|
Paul Simon
Paul Frederic Simon (born October 13, 1941) is an American musician, singer, songwriter and actor whose career has spanned six decades. He is one of the most acclaimed songwriters in popular music, both as a solo artist and as half of folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel with Art Garfunkel. Simon was born in Newark, New Jersey, and grew up in the Queens, borough of Queens in New York City. He began performing with his schoolfriend Art Garfunkel in 1956 when they were still in their early teens. After limited success, the pair reunited after an electrified version of their song "The Sound of Silence" became a hit in 1966. Simon & Garfunkel recorded five albums together featuring songs mostly written by Simon, including the hits "Mrs. Robinson", "America (Simon & Garfunkel song), America", "Bridge over Troubled Water (song), Bridge over Troubled Water" and "The Boxer". After Simon & Garfunkel split in 1970, Simon recorded three acclaimed albums over the following five years, all of w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
50 Ways To Leave Your Lover
"50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Paul Simon. It was the second single from his fourth studio album, ''Still Crazy After All These Years'' (1975), released on Columbia Records. Backing vocals on the single were performed by Patti Austin, Valerie Simpson, and Phoebe Snow. The song features a recognizable repeated drum riff performed by drummer Steve Gadd. One of his most popular singles, "50 Ways" was released in December 1975 and began to see chart success within the new year. It became Simon's sole number-one hit as a solo artist on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in the United States, and was his highest position in France, where it peaked at number two. Elsewhere, the song was a top 20 hit in Canada and New Zealand. The single was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), denoting sales of over one million copies. Creation Following Simon's divorce from first wife Peggy Harper, Simon opted to take a more humorou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Graceland (album)
''Graceland'' is the seventh solo studio album by the American singer-songwriter Paul Simon. It was produced by Simon, engineered by Roy Halee and released on August 25, 1986, by Warner Bros. Records. In the early 1980s, Simon's relationship with his former musical partner Art Garfunkel had deteriorated, his marriage to actress Carrie Fisher had collapsed, and his previous record, ''Hearts and Bones'' (1983), had been a commercial failure. In 1984, after a period of depression, Simon became fascinated by a bootleg cassette of ''mbaqanga'', South African street music. He and Halee visited Johannesburg, where they spent two weeks recording with South African musicians. Further recordings were held in the United States, with guest musicians including Linda Ronstadt, the Everly Brothers, Louisiana band Good Rockin' Dopsie and the Twisters, and Los Angeles band Los Lobos. ''Graceland'' features an eclectic mixture of genres, including pop, rock, ''a cappella'', zydeco, ''isicatham ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New York Central Park
Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban park in the United States, with an estimated 42 million visitors annually , and is the most filmed location in the world. After proposals for a large park in Manhattan during the 1840s, it was approved in 1853 to cover . In 1857, landscape architects Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition for the park with their "Greensward Plan". Construction began the same year; existing structures, including a majority-Black settlement named Seneca Village, were seized through eminent domain and razed. The park's first areas were opened to the public in late 1858. Additional land at the northern end of Central Park was purchased in 1859, and the park was completed in 1876. After a period of decline in the early 20th century, New York City parks commissioner Robert ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
My Little Town
"My Little Town" is a 1975 song by the American duo Simon & Garfunkel. It was written by Paul Simon, who produced the track along with Art Garfunkel and Phil Ramone. The song was included on the 1975 solo releases from both Simon (''Still Crazy After All These Years'') and Garfunkel ('' Breakaway''). It would not appear on any of the duo's albums until the 1997 anthology box set '' Old Friends'' and the 1999 compilation album ''The Best of Simon and Garfunkel''. It was the first single release credited to the duo since the 1972 release of "America", released in conjunction with ''Simon and Garfunkel's Greatest Hits''. History In 1970 Simon and Garfunkel decided to part ways and record their own solo material. In June 1972 they were asked to sing at a political benefit concert for United States presidential candidate George McGovern at Madison Square Garden, New York City. During this hiatus, Garfunkel worked as a teacher in Connecticut, a draftsman in New York and a math tutor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gone At Last
"Gone at Last" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Paul Simon. It was the lead single from his fourth studio album, ''Still Crazy After All These Years'' (1975), released on Columbia Records. Phoebe Snow and the Jessy Dixon Singers provide guest vocals, with Snow receiving credit on the single release. Reception ''Billboard'' described "Gone at Last" as "a combination of rock and roll and old time revival gospel." Personnel * Paul Simon, Phoebe Snow – duet vocals * Richard Tee – piano, possible Hammond organ * Gordon Edwards – bass guitar * Grady Tate – drums * Ralph MacDonald Ralph Anthony MacDonald (March 15, 1944 – December 18, 2011) was a Trinidadian and Tobagonian American, Trinbagonian-American percussionist, songwriter, musical arranger, record producer, steelpan virtuoso and philanthropist. His compositions ... – tambourine, shaker * The Jessy Dixon Singers – background vocals Charts Notes References Sources * * {{authority contro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Still Crazy After All These Years (song)
