Simon & Garfunkel: The Life Story Behind Folk's Greatest Duo

Some voices fit together so neatly that they sound like one voice singing in two parts, and Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel had that rare gift. They were two boys from Queens in New York who met in elementary school, sang together as teenagers, drifted apart, and then came back together to make some of the most loved folk songs ever recorded. Their harmonies were soft, clear, and close, and their songs spoke about loneliness, friendship, faith, and change in a way that felt honest rather than showy.

Their story is unusual because their greatest success came in a very short time. Between the mid-1960s and 1970, they released a run of albums that included The Sound of Silence, Mrs. Robinson, The Boxer, and Bridge Over Troubled Water. Then, at the very top, they stopped. They argued, they went their own ways, and for many years they were known as a duo that could not stay together, even though their music never left the radio, the films, or the memories of the people who had grown up with it.

What makes them worth a long look is not only the beauty of the songs. It is the tension inside the partnership itself. One man wrote almost all the songs and wanted to move forward quickly. The other had a voice of great purity and wanted the songs to breathe. Together they were better than either was alone, and apart they each made fine work, yet the sound they made together was something neither could repeat on his own. This is the story of how two school friends became the most famous folk duo in the world, and why their songs still matter.

Two Boys in Queens

Paul Simon was born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1941, and grew up in the Kew Gardens Hills area of Queens, New York. His father was a musician who played bass and led a dance band, and his mother was a teacher. Music was part of the house, and Paul learned guitar as a boy and began writing songs while he was still at school. He was small, quick, and full of ideas, and he liked the sound of the early rock and roll records that were filling American radio in the 1950s.

Art Garfunkel was also born in 1941, in Forest Hills, Queens, and his family lived close enough that the two boys met in elementary school. Art had a high, clear singing voice, and he sang in the school chorus and later in the choir. He was drawn to music for the sound itself, for the way a note could hang in the air, and he spent hours listening to records and learning how a voice could carry a melody without pushing it.

The two boys became friends, and they began singing together at school. They played at school events and talent shows, and they learned how their voices worked side by side. Paul sang the lower part and played guitar, while Art took the high harmony, and the blend was striking even then. They were still children, but they already sounded like a real act, and the other pupils noticed it.

Their early life in Queens mattered because it gave them a plain, city childhood that later showed up in their songs. They were not raised in the countryside or in show business. They were raised in ordinary streets, in apartments, on buses and trains, and that sense of ordinary American life stayed in Paul Simon’s writing. When he later wrote about a city, a road, or a lonely room, he was writing about places he knew.

Tom and Jerry, and the First False Start

As teenagers, Paul and Art began performing under the name Tom and Jerry, with Paul as Jerry Landis and Art as Tom Graph. They were only sixteen when they recorded a song called Hey, Schoolgirl, and it became a small hit in 1957. They appeared on television, they played live shows, and for a short time it looked as if they might become a young pop act. The record was light and cheerful, and it showed that the two boys could make a record that people wanted to hear.

The success did not last, and the two young men went in different directions for a time. Paul kept writing songs, and he worked as a songwriter and a session musician, learning how records were made and how a song was built. He recorded under different names, and he spent time in England, where he played in folk clubs and listened to the folk singers who were working there. Those years taught him how to write words that were simple on the surface and deep underneath.

Art went to Columbia University, where he studied architecture and later mathematics, and he also began to act. He was a serious student, and he did not rush back into music. He sang when he could, but he was building a different life, and the friendship with Paul was tested by distance and by different plans. They were no longer two schoolboys sharing a stage. They were young men trying to work out what they wanted to be.

The early failure of Tom and Jerry turned out to be useful. It taught Paul that a small hit was not the same as a career, and it taught both of them that they needed stronger songs and a clearer sound. When they met again in the early 1960s, they were older, they had learned more about music, and they were ready to try again with a serious folk sound rather than a teenage pop act.

Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. and a Quiet Beginning

In 1964, Paul and Art signed to Columbia Records as Simon and Garfunkel, using their real names for the first time. Their first album, Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., was a gentle folk record with acoustic guitars and close harmonies, and it included a song called The Sound of Silence. The album sold poorly at first, and the duo split up again. Paul went back to England, and Art went back to his studies, and it looked as if the story was over.

