The market for Simon & Garfunkel's music shows no sign of abating, as artists from Aretha Franklin to the London Symphony Orchestra repackage their songs.
By GINA VIVINETTO
Published December 18, 2003
[AP photo]
Art Garfunkel, left, and Paul Simon perform in October in Chicago. They’re probably on their last tour together, Simon said.
A well-covered 'Bridge'
What do Elvis Presley, London Pops Orchestra, Jackson 5 and Perry Como have in common? They all recorded Bridge Over Troubled Water by Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel. Here are more artists who did the same.
Raise your hand if you can explain the endurance of Simon & Garfunkel.
These two guys, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, both 62, play folk music. The duo got its start in the 1960s, performing in a genre with acts like Arlo Guthrie, Richie Havens, Richard and Mimi Farina - artists who aren't exactly staples of popular mainstream radio.
Simon & Garfunkel tunes, however, are modern entries into the American Songbook, performed by the duo and by hundreds of artists as diverse as Charlotte Church, Buck Owens, Aretha Franklin and Bon Jovi.
I Am a Rock.
Bridge Over Troubled Water.
The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)
Mrs. Robinson
Let's not forget the duo's best known song, The Sound of Silence. It's timeless. And, not just for famously opening The Graduate, starring Dustin Hoffman, the 1967 flick that defined the times through its portrayal of an offbeat intergenerational romance in politically turbulent America. It's not an overstatement to say that director Mike Nichols' use of four Simon & Garfunkel tunes on the film's soundtrack forever changed American cinema's use of music.
The melancholy strains of The Sound of Silence greet Hoffman's Benjamin Braddock standing on the airport's moving walkway. Ben's face is stone blank, but the song's words reveal his sense of alienation:
Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again
The Sound of Silence didn't just have an impact on Hollywood. It went on to become a favorite pick for high school marching bands, new age musicians and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Ever been to a karaoke bar?
You can find a "Celtic chillout" version of it on compact disc, a Gregorian chant version. The Ventures did it surf-style. Jazz chanteuse Carmen McRae sang it. Dinu Bomha played it on pan flute. R&B love song specialists Peaches & Herb recorded it. So did it country guitar picker Chet Atkins. Punk rockers the Dickies did it with pep.
It wasn't just The Sound of Silence.
Simon & Garfunkel songs, almost exclusively written by Simon, are some of the most covered in the world. He's got a bunch of 'em, too. According to Simon's Web site, he has written some 190 tunes. Which has made him and Garfunkel a load of dough. (The pair have sold 35-million albums and, in their heyday, scored eight top 10 singles.)
And influenced, apparently, just about every artist under the sun.
Consider:
-- In 1986, Atlanta alt-rock band the Coolies recorded Dig?, an entire album of spunky S&G covers. It was weird, but boy, fans - and many critics - loved it.
-- In 1987, the Bangles scored a top 5 hit with a cover of Hazy Shade of Winter.
-- The Lemonheads had a 1992 hit with the band's version of Mrs. Robinson.
Maybe the question is why.
Why do all these musicians from all these different genres want to perform one guy's songs?
Gil Rodman, associate professor of communication at the University of South Florida, says the reason is simple: Simon's a great songwriter.
"He crafted some fine tunes that many people like and many people know and many performers think they can do a decent job performing, even if only about three other people in the world can sing Art Garfunkel's high-end portions," Rodman says. "I don't know if he's ever actually done the song, but now I have this sound in my head of Aaron Neville doing Bridge Over Troubled Water."
(Actually, you've got a good ear, Mr. Rodman. Neville has recorded the tune. Then again, more than 200 performers of every genre - folk, funk, rock, punk, country, R&B, reggae, gospel - have done a version of Bridge Over Troubled Water.)
Rodman adds that S&G are pretty much the only folk outfit from the 1960s that don't sound hopelessly dated.
"S&G age a lot better than, say, Peter, Paul and Mary," says Rodman. "While no one was ever going to confuse them with the MC5, S&G weren't afraid to embrace that rock 'n' roll thing. When Peter, Paul and Mary did I Dig Rock and Roll Music, it sounded way too square, like your 1960s-era parents telling you that they actually thought the Rolling Stones had a "nice swing' to them. But, S&G could do something like Baby Driver and it fit in with the zeitgeist."
Good songcraft, unhokey sentiments. And, Rodman adds, the duo was politically perfect, then and now.
"They have become politically "safe' 1960s icons for the industry to trot out again," says Rodman. "They weren't so square as to have no credibility with the counterculture. But, they also weren't so outspoken in their politics - or flamboyant in their dress or drug use or whatnot - as to offend the mainstream.
"Which doesn't necessarily explain why they get covered, but it does help explain why they're still broadly visible in ways that, say, Country Joe and the Fish aren't."
Visible they are. Though Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel have had a notoriously rocky relationship - the two met when they were 11 and say they had their first stormy argument at age 14 - fans are always eager for the two to reunite.
More than 500,000 showed up for the duo's 1981 Central Park reunion performance. Love like that pays off: Reports for this year's tour say the boys are logging in at least $1-million per date.
