957–1970, 1981–1983, 2003–2004, 2009
Labels	Columbia
Website	www.simonandgarfunkel.com
Past members
Paul Simon Art Garfunkel

Simon & Garfunkel were an American music duo consisting of singer-songwriters Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel. They formed the group Tom & Jerry in 1957 and had their first success with the minor hit "Hey, Schoolgirl". As Simon & Garfunkel, the duo rose to fame in 1965, largely on the strength of the hit single "The Sound of Silence". Their music was featured in the landmark film The Graduate (1967), propelling them further into the public consciousness.

They are well known for their vocal close harmonies and were among the most popular recording artists of the 1960s. Their biggest hits – including "The Sound of Silence" (1964), "I Am a Rock" (1965), "Homeward Bound" (1965), "Scarborough Fair/Canticle" (1966), "A Hazy Shade of Winter" (1966), "Mrs. Robinson" (1968), "Bridge over Troubled Water" (1969), "The Boxer" (1969), and "Cecilia" (1969) – peaked at number one in several charts. They have received several Grammys and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 and the Long Island Music Hall of Fame in 2007.^[1]

Their sometimes rocky relationship led to their last album, Bridge Over Troubled Water, being delayed several times due to artistic disagreements and as a result the duo broke up in 1970. It was their most successful album worldwide to date, peaking at number one in several countries, including the United States, and receiving 8× Platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of America, making it their highest-selling studio album in the U.S. and second-highest album overall. Simon & Garfunkel have, at times, reunited to perform and sometimes tour together. They have done so in every decade since the 1970 breakup, most famously for 1981's "The Concert in Central Park", which attracted more than 500,000 people, making it the 7th-most attended concert in the history of music. In 2004, they were ranked #40 on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 greatest artists of all time.

History[link]

Early history[link]

Close friends through childhood, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel grew up in Kew Gardens Hills, Queens, New York, just blocks away from each other. They met in elementary school in 1953, when they both appeared in the school play Alice in Wonderland (Simon as the White Rabbit, Garfunkel as the Cheshire Cat). They were classmates at Parsons Junior High School and Forest Hills High School, and began performing together in their junior year as Tom and Jerry, with Simon as Jerry Landis (whose last name he borrowed from a girl he had been dating) and Garfunkel as Tom Graph (so called because he was fond of tracking ("graphing") hits on the pop charts).^[2] They began writing their own songs in 1955, and made their first professional recording, "Hey, Schoolgirl", for Sid Prosen of Big Records in 1957. Released on 45 rpm and 78 rpm records, with the flip-side song "Dancin' Wild", the recording sold 100,000 copies,^[3] hitting #49 on the Billboard charts. Both Simon and Garfunkel have acknowledged the tremendous impact of the Everly Brothers on their style, and many of their early songs (including "Hey, Schoolgirl") bear the mark of this influence.

They later performed their hit on Dick Clark's American Bandstand, right after Jerry Lee Lewis performed "Great Balls of Fire".

Subsequent efforts in 1958 did not reach near their initial success, and after high school the duo went to separate colleges, with Simon enrolling at Queens College and Garfunkel at Columbia University. While enrolled in college, they both joined their campus chapters of the Jewish fraternity, Alpha Epsilon Pi.

In 1963, they found prominence as part of the Greenwich Village folk music scene. Simon, who had finished college but dropped out of Brooklyn Law School, had – like Garfunkel – developed an interest in the folk scene. Simon showed Garfunkel a few songs that he had written in the folk style: "Sparrow", "Bleecker Street", and "He Was My Brother", which was later dedicated to Andrew Goodman, a friend of both Simon and Garfunkel and a classmate of Simon's at Queens College, who was one of three civil rights workers murdered in Neshoba County, Mississippi, on June 21, 1964.

These three efforts were among five original songs by Simon included on their first album for Columbia Records, Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., which initially flopped upon its release on October 19, 1964.

First breakup[link]

Shortly after finishing recording, the duo split and Simon moved to the United Kingdom, where he performed at Les Cousins and the Troubadour in London and toured provincial folk clubs. While in England, he recorded his solo The Paul Simon Songbook in 1965. Recorded on three different dates in June and July at Levy's Studio, London, the album was released as an LP. By agreement, the album was supposed to go out of print after ten years. However, Billboard reported in early 1978 that Simon filed legal papers to get CBS to delete the album, noting that they were violating their agreement by keeping it in print and stating that it was "not representative of the performer's style."^[4] Many years later in March 2004, Simon responded to fan requests by re-releasing the album on CD with bonus tracks.^[5] During this period in London he also collaborated on a number of songs with Bruce Woodley of the Seekers, including "I Wish You Could Be Here", "Cloudy", and "Red Rubber Ball", which would be a U.S. #1 hit for the Cyrkle in 1966.

While Simon was in England that summer of 1965, radio stations around Cocoa Beach and Gainesville, Florida, began to receive requests for a song from the album Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. called "The Sound of Silence". The song also began to receive radio airplay in Boston. Seizing the chance, the duo's U.S. producer, Tom Wilson, inspired by the Byrds' hugely popular electric versions of Bob Dylan songs, used Dylan's studio band (who had collaborated with him on his landmark hit "Like a Rolling Stone" that year) to dub electric guitars, bass and drums onto the original "Sound of Silence" track, and released it as a single, backed with "We've Got a Groovy Thing Goin'".^[6] The dubbing turned folk into folk rock, the debut of a new genre for the Top 40, much to Simon's surprise. A few months earlier Simon and Garfunkel had briefly reunited and experimented with a more contemporary sound and recorded a couple of songs including "Groovy Thing".

In September 1965, Simon first learned that it had entered the pop charts while he was about to go on stage in a Danish folk club. The song hit #1 on the pop charts by New Year's Day, 1966.

Reformation and success[link]

A red vinyl promotional copy of Simon & Garfunkel's single "I Am a Rock", from 1966.

