Simon & Garfunkel

Simon & Garfunkel was an American folk-rock duo formed by childhood friends Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, who met in Queens, New York, and first recorded together as teenagers under the name Tom & Jerry. After a period apart, they reunited in the early 1960s, signed to Columbia Records, and began recording as Simon & Garfunkel. Their debut, «Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M.» (1964), initially flopped, but the folk-rock reworking of «The Sound of Silence» by producer Tom Wilson turned it into a number-one hit in 1966, launching the duo to stardom.

Their sound combined Simon’s intricate, literary songwriting with Garfunkel’s pure, soaring tenor, layered in close vocal harmonies over folk, pop, and gentle rock arrangements. Albums like «Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme» and «Bookends» showcased increasingly ambitious songwriting, while their contributions to the film «The Graduate», including «Mrs. Robinson», brought them to an even wider audience.

Their final studio album, «Bridge Over Troubled Water» (1970), became one of the best-known works of the era, featuring the title track alongside songs like «Cecilia» and «The Boxer». Though the duo split soon after amid creative tensions, their catalog remains one of the most enduring and influential in American folk and pop music, with reunion performances and Simon’s and Garfunkel’s solo careers keeping their legacy alive.