Paul Simon

John Simons father was a bass player, college professor and bandleader who went under the name 'Lee Simms' while his mother was an elementary school teacher. Simon has a Jewish heritage which he gains from his parents.

After performing in a production of 'Alice in Wonderland' Simon began singing alongside Art Garfunkel, they sang whenever they could most notably school dances.

Simon Paul has many musical influences, such as Jazz, folk and blues musicians. While singing with Garfunkel their idols were the 'Everly Brothers' and they would often mimic them when singing as they would use a close two-part harmony.

In 1957 Simon Paul and Art Garfunkel released a song called 'Hey Schoolgirl' which reached no.49 on the pop charts, they did this under the name Tom and Jerry which was given to them by their label at the time - Big Records.

The two had known success before as their song 'The Girl for Me' became a hit in their local neighborhood, the song was written by Simon's father and has been copyrighted and placed in the Library of Congress.

in 1964 Simon and Garfunkel were signed to Columbia records and were given a contract to produce an album, it was decided that they would now be known as 'Simon and Garfunkel'. Their debut release 'Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M.' was not successful and is considered to of have been a flop.

1965 saw Simon release hiss first solo LP 'The Paul Simon Songbook' this came about after Simon moved to England to pursue a solo career, he built up a name for himself by performing at coffee houses where he met Kathy Chitty, she would go on to inspire Simon to write various future songs.

Simon eventually went back over to the USA after 'The Sounds of Silence' from his LP with Garfunkel reached number 1, when it was heavily requested on radio stations. Over the next few years, Simon and Garfunkel went on to record 4 more albums together.

'Bridge over Troubled Water' was a very successful album and got nearly all perfect scores as it incorporated genres ranging from rock, R&B, gospel, jazz, world music and pop. Rolling Stones gave the album a clear 5 stars. In 1970 Simon and Garfunkel however split up.

In 1987 Simon won a Grammy award for album of the year and record of the year a year later. This was for his album 'Graceland' which was a solo album. This album also got near perfect scores.

Simon Paul is signed to Columbia, Warner bros and Hear Music.

As of today Simon has 13 albums under his belt and 12 Grammy awards alongside various other awards such as being the first person to receive the Library of Congress Gershwin prize for popular song in 2007.