Simon immediately returned to the United States and the duo re-formed to record more tracks in a similar style, though neither approved of what Wilson had done with "The Sound of Silence".^{[citation needed]} The result was a sequence of folk rock records which have endured as well as any in the genre. On January 17, 1966, the duo released the album Sounds of Silence, which – helped by the title track's success – hit #21, while Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. was re-released and reached #30. Among the tracks on The Paul Simon Songbook that were rerecorded (some with electric backing) for Sound of Silence were "I Am a Rock" (which as a single reached U.S. #3 in the summer of 1966), "Leaves That Are Green", "April Come She Will", "A Most Peculiar Man", and "Kathy's Song".

Further hit singles came, including "Scarborough Fair/Canticle", based on a traditional English ballad with an arrangement by Martin Carthy, and "Homeward Bound" (later U.S. #5), about life on the road while Simon was touring in England in 1965. Paul Simon was inspired to write "Homeward Bound" while waiting at Ditton railway station on the outskirts of Widnes in North West England. A plaque commemorating this claim to fame was displayed at Ditton railway station until it was closed in 1994 when the plaque was moved to the ticket office on the Liverpool bound platform of the nearby Widnes railway station. Simon is quoted as saying "if you'd ever seen Widnes, then you'd know why I was keen to get back to London as quickly as possible."

More tracks from The Paul Simon Songbook were included along with recent compositions on their October 10, 1966, album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, which refined the folk rock sound hastily released on Sound of Silence. "Cloudy", co-written earlier with Bruce Woodley, was included on Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme. However, a Woodley credit was incorrectly omitted. The following year, Woodley's band The Seekers recorded it for their studio album Seen in Green, on which Simon received a credit.

In early 1967, Pickwick Records, which had a reputation as a low-quality label, decided that it would capitalize on the duo's newfound fame by releasing an album titled The Hit Sounds of Simon and Garfunkel. This album consisted of ten tracks recorded from the late 1950s and early 1960s while the duo still called themselves Tom & Jerry, including their hit "Hey, Schoolgirl", and its B-side, "Dancin' Wild". Simon and Garfunkel then sued Pickwick because the company was presenting the music as recently recorded material, not as songs written and released over five years earlier. Soon afterwards, Pickwick withdrew The Hit Sounds of Simon and Garfunkel from the market.

On June 16, 1967, the duo performed at the Monterey Pop Festival. That same year, Simon and Garfunkel contributed heavily to the soundtrack to Mike Nichols' film The Graduate, which was released on January 21, 1968, and instantly rose to #1 as an album. According to a Variety article by Peter Bart in the May 15, 2005, issue, Nichols had become obsessed with Simon and Garfunkel's music while shooting the film. Larry Turman, his producer, made a deal for Simon to write three new songs for the film. By the time they were nearly finished editing the film, Simon had written only one new song. Nichols begged him for more but Simon, who was touring constantly, told him he didn't have the time. He did play him a few notes of a new song he had been working on; "It's not for the movie... it's a song about times past—about Mrs. Roosevelt and Joe DiMaggio and stuff." Nichols advised Simon, "It's now about Mrs. Robinson, not Mrs. Roosevelt."^[7]

As their albums became progressively more adventurous, The Graduate soundtrack album was immediately followed in March 1968 at the top of the charts by Bookends, which dealt with increasingly complex themes of old age and loss. It features the top 25 hit singles "A Hazy Shade of Winter", "Fakin' It", "At the Zoo", "America" and a full version of "Mrs. Robinson" – the classic #1 single from The Graduate soundtrack. Simon and Garfunkel returned to England in the fall of 1968 and did a concert appearance at Kraft Hall which was broadcast on the BBC, and also featured Paul's brother Ed sitting in on a performance of the instrumental "Anji".^[8]

At the March 1969 Grammy Awards, "Mrs. Robinson" was named Record of the Year, while Simon was also honored with the Grammy for Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or a Television Special.^[9]

Second breakup[link]

By 1969, the duo's success began to take its toll. Garfunkel had begun to pursue a career in acting and was featured in the role of Nately in Nichols's film adaptation of the novel Catch-22. Garfunkel's filming leave conflicted with and subsequently delayed the recording of the duo's next album. The part in the film which had initially been promised to Simon was completely cut from the script.

The duo's deteriorating personal relationship continued into their late 1969 tour, which featured performances at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, on November 11 and Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois, on November 8, recordings of which are supposedly widely bootlegged^{[citation needed]}. Video footage of the tour was shown on their controversial November 30 television special Songs of America, which TV sponsors refused to endorse because of its distinct anti-Vietnam War message.

The recording of what would be their final album, Bridge Over Troubled Water, was not without tension. The LP was originally supposed to feature twelve tracks, but the duo could not agree on the twelfth track: Simon refused to record a Bach chorale track favored by Garfunkel, while Garfunkel refused to record a song Simon had written called "Cuba Si, Nixon No". No middle ground was reached, so the album was released with only eleven songs.

Bridge Over Troubled Water was at last released on January 26, 1970. Its title track, featuring Garfunkel's soaring vocals, was a massive hit and one of the best-selling records of the decade, staying #1 on the charts for six weeks and remaining on the charts for far longer. The album includes three other top-twenty hits: "El Cóndor Pasa" (US #18), "Cecilia" (US #4), and "The Boxer" – which, finished in 1968, hit #7 on the charts the following year –as well as a live recording of the Everly Brothers' "Bye Bye, Love" from a 1969 tour concert in Ames, Iowa.

At the subsequent March 1971 Grammy Awards, the album and single were named Album of the Year and Record Of The Year, and also won the awards for Best Engineered Record, Best Contemporary Song, Song Of The Year, and Best Arrangement Accompanying Vocalists. Their 1972 Greatest Hits album has sold over 14 million copies in the U.S. becoming the number-one selling album by a duo. The duo finally split in 1970 and both went their separate ways.

Simon continued writing and went on to a very successful solo music career, recording several classic albums, including There Goes Rhymin' Simon, Still Crazy After All These Years, and his most highly celebrated solo album, Graceland, collaborating with the Zulu choir Ladysmith Black Mambazo, among others.

