Paul Frederic Simon (born October 13, 1941 in Newark Heights, New Jersey) is a renowned American singer songwriter, receiving Kennedy Center Honors in 2002. He was originally best known for being half of the folk singing duo Simon and Garfunkel.
Simon has been married three times; he is currently married to Edie Brickell whom he wed on May 30, 1992. He has four children, and his first son Harper Simon is a guitarist.
Born into a Jewish family in Queens, Paul Simon's musical career began in Forest Hills High School when he and his friend Art Garfunkel began singing together as a duo, occasionally performing at school dances. Their idols were the Everly Brothers, whom they often emulated and/or imitated in their early recordings. Simon and Garfunkel fashioned themselves "Tom & Jerry," and it was under this name that the duo first tasted success. In 1957, they recorded the single "Hey, Schoolgirl," on Big Records which hit #49 on the pop charts while they were still in their late teens.
After graduating high school, Simon attended and graduated from Queens College, while Garfunkel studied at Columbia University in Manhattan. Simon was a Brother in the Alpha Epsilon Pi Fraternity. Though Simon earned a degree in English literature, his real passion was rock 'n roll. Between 1957 and 1964, Simon wrote, recorded, and released more than thirty songs, occasionally reuniting with Garfunkel as Tom & Jerry for some singles, including "Our Song", "That's My Story", and "Surrender, Please Surrender", among others. He also briefly attended Brooklyn Law School.
Most of the songs Simon would record over the six years after 1957, however, would be performed either by himself or with musicians other than Garfunkel. These were released on a multitude of minor record labels, such as Amy, ABC-Paramount, Big, Hunt, Ember, King, Tribute, and Madison. He used several different pseudonyms for these recordings, including Jerry Landis, Paul Kane (from Orson Welles's film Citizen Kane), and True Taylor. Simon enjoyed some mediocre success in recording a few singles under the pseudonym Tico as part of a group called Tico and the Triumphs. He wrote the song "Motorcycle", which was recorded by Tico and the Triumphs and reached #99 on the Billboard charts in 1962. That same year, he reached #97 on the pop charts with the hit "The Lone Teen Ranger" as Jerry Landis; both singles were released on Amy Records.
