Simon is best known for his success, beginning in 1965, as part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, with musical partner Art Garfunkel. Simon wrote most of the pair's songs, including three that reached number one on the US singles charts, "The Sound of Silence", "Mrs. Robinson", and "Bridge Over Troubled Water". In 1970, at the height of their popularity, the duo split, and Simon began a successful solo career, recording three highly-acclaimed albums over the next five years. In 1986, he released Graceland, an album inspired by South African township music that helped fuel the anti-apartheid movement. Besides music, Simon wrote and starred in the film One Trick Pony in 1980 and co-wrote the Broadway musical The Capeman in 1998.
Through his solo and collaborative work, Simon has earned 13 Grammys, including the Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2001, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and in 2006 was selected as one of the "100 People Who Shaped the World" by Time magazine. Among many other honors, Simon was named the first recipient of the Library of Congress's Gershwin Prize for Popular Song in 2007.
Paul Simon was born in Newark, New Jersey to Jewish Hungarian parents Belle (b. 1910, d. June 16, 2007), an elementary school teacher, and Louis Simon (b. circa 1916, d. January 17, 1995), a college professor, bassist, and dance bandleader who performed under the name "Lee Sims". His father had been one of the first musicians on radio, when he lived in Hungary. In 1941 his family moved to Kew Garden Hills, Queens in New York City.
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
Read full the article about on Wikipedia
