Simon & Garfunkel were an American musical duo comprising the singer-songwriter Paul Simon and the singer Art Garfunkel. They were one of the best-selling musical acts of the 1960s. Their most famous recordings include three U.S. number-one singles—"The Sound of Silence" and the two Record of the Year Grammy winners "Mrs. Robinson" and "Bridge over Troubled Water"—as well as "Homeward Bound", "I Am a Rock", "Scarborough Fair/Canticle", "A Hazy Shade of Winter", "America", "The Boxer" and "Cecilia".
Simon and Garfunkel met in elementary school in Queens, New York City, in 1953, where they learned to harmonize and Simon began writing songs. As teenagers, under the name Tom & Jerry, they had minor success with "Hey Schoolgirl" (1957), a song imitating their idols, the Everly Brothers. In 1963, they regrouped and were signed to Columbia Records as Simon & Garfunkel. Their debut album, Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. (1964), sold poorly; Simon returned to a solo career, this time in England, while Garfunkel resumed his studies at Columbia University. In 1965, a remixed version of "The Sound of Silence", became a US AM radio hit, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100. They released their second album, Sounds of Silence, in 1966, and toured colleges nationwide. They assumed more creative control on their third album, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, released in 1966. Their music featured prominently in Mike Nichols's 1967 film The Graduate, and in 1968 the soundtrack album and the duo's fourth album, Bookends, featuring the hit version of "Mrs. Robinson", alternated at number one on the Billboard Top 200.