"Still Crazy After All These Years" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Paul Simon. It was the third and final single from his fourth studio album of the same name (1975), released on Columbia Records. Though the song briefly reached the top 40 of the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in the U.S., it was a bigger hit on the magazine's Easy Listening chart, where it peaked at number four. Composition "Still Crazy After All These Years" begins with the singer singing that "I met my old lover on the street last night." The "old lover" has been variously interpreted to be either Simon's ex-wife Peggy Harper, from whom he was recently divorced, his former girlfriend from the 1960s Kathy Chitty, or even Simon's former musical partner Art Garfunkel, who appears on the following track, My Little Town. After sharing a few beers, the singer and the old lover part ways again. The singer notes that he is "not the kind of man who tends to socialize" but rather leans "on old familiar ways" and i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Still Crazy After All These Years
''Still Crazy After All These Years'' is the fourth solo studio album by Paul Simon. Recorded and released in 1975, the album produced four U.S. Top 40 hits: " 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" (No. 1), "Gone at Last" (No. 23), "My Little Town" (No. 9, credited to Simon & Garfunkel), and the title track (No. 40). It won two Grammy Awards for Album of the Year and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance in 1976. "My Little Town" reunited Simon with former partner Art Garfunkel on record for the first time since 1970, while "Gone at Last" was a duet between Simon and Phoebe Snow. Two tracks featured members of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section as a backing band. The title track has been recorded by Rosemary Clooney (on her 1993 album '' Still on the Road''), Ray Charles (on his 1993 album ''My World''), Karen Carpenter (on her self-titled solo album released posthumously in 1996), and Willie Nelson (on the soundtrack of the 2000 motion picture ''Space Cowboys''). Track listing Personn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard
"Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard" is a song by American singer-songwriter Paul Simon. It was the second single from his second, self-titled studio album (1972), released on Columbia Records. Lyrical subject The song is about two boys ("Me and Julio") who have broken a law, although the exact law that has been broken is not stated in the song. When "the mama pajama" finds out what they have done, she goes to the police station to report the crime. The individuals are later arrested, but released when a "radical priest" intervenes. The meaning and references in the song have long provoked debate. In a July 20, 1972 interview for ''Rolling Stone'', Jon Landau asked Simon: "What is it that the mama saw? The whole world wants to know." Simon replied "I have no idea what it is... Something sexual is what I imagine, but when I say 'something', I never bothered to figure out what it was. Didn't make any difference to me." More recently, in October 2010, Simon described the song as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mother And Child Reunion
"Mother and Child Reunion" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Paul Simon. It was the lead single from his second studio album, ''Paul Simon'' (1972), released on Columbia Records. Background It was at the time one of the few songs by a non-Jamaican musician to use prominent elements of reggae. Simon was a fan of reggae music, and he listened to artists such as Jimmy Cliff, Desmond Dekker, and Byron Lee; he wanted to go to Kingston, Jamaica to record the song, as that was where Cliff had recorded his antiwar song "Vietnam" in 1970. The title has its origin in a chicken-and-egg dish called "Mother and Child Reunion" that Simon saw on a Chinese restaurant's menu. The song's lyrics were inspired by a pet dog that was run over and killed. It was the first death Simon personally experienced, and he began to wonder how he would react if the same happened to his first wife, Peggy Harper. "Somehow there was a connection between this death and Peggy and it was like Heaven, I don ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul Simon (album)
''Paul Simon'' is the second solo studio album by American singer-songwriter Paul Simon. It was released in January 1972, nearly two years after he split up with longtime musical partner Art Garfunkel. His first solo album was recorded in England in 1965 but remained unreleased in the U.S. (except for a brief period in 1969) until 1981, when it appeared in the 5-LP ''Collected Works'' boxed set. Originally released on Columbia Records, ''Paul Simon'' was then issued under the Warner Bros. label and is now back with Columbia through Sony. The album topped the charts in the United Kingdom, Japan and Norway and reached No. 4 on the U.S. Billboard Pop Albums. In 1986 it was certified platinum. History Simon taught songwriting classes at New York University during the summer of 1971. Among the students he taught were two of the Roche sisters, Maggie and Terre, and singer-songwriter Melissa Manchester who remembers that Simon was nervous, listened to the students' songs and offered s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Billboard 200
The ''Billboard'' 200 is a record chart ranking the 200 most popular music albums and EPs in the United States. It is published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine and is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists. Often, a recording act will be remembered by its " number ones", those of their albums that outperformed all others during at least one week. The chart grew from a weekly top 10 list in 1956 to become a top 200 list in May 1967, and acquired its current name in March 1992. Its previous names include the ''Billboard'' Top LPs (1961–1972), ''Billboard'' Top LPs & Tape (1972–1984), ''Billboard'' Top 200 Albums (1984–1985) and ''Billboard'' Top Pop Albums (1985–1992). The chart is based mostly on sales – both at retail and digital – of albums in the United States. The weekly sales period was originally Monday to Sunday when Nielsen started tracking sales in 1991, but since July 2015, tracking week begins on Friday (to coinc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