Garfunkel split his time between acting and recording solo and collaboration albums, to mixed reviews. His most critically acclaimed album was the 1977 effort Watermark, almost all of the songs for which were penned by acclaimed songwriter Jimmy Webb.

Reunions[link]

Simon and Garfunkel together in 2009

Simon and Garfunkel's first reunion after their second breakup was at a June 1972 benefit concert at Madison Square Garden for presidential candidate George McGovern. On October 18, 1975, the duo made an appearance on the second episode of NBC's new show Saturday Night Live. They performed "The Boxer", "Scarborough Fair", and "My Little Town". The last song was the only new Simon and Garfunkel recording in five years, appearing on both men's solo albums released in 1975 (Simon's Still Crazy After All These Years and Garfunkel's Breakaway) and reaching #9 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Simon, along with James Taylor, provided harmony vocals on Garfunkel's cover of Sam Cooke's "Wonderful World", on Garfunkel's 1977 album Watermark; the single release of that song reached #1 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart and #17 on the Hot 100. Simon also contributed backing vocals to "In Cars", a song on Garfunkel's 1981 solo album Scissors Cut.

Simon and Garfunkel reunited again for a free concert in New York City's Central Park on September 19, 1981. The concert was attended by over 500,000 people, and a recording of it was subsequently released as a live album, with their cover of "Wake Up Little Susie" released as a single. A video recording was likewise televised by HBO and issued on home video. The success of the Central Park concert prompted the duo to go on a world tour in 1982–83, including a performance at Shea Stadium in August, 1983.

Simon and Garfunkel went on to complete the recording of their first new studio album in more than a decade, provisionally titled Think Too Much and featuring some songs previewed on their recent concert jaunt. However, creative differences, coupled with the record company's negative reaction to the decidedly un-Simon-and-Garfunkel-like album, led Simon to remove Garfunkel's vocal tracks and rework the songs himself. The 1983 Simon solo album Hearts and Bones was the result, and a long period of estrangement for the duo followed.

Their next joint public appearance was in 1990, when the two performed at a ceremony for their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Simon and Garfunkel appeared together in 1993 for 21 sold out concerts in New York, with half of the show being Paul Simon solo with a band and the other half Simon and Garfunkel. Later the same year, they did some charity concerts, including the Bridge School Benefit concerts and a benefit for United Way Children's Charities at SkyDome in Toronto.

In July 2002, Columbia Legacy issued a previously unreleased live recording of a Simon and Garfunkel concert, Live from New York City, 1967. It features an almost-complete recording of a performance given by the duo at Philharmonic Hall, at Lincoln Center in New York City on January 22, 1967. The album includes a rendition of "A Church Is Burning", one of the songs that originally appeared on Paul Simon's 1965 solo album, The Paul Simon Songbook.

On February 23, 2003, Simon and Garfunkel reunited to perform in public for the first time in a decade, singing "The Sound of Silence" as the opening act of the Grammy Awards. Before the show, the duo was presented with the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, honoring their musical contributions over the past four and a half decades. They were introduced by Dustin Hoffman, who made his debut in the film The Graduate, which extensively featured their music.

The good feelings generated by their appearance on the Grammys led to another thaw in their relationship. Soon, Simon and Garfunkel launched a two-month long reunion tour of the United States (and Toronto, Canada), which began October 16 and culminated in Tampa on December 21, 2003. Entitled Old Friends, their first tour in over twenty years included forty shows in twenty-eight cities and featured special guests the Everly Brothers. The tour featured in its opening video montage a short series of clips and photos taken during the day leading up to the concert around the venue. Simon and Garfunkel performed "Hey, Schoolgirl", which they said was the first song they had written and recorded together. At the tour concert at Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey, they performed "Leaves That Are Green" in place of "Song for the Asking", which had been on their set list for the other concerts on this tour, following an announcement that they had not played it in concert since 1967. They also played "Leaves That Are Green" at concerts in Cleveland and Boston after making a similar announcement.

The success of the first Old Friends tour led to an encore in June and July 2004 with over 25 shows, this time also in Europe. In July 2004, they completed the tour with a flourish, with a finale at the Colosseum in Rome before an audience which, according to the Mayor of Rome, exceeded 600,000 — even larger than the audience at the famous 1981 Central Park concert.^[10][11]

A live CD and DVD from their Old Friends tour was released in late 2004. It featured a "new" studio duo song, "Citizen of the Planet", one of the songs from the rejected 1983 reunion album that did not originally feature Garfunkel's vocal participation.

In 2007, PBS hosted the first Gershwin Awards, at which Paul Simon was honored. Simon introduced Garfunkel (for a cameo appearance) as "my partner in arguments" and the two sang "Bridge Over Troubled Water" together.

Columbia/Legacy announced the September 18, 2007, release of Live 1969, which was said to feature recently discovered masters recorded on their 1969 tour. Most of the arrangements remain virtually unchanged.^{[citation needed]} That 1969 tour would be their last for over a decade, immediately preceding the release of the 1970 album Bridge Over Troubled Water. The tour was recorded preparing for a subsequent live album, but the release of the live album did not happen, until now, as reported in Billboard.^[12]

On February 13, 2009, Simon and his band re-opened New York's legendary Beacon Theatre, which had been closed for seven months for a renovation. As an encore, Simon brought out "[his] old friend" Art Garfunkel. They sang 3 songs: "Sound of Silence", "The Boxer", and "Old Friends".

On April 2, 2009, the duo announced a tour of Australia, New Zealand and Japan for June/July 2009.^[13] On October 29–30, they participated together in the 25th anniversary of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame concerts at New York's Madison Square Garden. Other artists on the bill included Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band; U2; Metallica; Aretha Franklin; Stevie Wonder and Crosby, Stills & Nash.^[14]

In March 2010, Simon & Garfunkel announced a 13-date spring tour, to perform in April at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. Most performances were scheduled for Canada, with four shows in the upper Midwest of the U.S. According to a press release, the set list would focus on their classic catalog, as well as songs from each of their solo careers.^[15] On June 17, 2010, Simon & Garfunkel canceled the tour, earlier rescheduled for July 2010, now postponed indefinitely as Garfunkel continues to recover from a vocal cord paresis.^[16]

Legacy[link]

From the very beginning of their fame, through the present time years after their break-up, Simon and Garfunkel have had an impact on the popular culture as evidenced by the many references to them made in television, film, music and other aspects of pop culture.