Then something happened that neither of them had planned. A producer named Tom Wilson took the acoustic track of The Sound of Silence and added electric guitar, bass, and drums, without telling Paul at first. The new version was released as a single, and it began to climb the charts. By the end of 1965, it had reached number one in the United States. The sound was different from the folk original. It was fuller, it had a beat, and it caught the mood of a country that was changing fast.

Paul heard the new version on the radio while he was in England, and he came back to America to rejoin Art. The duo was suddenly famous, and they had to learn how to be a working act again, quickly. They played concerts, they appeared on television, and they began to record a second album, Sounds of Silence, which was released in early 1966 and included the hit version of the song that had changed their lives.

That sudden turn is one of the strangest parts of their story. A record that had failed was remade by someone else, and it made them stars. It also set a pattern for their career. Paul wrote the songs, and the records were shaped in the studio by producers who understood how to make a folk song sound big enough for the radio. The duo learned to trust that process, even when it surprised them.

Parsley, Sage, and the Graduate

Their next album, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, released in 1966, showed how fast Paul Simon was growing as a writer. The songs were more careful, more poetic, and more varied than before. Scarborough Fair, a traditional song arranged by the duo, became a favourite, and songs like Homeward Bound and The 59th Street Bridge Song showed a writer who could be gentle, funny, and sad in the same record. The album sold well, and it proved that the first hit had not been a lucky accident.

In 1967, the film director Mike Nichols asked them to write music for his new film, The Graduate, which starred Dustin Hoffman. The film was a great success, and the song Mrs. Robinson, written for it, became one of the most famous songs of the decade. The film also used The Sound of Silence and Scarborough Fair, and the soundtrack album sold in huge numbers. For many people, Simon and Garfunkel became the sound of a generation that was young, restless, and unsure about the world it had inherited.

The album Bookends, released in 1968, continued the run. It included Mrs. Robinson, America, and Old Friends, and it was built like a story about growing up and growing older. The record felt like a complete work rather than a set of songs, and it showed that Paul Simon was thinking about albums as whole pieces. Art Garfunkel’s voice carried the softer songs with great care, and the harmonies were as close and clear as ever.

By the end of the 1960s, the duo were among the most respected acts in American music. They played large halls, they won awards, and their records sold around the world. Yet the pressure was growing. Paul was writing most of the songs and making most of the musical choices, while Art was waiting for his part and feeling that his own ideas were not being used. The friendship was still there, but the working balance was starting to break.

Bridge Over Troubled Water and the Break

Their last studio album together, Bridge Over Troubled Water, was released in January 1970, and it was the biggest record of their career. The title song, sung by Art Garfunkel with a piano and a slowly building arrangement, became one of the most loved songs in popular music. The album also included The Boxer, Cecilia, and El Condor Pasa, and it sold in huge numbers around the world. It won several Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year and Record of the Year.

The recording of the album was not easy. Paul and Art argued about the songs, about the arrangements, and about Art’s wish to act in films. Art had taken a role in the film Catch-22, directed by Mike Nichols, and Paul felt that the long time away was holding up the record. The arguments were not only about music. They were about respect, about who was leading the duo, and about what each man wanted from his life.

When the album was finished and the tour was over, the two men went their separate ways. There was no big public fight, but the split was real. Paul began a solo career, and Art began to act and to record on his own. Fans hoped they would return soon, but the years passed and the reunion did not come. The album that had made them the biggest act in the world had also been the last thing they made together for a long time.

The break mattered because it showed how hard it is to keep a partnership going when both people are growing in different directions. Paul wanted to write new kinds of songs and to work quickly. Art wanted time, space, and a voice in the choices. Neither was wrong, but their needs no longer fitted together. The music they had made was complete, and the friendship would take years to heal.

Solo Years, Central Park, and Old Friends

Paul Simon’s solo career began strongly. He released Paul Simon in 1972, with songs like Mother and Child Reunion, and then There Goes Rhymin’ Simon in 1973. In the 1980s, he made Graceland in 1986, working with musicians from South Africa, and it became one of the most praised albums of the decade. He kept writing, recording, and touring for many years, and he was honoured with many awards, including induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist.

