Simon & Garfunkel

Simon & Garfunkel were an American folk rock duo comprising singer-songwriter Paul Simon and singer Art Garfunkel, both natives of Forest Hills, Queens, New York. The pair first recorded together as teenagers under the pseudonym Tom and Jerry, achieving a Top 50 hit in with "Hey, Schoolgirl," before parting ways and reuniting professionally in 1964. They rose to international prominence in the mid-1960s with harmonically rich recordings blending folk, rock, and poetic introspection, including breakthrough singles like "The Sound of Silence" and albums such as Sounds of Silence, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, Bookends (1968), and the chart-topping Bridge Over Troubled Water (1970). Their signature hits encompassed "Mrs. Robinson," "The Boxer," "Cecilia," "Scarborough Fair/Canticle," and "Homeward Bound," contributing to over 68 million albums sold worldwide. Simon & Garfunkel garnered multiple Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year and Record of the Year for Bridge Over Troubled Water, as well as a Lifetime Achievement Award, and were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1990. Creative and personal tensions, exacerbated by Garfunkel's acting pursuits and diverging ambitions, led to their breakup in 1970, though they staged notable reunions, such as the 1981 Central Park concert.

Paul Simon, born on October 13, 1941, in Newark, New Jersey, and Arthur Garfunkel, born on November 5, 1941, in Forest Hills, Queens, New York, met as 11-year-olds in sixth grade at Public School 164 (Queens Valley School) in Kew Gardens, Queens, during the 1953–1954 academic year. Their initial encounter occurred while both were cast in the school's production of Alice in Wonderland, with Simon portraying the White Rabbit and Garfunkel the Cheshire Cat. This shared experience fostered an immediate bond, as the two boys, raised in adjacent Jewish middle-class neighborhoods of Kew Gardens Hills and Forest Hills, discovered common ground beyond the stage.