Paul Simon (musician), born in 1941, American musician and composer, known for his folk-rock songs and collaboration with musicians from many countries. Simon was born in Newark, New Jersey, and educated at Queens College at the City University of New York. He began performing with his childhood friend, singer Art Garfunkel, while the two were in high school. The pair split up shortly after the release of a minor hit, “Hey, Schoolgirl,” in 1957, and reunited at college with a shared interest in folk-rock music.

In 1964 Simon and Garfunkel recorded their first album, Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., for Columbia Records. The album featured several of Simon's original compositions, one of which, “The Sound of Silence,” rose to number one on the music charts and earned the duo's first gold record. Their success continued through five more albums, all gold records: Sounds of Silence (1966), Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme (1966), The Graduate (film soundtrack, 1968), Bookends (1968), and Bridge Over Troubled Water (1970), which won an unprecedented six Grammy Awards.

After the dissolution of his partnership with Garfunkel in 1970, Simon released Paul Simon (1972), a solo album featuring rock, jazz, and reggae music, followed by There Goes Rhymin' Simon (1973), Live Rhymin' (1974), and Still Crazy After All These Years (1977), his most successful solo release of the 1970s. In 1980 Simon wrote the screenplay, starred in, and composed the soundtrack for the movie One Trick Pony. A 1981 reunion concert with Art Garfunkel in New York City’s Central Park was recorded as an album, with the Hearts and Bones album following in 1983.

Simon’s 1987 concert performance of his Graceland album in Harare, Zimbabwe, was enthusiastically received by an interracial audience. The songs were strongly influenced by Cajun and South African township music and performed with a complement of more than 20 black musicians. The Graceland album received a Grammy Award in 1987, and the single release “Graceland” was similarly honored in 1988.

In 1990 Simon released the album Rhythm of the Saints, a collaboration with several Latin American musicians. It was ten years before he recorded another studio album, and the 2000 release You're the One was enthusiastically received. However, the Broadway musical The Capeman (1998), for which Simon wrote the music and cowrote the script and lyrics, was a commercial flop, although its music was nominated for a Tony Award.

In 2001 Simon was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. (The duo of Simon and Garfunkel had already been inducted in 1990.) At the Grammy Awards ceremony in early 2003 Simon and Garfunkel performed “The Sound of Silence” together before receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award; later that year they embarked on a three-month tour of the United States. The tour was commemorated on the CD and DVD Simon & Garfunkel: Old Friends Live on Stage (2004). Surprise, Simon’s first solo album since 2000, appeared in 2006.