Art Garfunkel recorded solo albums and continued to act. His voice remained one of the most beautiful in popular music, and his solo records included songs that showed his taste for melody and for clear, simple singing. He also wrote poetry and took long walks across America and Europe, which later became part of his own story. He was less driven by the charts than Paul, and his career moved at a slower pace.

In 1981, the duo came back together for a free concert in Central Park in New York. More than 400,000 people came to hear them, and the concert was recorded and released as a live album. The night was joyful, and the two men sang the old songs with warmth. Many people hoped it meant a full reunion, but the tour that followed was difficult, and the old tensions returned. They parted again, and the reunion was not followed by a new studio album.

Over the years, they came together for tours, including the Old Friends tour in 2003 and 2004, which brought them back to large stages in America and Europe. The audiences were large and full of feeling, and the songs sounded as fresh as ever. The two men were older, and the friendship seemed warmer, but the partnership remained a part-time thing. They would meet, sing, and then go back to their own lives.

The Songs That Stayed

Simon and Garfunkel were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990, and their records continued to sell. Bridge Over Troubled Water stayed in print, The Sound of Silence was used in films and television, and Mrs. Robinson became a shorthand for a whole era. Younger listeners found the songs through their parents, through films, and through streaming, and the harmonies still sounded fresh to new ears.

Paul Simon continued to work into his later years, releasing albums and touring, and he was widely praised as one of the great American songwriters. Art Garfunkel continued to sing and to write, and he kept the voice that had made the duo famous. Both men spoke about the partnership with respect, even when they were honest about the difficulties. The story was not a simple happy ending, but it was an honest one.

The duo’s influence can be heard in many later acts. Folk singers learned from Paul Simon’s words, and harmony singers learned from the way Art Garfunkel held a high note. Their music showed that a quiet song could be as powerful as a loud one, and that two voices in close harmony could carry a feeling that a whole band could not. That lesson has lasted longer than any chart position.

Today, Simon and Garfunkel are remembered as the greatest folk duo in American popular music. Their career together was short, but the songs are still sung, still studied, and still loved. They began as two schoolboys in Queens, and they ended as two men whose names are linked for ever. The music they made together remains the clearest proof of what they could do when they stood side by side and sang.

Awards, Honours, and the Hall of Fame

Bridge Over Troubled Water won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1971, and the title song won Record of the Year and Song of the Year at the same ceremony, a rare sweep that showed how deeply the album had touched America. Mrs. Robinson had already won Record of the Year in 1969, and the duo collected Grammy Awards across their career for songs that became part of the national story. These were not only prizes for good singing. They were signs that the country had taken the duo’s songs into its heart.

Simon and Garfunkel were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990, twenty years after their last studio album, and the honour recognised a partnership that had lasted only a few years but had changed popular music for ever. The duo were also given a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and their albums were placed on lists of the greatest records ever made. Bridge Over Troubled Water has sold more than twenty-five million copies, and it remains one of the best-selling albums in history.

The Sound of Silence, first released in 1964, became one of the most famous songs of the twentieth century, and it was later added to the Grammy Hall of Fame and to the National Recording Registry in the United States, which keeps recordings that are important to the nation’s history. Scarborough Fair and The Boxer received the same kind of lasting honour. Few duos have had so many songs kept and studied as part of a country’s culture, and that is a measure of how much their work mattered.

What is most striking about these honours is that they came for songs written by two young men from Queens who began by singing in a school hallway. They did not set out to win awards or to enter history books. They set out to write songs that were true, and the awards followed. The honours tell us that a quiet song, well written and well sung, can last longer than a loud hit, and can mean more to people over time.

The Harmony: Two Voices, One Sound

The heart of Simon and Garfunkel was the harmony between Paul Simon’s voice and Art Garfunkel’s voice, two sounds that fitted together in a way that few singers have ever matched. Simon sang with a warm, plain tone, and Garfunkel sang with a high, clear, almost angelic tone, and when they sang together, the result was both simple and beautiful. They learned that harmony as schoolboys, singing in hallways and at school shows, and they kept it for the whole of their career.

Their harmony was not loud or showy. It was soft, careful, and full of feeling, and it made even a simple song feel deep. In The Sound of Silence, the two voices move together like one voice, and the effect is haunting. In Bridge Over Troubled Water, Garfunkel sings alone for most of the song, and Simon’s voice joins him only at the end, which makes the ending feel like a hand reaching out. That care with voices was the duo’s greatest skill.