Among the earliest pop culture references or homages came in the late 1960s, when the comedy television show Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In had a running skit featuring members of the "Farkel" Family, including Fred & Fanny Farkel, "and the twins, Simon and Gar Farkel". In the early '70s sitcom The Partridge Family, the two youngest Partridge children name their pet goldfish "Simon and Garfunkel".

In an episode of '90s sitcom Friends, the character Ross Geller was convincing character Phoebe Buffay to tell him why she was mad at him by asking her a series of questions requiring a rapid response; to the question "Who would you rather be, Simon or Garfunkel?", Phoebe replies "Garfunkel". In the episode "Our Dear Leaders" of Scrubs, Lucy Bennett refers to herself as "Garfunkel" being the second-in-command of her study group and mistakenly asks Drew Suffin to be her Micky Dolenz. In an episode of Monk, the title character Adrian Monk is upstaged by his now-famous assistant Natalie. This leads to him being referred to as the Garfunkel of the pair, a pop culture reference the character doesn't understand.

The lyrics of Simon and Garfunkel songs continue to be referenced many times on television, long after their initial popularity. On an episode of How I Met Your Mother, Marshall commissions a Venn diagram in which one section represents the "people who are breaking his heart" while the other represents "people who are shaking his confidence daily". The section where the two overlap is labelled "Cecilia". The end of the "Lady Bouvier's Lover" episode of The Simpsons contains one of the series' many homages to The Graduate, and features a parody of "The Sound of Silence" over the closing credits. ("Hello grandpa my old friend/your busy day is at an end/your words are always sad and boring/they tell a tale that's worth ignoring".) In another episode, Mr. Burns spins around a lamp post singing, "Hello lamp post. What ya knowin'? I've come to watch your power flowin'", a reference to the lyrics of "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)".

The episode "Bendin' in the Wind" of Futurama, in a double send-up of Simon and Garfunkel and Battlestar Galactica, features the singing duo "Cylon and Garfunkel" performing a rendition of "Scarborough Fair" in which the robot Cylon's singing is entirely monotone, and Garfunkel – who explains during the performance that he is the descendant of Art – states that he will give Bender the check "over my dead career!".

In an episode of Saturday Night Live's "Celebrity Jeopardy" parody, there was a category entitled "Members of Simon and Garfunkel". The clue read, "Of Simon and Garfunkel, the one who is not Garfunkel." Once the Sean Connery character rang in, he asked for the question to be repeated and said in response, "I Garfunkeled your mother!" This was one of the running gags of the parody. In another SNL skit, Will Forte and Jason Sudeikis pose as Bon Jovi opposite band, Jon Bovi, but when accused of sounding exactly like Bon Jovi, they say, "Well, if you didn't like that, you're going to love our new opposite folk rock band, Gimon & Sarfunkel."

In an episode of Flight of the Conchords, the lead characters form a Simon and Garfunkel tribute band performing "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme". Garfunkel himself later appears in the episode. In the episode "Unnatural Love", the song "Carol Brown" is an homage to the Paul Simon song "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover".

The Nickelodeon sitcom How To Rock uses the artist's family names as those of the main characters.

Discography[link]

Studio albums[link]

Singles with Billboard Hot 100 positions[link]

• 1965: "The Sound of Silence" (#1) / "We've Got a Groovy Thing Goin'"
• 1966: "Homeward Bound" (#5) / "Leaves That Are Green"
• 1966: "I Am a Rock" (#3)/ "Flowers Never Bend with the Rainfall"
• 1966: "The Dangling Conversation" (#25)/"The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine"
• 1966: "A Hazy Shade of Winter" (#13) / "For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her"
• 1967: "At the Zoo" (#16) / "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)"
• 1967: "Fakin' It" (#23) / "You Don't Know Where Your Interest Lies"
• 1968: "Scarborough Fair/Canticle" (#11) / "April Come She Will"
• 1968: "Mrs. Robinson" (#1) / "Old Friends/Bookends"
• 1969: "The Boxer" (#7) / "Baby Driver" (#101)
• 1970: "Bridge over Troubled Water" (#1) / "Keep the Customer Satisfied"
• 1970: "Cecilia" (#4) / "The Only Living Boy in New York"
• 1970: "El Cóndor Pasa" (#18) / "Why Don't You Write Me"
• 1972: "For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her" (live version) (#53) / "America" (#97)
• 1975: "My Little Town" (#9) / "Rag Doll" (Art Garfunkel) / "You're Kind" (Paul Simon)
• 1982: "Wake Up Little Susie" (#27) / "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard"
• 1997: "Old Friends (1997 Simon and Garfunkel album)" / "Bookends"

Awards[link]

• Grammy Awards (1969) – Record of the Year, Best Contemporary Pop Performance – Vocal Duo or Group (for "Mrs. Robinson"); Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or a Television Special (for The Graduate)
• Grammy Awards (1971) – Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Contemporary Song, Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s), Best Engineered Recording, Best Contemporary Vocal Group (for "Bridge over Troubled Water")
• BRIT Awards (1978) – Best International Album (of the past 25 years) (for Bridge Over Troubled Water")
• Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1990) – Inductee
• Grammy Awards (2003) – Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Charlesworth, Chris, The Complete Guide to the Music of Paul Simon and Simon & Garfunkel, Omnibus Press 1996.

