After Five Decades Of Silence, The Crowd Is Stunned As Simon Sings With Garfunkel Again

Following 53 years since their last live performance of The Sound of Silence, Simon & Garfunkel performed the song at Madison Square Garden in 2011. In spite of a flurry of early successes, Simon & Garfunkel rarely got together after a flurry of early success.

As per allmusic.com, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel were both Everly Brothers fans when they struck up a friendship in 1953. They learned to harmonize like their favorite band. They called themselves Tom & Jerry. The teens got some attention with the hit Hey Schoolgirl.

In 1963, the duo signed with Columbia after going their separate ways after their school days. Instead of harmonizing with someone else, the pair chose to go solo. According to Biography, Simon and Garfunkel reunited in 1981 to record an album that didn’t do well. Folk music was becoming popular, those harmonies fit the new sound. They recorded an album that didn’t do well. In spite of Paul’s attempts to make a name for himself in England, things changed for the duo when they recorded the song The Sound of Silence.

By the time Simon and Garfunkel recorded The Graduate soundtrack, they had achieved a great deal of success on the college campuses, and their sound and message had become anthems for a new generation. In just a few years, they had gone from failures to winning seven Grammy Awards!

It seems that the duo split up despite the fact that they received more creative control, and despite the accolades, and selling over 100 million albums worldwide, it was clear that they did not want to share creative control with each other as well. In addition to Simon & Garfunkel’s many reunions since their split in 1970, Paul Simon has achieved considerable solo success with Graceland, a huge commercial and critical hit that earned him more Grammy awards. One being after 9/11. They performed The Sound of Silence on SNL. The native New Yorkers helped bring unity and comfort to Americans everywhere.