Many singers can sing well alone, but very few can sing in harmony as closely as Simon and Garfunkel did. They knew each other’s breathing, each other’s timing, and each other’s pitch, because they had sung together since they were children. That closeness cannot be learned quickly, and it cannot be faked. It comes from years of singing together, and from a friendship that began long before fame.

When the duo split up, both men kept singing, but neither could make the same sound alone. Simon’s solo songs were clever and rhythmic, and Garfunkel’s solo voice was beautiful, but the magic of the two voices together was gone. That is why their reunions drew such huge crowds. People did not only want to hear the songs. They wanted to hear the two voices together again, because that sound belonged to their youth.

The Songs in Films, Schools, and New Generations

The Graduate made Simon and Garfunkel the sound of a generation, because the film used their songs to tell the story of a young man who felt lost in America. Mrs. Robinson became a hit from the film, and The Sound of Silence and Scarborough Fair were woven into the story. Young viewers in 1967 heard their own confusion in those songs, and the film and the music became linked for ever. Even today, when people watch The Graduate, they hear the duo’s voices and remember the feeling of being young.

Their songs also entered schools, churches, and choirs, because they were simple enough to sing and deep enough to teach. Bridge Over Troubled Water has been sung at weddings, at funerals, and at graduations, and it is used to comfort people in hard times. The Sound of Silence is studied in English classes, because its words about people talking without speaking are still true. A song that is taught in school has a longer life than a song that is only played on the radio.

New generations keep finding the duo through films, through streaming, and through their parents’ record collections. A young listener today can hear The Boxer and understand it, even though it was written more than fifty years ago, because the feeling of being a fighter who keeps going is the same in every age. The songs do not sound old, because they were written about feelings that do not change.

The duo’s influence can be heard in the work of many later singers, from the gentle folk of the 1970s to the quiet indie music of today. Songwriters learned from Paul Simon that a song could be both poetic and plain, and singers learned from Art Garfunkel that a voice could be both strong and soft. Their songs are still covered, still sampled, and still loved, and that is the truest sign of a lasting legacy.

My Take:

I think the first thing that strikes me about Simon and Garfunkel is how small and ordinary their beginning was. Two boys in Queens, in a school, singing together because they liked the sound. There was no grand plan, no rich family, no famous teacher. There was only a friendship and a pair of voices that fitted. I find that hopeful, because it tells me that great work can start in a very plain place, and that a person does not need a special background to make something that lasts.

I admire Paul Simon as a writer more than almost any other songwriter of his time. His words are simple, but they are not empty. When he writes about a sound of silence, a bridge over troubled water, or a boxer who keeps getting up, he is writing about feelings that most people have had but could not put into words. I like that he trusts the listener to understand. He does not explain everything, and he does not shout. He lets the song do the work, and the work is deep.

I also admire Art Garfunkel, and I think he is often underrated in the story. People talk about Paul as the writer, and they forget how much of the sound came from Art. His voice on Bridge Over Troubled Water is one of the great vocal performances in popular music. He does not push, he does not show off, and yet the song would not be the same without him. I think that kind of singing takes real discipline, and it takes a generous spirit, because the singer is serving the song rather than himself.

What saddens me is the way the partnership broke. They had everything a duo could want, and still they could not stay together. I understand why. One man was writing the songs and wanted to move fast, and the other man wanted time and a say in the choices. Both feelings are fair. But I still feel sad when I think of the songs they never made together. There could have been more albums, more years of that harmony, and instead there were long silences and short reunions.

I think their story teaches me something about working with another person. A partnership is not only about talent. It is about respect, about listening, and about giving the other person room to grow. Paul and Art had the talent, but they did not always have the balance. When I think about my own work and my own friendships, I want to remember that. Being right about the music is not enough if the other person feels small.

The Central Park concert moves me every time I think about it. More than 400,000 people stood in a park in New York to hear two men sing songs they had written as young men. That is a rare thing. It tells me that the songs had become part of people’s lives, not just records on a shelf. People had grown up with them, fallen in love to them, and mourned with them, and they came to say thank you. I think that is the highest praise a musician can receive.