External links[link]

	Book: Simon & Garfunkel
Wikipedia books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Simon and Garfunkel

Official

• Official site
• Paul Simon's official site
• Art Garfunkel's official site

Biographical and discographical

• Simon and Garfunkel at Allmusic

Other

• Simon & Garfunkel interviewed on the Pop Chronicles (1969).
• Interview (2004) of both Art Garfunkel and Paul Simon

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2012)

Paul Simon
Paul Simon performing March 8, 2007
Background information
Birth name	Paul Frederic Simon
Born	(1941-10-13) October 13, 1941 (age 70) Newark, New Jersey, U.S.
Genres	Folk rock, folk-pop, soft rock, world fusion
Occupations	Musician, singer-songwriter, producer
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, bass, piano, percussion, lute, alto saxophone, piccolo
Years active	1957–present
Labels	Columbia, Warner Bros., Hear Music
Associated acts	Simon & Garfunkel
Website	www.paulsimon.com
Notable instruments
Martin OM42PS (Paul Simon) and PS2 Yamaha PS Signature Models

Paul Frederic Simon (born October 13, 1941) is a grammy award winning American singer-songwriter, poet and guitarist.

Simon's international fame and success began as part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, launched in 1964 with musical partner Art Garfunkel. Simon wrote most of the pair's songs, including three that reached No. 1 on the U.S. singles charts: "The Sound of Silence", "Mrs. Robinson", and "Bridge Over Troubled Water".^[1] The duo split up in 1970 at the height of their popularity, and Simon began a successful solo career, recording three highly acclaimed albums over the next five years.^[2] In 1986, he released Graceland, an album inspired by South African township music. Simon also wrote and starred in the film One-Trick Pony in 1980 and co-wrote the Broadway musical The Capeman in 1998.^[3]

Simon has earned 12 Grammys for his solo and collaborative work, including the Lifetime Achievement Award.^[4] In 2001, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame^[5] and in 2006 was selected as one of the "100 People Who Shaped the World" by Time magazine.^[6] Among many other honors, Simon was the first recipient of the Library of Congress' Gershwin Prize for Popular Song in 2007.^[7] In 1986 Simon was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Music degree from Berklee College of Music where he currently serves on the Board of Trustees.^{[8] [9]}

Biography[link]

Early years[link]

Simon was born in Newark, New Jersey. His father, Louis (1916–1995), was a college professor, upright bass player, and dance bandleader who performed under the name "Lee Sims". His mother, Belle (1910–2007), was an elementary school teacher. In 1941, his family moved to Kew Gardens Hills, Queens, in New York City. Donald Fagen has described Simon's childhood as that of "a certain kind of New York Jew, almost a stereotype, really, to whom music and baseball are very important. I think it has to do with the parents. The parents are either immigrants or first-generation Americans who felt like outsiders, and assimilation was the key thought — they gravitated to black music and baseball looking for an alternative culture."^[10] Simon, upon hearing Fagen's description, said it "isn't far from the truth."^[10] Simon says about his childhood, "I was a ballplayer. I'd go on my bike, and I'd hustle kids in stickball." He adds that his father was a Yankee fan:

I used to listen to games with my father. He was a nice guy. Fun. Funny. Smart. He didn't play with me as much as I played with my kids. He was at work until late at night. . . Sometimes [until] two in the morning."^[10]

Simon's musical career began at Forest Hills High School after meeting Art Garfunkel when they were both 11. They performed in a production of Alice in Wonderland for their sixth grade graduation, and began singing together when they were 13,^[11] occasionally performing at school dances. Their idols were the Everly Brothers, whom they imitated in their use of close two-part harmony. Simon also developed an interest in jazz, folk and blues, especially in musical legends Woody Guthrie and Lead Belly.

Simon's first song written for himself and Garfunkel, when he was 12 or 13, was called "The Girl for Me," and according to Simon became the "neighborhood hit." His father wrote out the words and chords on paper by hand for the boys to use. That paper became the first officially copyrighted Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel song, and is now in the Library of Congress. In 1957, still in their mid-teens, they recorded the song "Hey, Schoolgirl" under the name Tom and Jerry, given to them by their label Big Records. The single reached No. 49 on the pop charts.

After graduating from high school, Simon majored in English at Queens College, while Garfunkel studied mathematics at Columbia University in Manhattan.^[10] Simon was a brother in the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity, earned a degree in English literature, and briefly attended Brooklyn Law School after graduation, but his real passion was rock and roll.

Early career[link]

Between 1957 and 1964, Simon wrote, recorded, and released more than 30 songs, occasionally reuniting with Garfunkel as Tom & Jerry for some singles, including "Our Song" and "That's My Story". Most of the songs Simon recorded during that time were performed alone or with musicians other than Garfunkel. They were released on several minor record labels, such as Amy, Big, Hunt, King, Tribute, and Madison. He used several pseudonyms for these recordings, including Jerry Landis, Paul Kane and True Taylor. Simon enjoyed some moderate success in recording a few singles as part of a group called Tico and the Triumphs, including a song called "Motorcycle" which reached No. 97 on the Billboard charts in 1962. Tico and the Triumphs released four 45s. Marty Cooper, known as Tico, sang lead on several of these releases. A childhood friend, Bobby Susser, children's songwriter, record producer, and performer, co-produced the Tico 45s with Simon. That year, Simon reached No. 99 on the pop charts as Jerry Landis with the hit "The Lone Teen Ranger." Both chart singles were released on Amy Records.

Simon & Garfunkel[link]

In early 1964, Simon and Garfunkel got an audition with Columbia Records, whose executive Clive Davis was impressed enough to sign the duo to a contract to produce an album. Columbia decided that the two would be called simply "Simon & Garfunkel", a replacement for the group's previous name "Tom and Jerry". Simon said in 2003 that this renaming as "Simon & Garfunkel" was the first time that artists' ethnic names had been used in pop music.^[12] Simon and Garfunkel's first LP, Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., was released on October 19, 1964; it consisted of 12 songs in the folk vein, five written by Simon. The album initially flopped.

So Simon moved to England to pursue a solo career by touring folk clubs and coffee houses. At the first club he played, the Railway Inn Folk Club in Brentwood, Essex, he met Kathy Chitty who became his girlfriend and inspiration for "Kathy's Song", "America" and others. He performed at Les Cousins in London and toured provincial folk clubs where he was exposed to a wide range of musical influences. In 1965, he recorded his solo LP The Paul Simon Songbook in England.

