SUBJECT: Paul Simon
VITAL STATISTICS: Singer, songwriter, guitarist, actor. Born Oct. 13, 1941, Newark, N.J.
HOME TURF: New York City
CLAIMS TO FAME: Has won 12 Grammys, including recent Album of the Year award for ”Graceland.” Before launching solo career 15 years ago, reigned with one-time partner Art Garfunkel as leading folk-rock duo of the `60s.
JUST CALL HIM JERRY: Made recording debut as a teenager with Garfunkel, whom he had known since grade school. Calling themselves Tom and Jerry (Simon was ”Jerry Landis,” Garfunkel was ”Tom Graph”), the pair released a modestly successful single, ”Hey Schoolgirl,” in 1957; it sold 150,000 copies. When follow-up efforts flopped, duo separated and headed off to college (where Simon studied English literature).
SOUNDS OF SUCCESS: After dropping out of law school and performing briefly on the folk circuit in England, Simon teamed up once more with Garfunkel to record the album ”Wednesday Morning 3 A.M.” Released at the end of 1965, the album included the million-selling, No. 1 hit single, ”The Sounds of Silence.” The pair continued to record together, racking up 13 Top 40 hits between 1965 and 1970, when they went their separate ways just as their album, ”Bridge Over Troubled Water,” was hitting the top of the pop charts.
SOLO SIMON: A highly successful solo artist, Simon continued to write and record hit songs throughout the 1970s, among them ”Kodachrome” and ”50 Ways to Leave Your Lover.” Made acting debut in ”Annie Hall”; in 1980, starred in and scored unsuccessful semiautobiographical film, ”One Trick Pony.”
Reunited with Garfunkel briefly in the early 1980s for series of reunion concerts, then went on to enjoy his biggest solo triumph of the decade with
”Graceland,” released last year. The album, which generated both critical acclaim for its use of South African rhythms and controversy over the fact that it was partially recorded in apartheid-tainted South Africa, has sold more than 1 million copies so far.
WHERE TO CATCH HIM: Friday and Saturday at the Civic Opera House–if you`ve got tickets. Both shows are sold out.