I am also struck by how honest their music is about loneliness. The Sound of Silence is not a cheerful song, and neither is The Boxer. These are songs about people who feel alone in a crowd, who keep going when life is hard, and who look for a little light. I think that honesty is why the songs last. A happy song can fade when the mood changes, but a true song about loneliness stays true, because loneliness does not go away.

When I compare them with other famous duos, I see that most duos are built on sameness. Simon and Garfunkel were built on difference. One was a writer, the other was a singer. One was quick and restless, the other was calm and patient. The difference made the music rich, and it also made the partnership hard. I think that is a useful lesson. The people who are most different from us are often the ones who make our work better, and also the ones we find hardest to live with.

I do not think their solo work proves that they were better apart. Paul made great solo records, and Art made beautiful solo records, but neither of them made another Bridge Over Troubled Water alone. That is not a criticism of their solo work. It is a simple fact about what happens when two rare gifts come together. The sum is larger than the parts, and once the sum is broken, it cannot be put back in the same way.

I find the Old Friends tour both happy and sad. Happy, because the two men could still sing together and the audiences still loved them. Sad, because it was clear that the reunion was a visit, not a return. They were old friends, as the tour name said, and old friends can meet and part again. I think there is a quiet dignity in that. They did not pretend that everything was fixed. They sang, they were kind to each other, and then they went home.

One thing I keep coming back to is the way their songs treat America. Paul Simon wrote about roads, towns, parks, and people on the move, and the songs feel like a walk through the country. America is not a grand idea in his songs. It is a place where ordinary people live, work, and search for something better. I like that. It makes the songs feel real, and it makes them feel close to the listener, wherever that listener lives.

I also think about the role of luck in their story. If Tom Wilson had not added electric instruments to The Sound of Silence, the duo might never have become famous. That is a strange thought. A whole career, a whole place in history, turned on one producer’s idea. I do not think that means their success was only luck. The song was already good, and the voices were already good. But I think it reminds me that hard work needs a little luck too, and that a person should be ready when luck arrives.

For a young reader, I would say the lesson is to value the people you work with, and to say so while you still can. Paul and Art waited many years before they could speak kindly about each other in public without pain. That is a long time to carry a hurt. If you are lucky enough to find a partner whose gift fits yours, protect that partnership. Talk honestly, share the credit, and give the other person room. The work will be better, and the friendship will last longer.

In the end, I think Simon and Garfunkel leave us with a simple truth. Beauty does not need to be loud. Two voices, a guitar, and a true word can be enough. Their songs are still here, more than fifty years after Bridge Over Troubled Water, and they still make people stop and listen. That is not a small thing. It is the mark of work that was made with care, and I am glad that two schoolboys from Queens decided to sing together, even if they could not stay together for ever.

I will keep listening to them, and I will keep thinking about the gap between what they made together and what they made apart. The gap is the story. It tells me that talent is not enough, that friendship needs work, and that the best music comes when two people trust each other enough to sing as one. When I hear that harmony now, I hear both the beauty and the loss, and I think that is why the songs still move me.

When I hear The Sound of Silence in a quiet room, I feel the same chill I felt the first time, because the song is about people who are close together but cannot really talk to each other. The words are simple, the melody is slow, and the two voices move together like a whisper. I think it is one of the greatest songs ever written, because it says something true about modern life, and it says it in a way that a child could understand and an old person could still feel.

Bridge Over Troubled Water is the song I would play for a friend who is going through a hard time, because it is a promise. The singer says, I will be there for you, I will lay myself down like a bridge, and I will help you cross. Art Garfunkel sings it with such warmth that the promise feels real. I have heard the song at funerals and at weddings, and each time it does the same job: it tells people that they are not alone.

I admire Paul Simon as a songwriter more than almost any other writer of his time, because he could take a small idea and make it into a whole world. Mrs. Robinson is about a woman from a film, but it is also about a country that has lost its heroes. The Boxer is about a fighter, but it is also about anyone who keeps going after being knocked down. He wrote songs that worked on two levels at once, and that is a rare gift.

Art Garfunkel’s voice is the sound I think of when I think of beauty in popular music. It is high, clear, and pure, and it seems to float above the music. When he sings the high notes in Bridge Over Troubled Water, I feel as if the room has become quieter and brighter at the same time. I think he is one of the great singers of his generation, and I am sorry that his solo career did not bring him the fame his voice deserved.