During his time in the UK, Simon co-wrote several songs with Bruce Woodley of the Australian pop group The Seekers including "I Wish You Could Be Here," "Cloudy", and "Red Rubber Ball"; Woodley's co-author credit was omitted from "Cloudy" on the Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme album. The American group The Cyrkle recorded a cover of "Red Rubber Ball", which reached No. 2 in the US. Simon also contributed to The Seekers catalogue with "Someday One Day," which was released in March 1966, charting at around the same time as Simon and Garfunkel's Homeward Bound.

Back on the American East Coast, radio stations began receiving requests for one of the Wednesday Morning tracks, Simon's "The Sounds of Silence". Their producer, Tom Wilson, overdubbed the track with electric guitar, bass, and drums, releasing it as a single that eventually went to No. 1 on the U.S. pop charts.^{[citation needed]}

The song's success drew Simon back to the United States to reunite with Garfunkel. Together they recorded four more influential albums: Sounds of Silence; Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme; Bookends; and the hugely successful Bridge over Troubled Water. Simon and Garfunkel also contributed extensively to the soundtrack of the Mike Nichols film The Graduate (1967), starring Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft. While writing "Mrs. Robinson", Simon originally toyed with the title "Mrs. Roosevelt". When Garfunkel reported this indecision over the song's name to the director, Nichols replied, "Don't be ridiculous! We're making a movie here! It's Mrs. Robinson!"^[13] Simon and Garfunkel returned to England in the fall of 1968 and did a church concert appearance at Kraft Hall, which was broadcast on the BBC, and which also featured Paul's brother Ed sitting in on a performance of the instrumental "Anji".^[14]

Simon pursued solo projects after Bridge over Troubled Water, reuniting occasionally with Garfunkel for various projects, such as their 1975 Top Ten single "My Little Town". Simon had written it for Garfunkel, whose solo output Simon judged as lacking "bite". The song was included on their respective solo albums: Paul Simon's Still Crazy After All These Years; and Garfunkel's Breakaway. Contrary to popular belief, the song is not autobiographical of Simon's early life in New York City.^[15] In 1981, they got together again for the famous concert in Central Park, followed by a world tour and an aborted reunion album, to have been entitled Think Too Much, which was eventually released (without Garfunkel) as Hearts and Bones. Together, they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.^[16]

In 2003, Simon and Garfunkel reunited once again when they received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. 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 Colosseum in Rome that drew 600,000 people.^[17] In 2005, the pair sang "Bridge Over Troubled Water" with Aaron Neville in a benefit for Hurricane Katrina victims.^{[citation needed]}

The pair reunited six years later in New Orleans at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.^[18]

1971–76[link]

After Simon and Garfunkel split in 1970, Simon began to write and record solo material. His eponymous album Paul Simon was released in January 1972, preceded by his first experiment with world music, the Jamaican-inspired "Mother and Child Reunion", considered one of the first examples of reggae attempted by a white musician. The single was a hit, reaching both the American and British Top 5. The album received universal acclaim, with critics praising the variety of styles and the confessional lyrics, reaching No. 4 in the US and No. 1 in the UK and Japan. It later spawned another Top 30 hit with "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard".

Simon's next project was the pop-folk masterpiece, There Goes Rhymin' Simon, released in May 1973. It contained some of his most popular and polished recordings – the lead single, "Kodachrome", was a No. 2 hit in America, and the follow-up, the gospel-flavored "Loves Me Like a Rock" was even bigger, topping the Cashbox charts. Other songs, like the weary "American Tune" or the melancholic "Something So Right" – a tribute to Simon's first wife, Peggy – became standards in the musician's catalogue. The critical and commercial reception for this second album were even stronger than for his debut. At the time, it was remarked how the songs were very fresh and unworried on the surface while they were exploring socially and politically conscious themes on a deeper level.^{[citation needed]} The album reached No. 1 on the Cashbox album charts. As a souvenir for the tour that came next, in 1974 it was released as a live album, Live Rhymin', which was moderately successful and displayed some changes in Simon's music style, adopting world and religious music.

Highly anticipated, Still Crazy After All These Years was his next album. Released in October 1975 and produced by Simon and Phil Ramone, it marked another departure. The mood of the album was darker, as he wrote and recorded it in the wake of his divorce. Preceded by the feel-good duet with Phoebe Snow, "Gone at Last" (a Top 25 hit) and the Simon & Garfunkel reunion track "My Little Town" (a No. 9 on Billboard), the album managed to be his only No. 1 on the Billboard charts to date. The 18th Grammy Awards named it the Album of the Year and Simon's performance the year's Best Male Pop Vocal. With Simon in the forefront of popular music, the third single from the album, "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" reached the top spot of the Billboard charts, his only single to reach No. 1 on this list. Also, on May 3, 1976, Simon put together a benefit show at Madison Square Garden to raise money for the New York Public Library. Phoebe Snow, Jimmy Cliff and the Brecker Brothers also performed. The concert produced over $30,000 for the Library.

1977–85[link]

After three back-to-back successful studio albums, Simon became less productive during the second half of the 1970s. He dabbled in various projects, including writing music for the film Shampoo and acting (he was cast as Tony Lacey in Woody Allen's film Annie Hall). He achieved another hit in this decade, with the lead single of his 1977 compilation, Greatest Hits, Etc., "Slip Slidin' Away", reaching No. 5 in the United States.

In 1980 he released One-Trick Pony, his debut album with Warner Bros. Records and his first in almost five years. It was paired with the motion picture of the same name, which Simon wrote and starred in. Although it produced his last Top 10 hit with the upbeat "Late in the Evening" (also a No. 1 hit on the Radio & Records American charts), the album did not sell well, in a music market dominated by disco music. Simon recorded Hearts and Bones, a polished and confessional album that was eventually viewed as one of his best works, but that marked a lull in his commercial popularity; both the album and the lead single, "Allergies", missed the American Top 40. Hearts and Bones included "The Late Great Johnny Ace", a song partly about Johnny Ace, an American R&B singer, and partly about slain Beatle John Lennon. A successful US solo tour featured Simon and his guitar, with a recording of the rhythm track and horns for "Late In The Evening."^{[citation needed]} In January 1985, Simon lent his talent to USA for Africa and performed on the relief fundraising single "We Are the World".

