And IIRC, it was on that same episode that both Simon and Senator Paul Simon - then a presidential candidate - came on stage when the guest host was annouced at the beginning of the show. They had to explain to the senator that he wasn’t the Paul Simon they had in mind.
I went to the ‘Eric Idle Exploits Monty Python’ show at Carnegie Hall in June, and Garfunkel showed up as a surprise guest to sing ‘Always Look on the Bright Side of Life’ from ‘Life of Brian’.
Anecdote: supposedly, during the last few Simon & Garfunkel concerts, Garfunkel would have the stage to himself to sing “Bridge Over Troubled Waters.” Simon wouyld wait backstage, hear the thunderous applause for Garfunkel, and say sarcastically (to no one in particular), “Thank you, thank you very much, I WROTE that goddamn song.”
Simon wrote virtually all of S & G’s music, and (correctly) received most of the acclaim, but he seems to have begrudged Garfunkel even the small credit the fans gave him for his superb vocals. To this day, Simon TRIES to sing “Bridge Over Troubled Waters” in his solo concerts. He succeeds ONLY in reminding us how much better Art Garfunkel sang it.
That said, Simon and Garfunkel started out as an Everly Brothers-style folk/rock group build around two part harmonies. Even if Paul still LOVED Art, it’s plain that Simon was getting bored with the style of music they were doing together, and wanted to explore types of music that Art’s voice added little or nothing to.
S & G never officially split, they just stopped working together. They still teamed up every now and then for special occasions (like a series of 1972 McGovern campaign stops), or for recording session or two (“My Little Town” on the “Still Crazy After All These Years” album, or for “Wonderful World,” featuring James Taylor).
If nothing else, Simon has proved that he has longevity. He is one of the few (possibly the only?) Rock artist to get a new song (not a re-release) onto the Billboard Top 100 chart in each decade from the 1950’s through the 1990’s. (One of the songs the duo recorded as Tom & Jerry made it into the 50’s in Billboard in 1958 or 1959.)
Good trivia, tom. The only other person I can think of would be Ray Charles.
If we’re not talking strictly US charts, Cliff Richard has managed a Top 10 (I think No. 1 actually) in every decade, and even managed to sneak in in to the top 10 in the UK for the current decade.
I think James Brown might be in there someplace.
Possibly Neil Sedaka too.
I think when he came out with Graceland he garnered a lot of credibility with FM rock fans, who previously dismissed much of his solo work as light and AM-pop flavored
if likeable songs. Great stuff.
FWIW, Garfunkel had a minor hit with “Wonderful World (What A)” from his 1977 Watermark album.
Ok, I don’t have all the chart stats to hand, but I believe it has been established that Sir Cliff Richard has had a number 1 hit single (not counting re-releases) in the official UK music charts in the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s, and is the only artist to have done this. If I’m wrong, please don’t flame me too hard, but it would be interesting to see if any other artist has achieved this.
I’m not a CR fan, so I don’t say this with any great cheer.
As regards the original S&G question, I agree with various posters that the nub of the problem was S’s annoyance at G getting the lion’s share of TV attention (because he was the singer, and TV shows focus on the guy with the mic) and people mistakenly thinking either G wrote or co-wrote the songs.