The story of their friendship moves me, because it is both beautiful and sad. They met as schoolboys, they sang together, they became famous, and then they fell out over songs, over films, and over pride. That is a very human story. Friends can love each other and still hurt each other, and success can make small problems feel bigger. I wish they had stayed together longer, but I understand why they did not.

The Central Park concert in 1981 is the reunion I would most like to have seen, because more than four hundred thousand people stood in a park in New York to hear two old friends sing together again. The crowd sang every word, and the two men looked happy to be back on stage together. It was a free concert, open to everyone, and that felt right. Great songs belong to everyone, not only to people who can buy a ticket.

I think about The Graduate often, because the film and the music are so closely linked that I cannot hear Mrs. Robinson without seeing the young man in the film, lost and unsure about his future. That is the power of a good song in a good film. The song becomes part of the story, and the story becomes part of the song. Simon and Garfunkel’s music did that better than any other music of the 1960s.

If I could ask Paul Simon one question, I would ask how he wrote The Sound of Silence when he was only in his early twenties. The words are so wise, so sad, and so clear that they sound like the work of an old man who has seen a lifetime. I wonder if he knew, when he wrote it, that he had written something that would last for ever. I think he might have known, because the song feels finished, as if it arrived whole.

The song I would give to a young songwriter is The Boxer, because it teaches a lesson about writing. The song tells a story, it uses simple words, and it ends with a line that stays in your mind: I am just a poor boy, though my story’s seldom told. A young writer can learn from that. Tell a story, use plain words, and end with a line that people will remember.

I sometimes compare Simon and Garfunkel with the loud bands of their time, and I think the duo were braver in a quiet way. They did not need loud guitars or wild shows. They stood with two guitars, sang softly, and trusted the words to do the work. That trust is hard to have, because it means you believe your songs are strong enough on their own. Their songs were strong enough, and that is why they are still here.

For a young reader, I would say the lesson is to find a friend who sings well with you, and to practise together for years. Simon and Garfunkel were not made in a studio. They were made in school hallways, in small clubs, and in years of singing together. If you have a friend who shares your love of music, sing with them, write with them, and keep going. The harmony you build together may last a lifetime.

In the end, I think Simon and Garfunkel matter because they wrote songs that help people feel less alone. The Sound of Silence, Bridge Over Troubled Water, and The Boxer are all songs about loneliness, about help, and about carrying on. When I hear them now, I hear two boys from Queens who grew up, wrote honestly, and left the world a little kinder. That is a legacy worth remembering.

Frequently Asked Questions

How did Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel first meet?

They met as schoolboys in elementary school in Forest Hills, Queens, New York, in the early 1950s. They began singing together at school, and they later performed as teenagers under the name Tom and Jerry. Their friendship and their harmony began long before they became famous.

Why did The Sound of Silence become a hit after the first album failed?

The first album, Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., sold poorly, but producer Tom Wilson later added electric guitar, bass, and drums to the acoustic track of The Sound of Silence. The new version was released as a single in 1965 and reached number one in the United States. The duo then reunited and recorded again.

What is Bridge Over Troubled Water about, and who sings it?

Bridge Over Troubled Water is the title song of their last studio album, released in 1970, and it is sung by Art Garfunkel. The song offers comfort to a person in trouble, with the singer promising to be like a bridge over troubled water. It became one of the most loved songs in popular music.

Why did Simon and Garfunkel split up in 1970?

They split up after finishing Bridge Over Troubled Water because of growing tension over songwriting, control, and Art Garfunkel’s acting work. Paul Simon wrote most of the songs and wanted to move quickly, while Garfunkel wanted more time and more say. They went on to solo careers and reunited only for concerts and tours.

Did Simon and Garfunkel ever play together again after 1970?

Yes, they played a famous free concert in Central Park in New York in 1981, which drew more than 400,000 people. They also toured together in 2003 and 2004 under the name Old Friends, and they made other joint appearances, but they did not record a new studio album together.

What made the film The Graduate important for Simon and Garfunkel?

The Graduate, released in 1967 and directed by Mike Nichols, used their songs The Sound of Silence, Scarborough Fair, and Mrs. Robinson. The film was a great success, and Mrs. Robinson became a huge hit. The soundtrack helped make the duo the sound of a generation of young Americans.