1986–92[link]

Graceland (1986) album cover.

As he commented years later, after the disappointing commercial performance of Hearts and Bones, Simon felt he had lost his inspiration to a point of no return, and that his commercial fortunes were unlikely to change. While driving his car in late 1984 in this state of frustration, Simon listened to a cassette of the Boyoyo Boys' instrumental "Gumboots: Accordion Jive Volume II". Interested by the unusual sound, he wrote lyrics to the number which he sang over a re-recording of the song. It was the first composition of a new musical project that became the celebrated album Graceland, an eclectic mixture of musical styles including pop, a cappella, isicathamiya, rock, and mbaqanga. Simon felt that he had nothing to lose. He travelled to South Africa in an attempt to embrace the culture and find the most comfortable environment for recording the album. Sessions in Johannesburg took place in February 1985. Overdubbing and additional recording was done in April, 1986, in New York. The sessions featured many South African musicians and groups, particularly Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Simon also collaborated with several artists of his own culture, singing a memorable duet with Linda Ronstadt in "Under African Skies", and playing with Los Lobos in "All Around the World or The Myth of the Fingerprints". Warner Bros. Records had serious doubts about releasing an album of this eclecticism to the mainstream, but when it did in August 1986, Graceland was praised by critics and the public and became Simon's most successful solo album. Slowly climbing the worldwide charts, it reached #1 in many countries, including the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and peaked at #3 in the US. It was the second-best-selling album of 1987 in the US, selling five million copies and eventually reaching 5x Platinum certification. Another seven million copies were sold internationally to become his best-selling album. Much of the success of the album was due to the lead single, the upbeat "You Can Call Me Al", whose lyrics describe a man experiencing an identity crisis. The track featured many memorable elements – a catchy synthesizer riff, an easy whistle solo, and an unusual bass run in which the second half was a reversed recording of the first half. "You Can Call Me Al" was accompanied with a humorous video featuring actor Chevy Chase, which introduced Simon to a new audience through MTV. In the end, the track reached UK Top 5 and the US Top 25. Further singles, including the title track, "The Boy in the Bubble" and "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes", were not commercial hits but became radio standards and were highly praised.

At age 45, Simon found himself back at the forefront of popular music. He received the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1987 and also Grammy Award for Record of the Year for the title track one year later. He also embarked on the very successful Graceland Tour, which was documented on music video. Simon found himself embracing new sounds, a fact that some critics viewed negatively – however, Simon reportedly felt it as a very natural artistic experiment, considering that "world music" was already present on much of his early work, including such Simon & Garfunkel hits as "El Condor Pasa" and his early solo recording "Mother and Child Reunion", which was recorded in Kingston, Jamaica. One way or another, Warner Bros. Records (who by this time now controlled and reissued all his previous Columbia albums) re-established Simon as one of their most successful artists. In an attempt to capitalize on his renewed success, WB Records released the album Negotiations and Love Songs in November 1988, a mixture of popular hits and personal favorites that covered Simon's entire career and became an enduring seller in his catalog.

After Graceland, Simon decided to extend his roots with the Brazilian music-flavored The Rhythm of the Saints. Sessions for the album began in December 1989, and took place in Rio de Janeiro and New York, featuring guitarist J. J. Cale and many Brazilian and African musicians. The tone of the album was more introspective and relatively low-key compared to the mostly upbeat numbers of Graceland. Released on October 1990, the album received excellent critical reviews and achieved very respectable sales, peaking at #4 in the US and No. 1 in the UK. The lead single, "The Obvious Child", featuring the Grupo Cultural Olodum, was a Top 20 hit in the UK and appeared near the bottom of the Billboard Hot 100. Although not as successful as Graceland, The Rhythm of the Saints was received as a competent successor and consistent complement on Simon's attempts to explore (and popularize) world music, and also received a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year. Here are also more songs about past loves; his ex-wife Carrie Fisher says in her autobiography Wishful Drinking that the song "She Moves On" is about her. It's one of several she claims, followed by the line, "If you can get Paul Simon to write a song about you, do it. Because he is so brilliant at it." ^[19]

The importance of both albums allowed Simon to stage another New York concert, and on August 15, 1991, almost a decade after his concert with Garfunkel, Simon staged another concert in Central Park with both African and South American bands. The success of the concert surpassed all expectations, and reportedly over 750,000 people attended, becoming one of the largest concert audiences in history. He later remembered the concert as the "most memorable moment in my career". The success of the show led to both a live album and an Emmy-winning TV special. In the middle, Simon embarked on the successful Born at the Right Time Tour and promoted the album with further singles, including "Proof" – accompanied with a humorous video featuring, again, Chevy Chase. On March 4, 1992 he appeared on his own MTV Unplugged, offering renditions of many of his most famous compositions. Broadcast in June, the show was a success, though it did not receive an album release.

1993–98[link]

After Unplugged, Simon's place in the forefront of popular music dropped notably. A Simon & Garfunkel reunion took place in 1993, and in another attempt to capitalize on the occasion, Columbia released Paul Simon 1964/1993 in September, a three-disc compilation that received a reduced version on the two-disc album The Paul Simon Anthology one month later. In 1995 he only made news for appearing at The Oprah Winfrey Show, where he performed the song "Ten Years", which he composed specially for the tenth anniversary of the show. Also that year, he was featured on the Annie Lennox version of his 1973 song "Something So Right", which appeared briefly on the UK Top 50 once it was released as a single in November.

Since the early stages of the nineties, Simon was fully involved on The Capeman, a musical that finally opened on January 29, 1998. Simon worked enthusiastically on the project for many years and described it as "a New York Puerto Rican story based on events that happened in 1959—events that I remembered." ^[20] The musical tells the story of real-life Puerto Rican youth Salvador Agron, who wore a cape while committing two murders in 1959 New York, and who went on to become a writer in prison. Featuring Marc Anthony as the young Agron and Ruben Blades as the older Agron, the play received terrible reviews and very poor box office receipts from the very beginning, and ended up closing on March 28 after just 68 performances, becoming a failure from which Simon reportedly lost 11 million dollars. Simon recorded an album of songs from the show, which was released in November 1997. It was received with very mixed reviews, though many critics praised the combination of doo-wop, rockabilly and Caribbean music that the album reflected. In commercial terms, Songs from The Capeman was a failure—it found Simon missing the Top 40 of the Billboard charts for the first time in his career. The cast album was never released on CD but eventually became available online.

1999–2007[link]

After the disaster of The Capeman, Simon's career was again in an unexpected crisis. However, entering the new millennium he maintained a respectable reputation, offering critically acclaimed new material and receiving commercial attention. In 1999, Simon embarked on a North American tour with Bob Dylan where each alternated as headline act with a "middle" section where they performed together, starting on the first of June and ending September 18. The collaboration was generally well-received, with just one critic, Seth Rogovoy, from the Berkshire Eagle, questioning the collaboration.^[21]

In an attempt to return successfully to the music market, Simon wrote and recorded a new album very quickly, with You're the One arriving in October 2000. The album consisted mostly of folk-pop writing combined with foreign musical sounds, particularly grooves from North Africa. While not reaching the commercial heights of previous albums, it managed at least to reach both the British and American Top 20. It received favorable reviews and received a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year. He toured extensively for the album, and one performance in Paris was released to home video.

On September 21, 2001, Simon sang "Bridge Over Troubled Water" on "America: A Tribute to Heroes", a multinetwork broadcast to benefit the September 11 Telethon Fund. In 2002, he wrote and recorded "Father and Daughter", the theme song for the animated children's movie The Wild Thornberrys Movie, The track was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song. In 2003, he participated on another Simon & Garfunkel reunion. One year later, Simon's studio albums were re-released both individually and together in a limited-edition nine-CD boxed set, Paul Simon: The Studio Recordings 1972–2000.

At the time, Simon was already working on a new album with Brian Eno called Surprise, which was released in May 2006. Most of the album was inspired by the September 11 terrorist attacks, the Iraq invasion and the war that followed. In personal terms, Simon was also inspired by the fact of being over 60 years old, an age that he turned in 2001 and that he humorously referred already on his single "Old" from the You're the One. Simon showed special care about the musical venture he traveled since 1986's Graceland. As he put it, "Once you go away for a bit, you wonder who people think you are. If they don't know what you're up to, they just go by your history. I'm so often described as this person that went to other cultures, which is true, but I never thought of it that way. I suspect people are thinking, 'What culture did you go to?' But this record is straight-ahead American." Surprise was a commercial hit, reaching #14 in the Billboard 200 and #4 in the UK. Most critics also praised the album, and many of them called it a real "comeback" for the artist. Stephen Thomas Erlewine from Allmusic paid attention to the attempts of Simon in embracing his classic folk sound with Eno's electronic textures, and wrote that "Simon doesn't achieve his comeback by reconnecting with the sound and spirit of his classic work; he has achieved it by being as restless and ambitious as he was at his popular and creative peak, which makes Surprise all the more remarkable." The album was supported with the successful Surprise Tour.

On March 1, 2007, Simon made headlines again when he was announced as the first recipient of the recently-created Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. The Prize, created by the Library of Congress, was awarded to Simon during a Concert Gala featuring his music at the Warner Theatre in Washington, D.C., on the evening of May 23. The event was nationally broadcast on PBS on the evening of June 27, 2007.^[22] Performers at the concert included Shawn Colvin, Philip Glass, Alison Krauss, Jerry Douglas, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Lyle Lovett, James Taylor, and Stevie Wonder as well as Simon's former collaborator Art Garfunkel.^[23] On June 26, Warner Bros. released the definitive Paul Simon greatest-hits collection. The Essential Paul Simon consisted of two discs that reviewed 36 songs from his ten studio albums, and was also released on a special edition featuring a DVD of music videos and memorable live performances. The album was a commercial hit, reaching #12 in the UK.

2008–12[link]

Simon performing live in Germany, in 2008.

Paul Simon resides in New Canaan, Connecticut.^[24] He is one of a small number of performers who are named as the copyright owner on their recordings (most records have the recording company as the named owner of the recording). This noteworthy development was spearheaded by the Bee Gees after their successful $200 million lawsuit against RSO Records, which remains to this day the largest successful lawsuit against a record company by an artist or group.

All of Simon's solo recordings, even the ones originally issued by Columbia Records, are currently distributed by Sony Records' Legacy Recordings unit. His records were issued by Warner Music until mid-2010.^[25]

In February 2009, Simon performed back-to-back shows in his native New York City at the Beacon Theatre, which had recently been renovated. Simon was reunited with Art Garfunkel at the first show as well as with the cast of The Capeman; also playing in the band was Graceland bassist Bakithi Kumalo.

In May 2009, Simon toured with Art Garfunkel in Australia, New Zealand and Japan.

In October 2009, Simon appeared alongside Art Garfunkel at the 25th Anniversary of The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame concert at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The pair performed four of their most popular songs, "The Sound of Silence", "The Boxer", "Cecilia", and "Bridge Over Troubled Water".

Simon paying tribute to musician Chuck Berry and Leonard Cohen who were the recipients of the first annual PEN Awards for songwriting excellence, at the JFK Presidential Library, on February 26, 2012.

In mid-2010, Simon moved his catalogue of solo work from Warner Bros. Records to Sony/Columbia Records ^[25] where Simon and Garfunkel's catalogue is. Simon's back catalogue of solo recordings would be marketed by Sony Music's Legacy Recordings unit.

Simon's latest album entitled So Beautiful or So What,^[26] was released on the Concord Music Group label on April 12, 2011.^[27] The album received high marks from the artist, "It's the best work I've done in 20 years."^[25] It was reported that Paul Simon attempted to have Bob Dylan guest on the album.^[25]