"I'm on your side, when times get rough,
And friends just can't be found,
Like a bridge over troubled water,
I will lay me down…"

There has perhaps never been a better example of simplistic musical beauty than when two men named Simon and Garfunkel took to the stage with a mere acoustic guitar and wove their voices into pristine harmonies unlike the world had ever heard before. The magical, and often volatile, collaboration were the combined voice of a generation, as the two men left a legacy of some of the most beautiful, and equally cerebral, songs that have ever been composed. Over the years, and despite numerous partings of ways, they have sold millions of records and brought out massive audiences every time they decide to bury the hatchet and sing a few songs together for old times’ sake.

The duo of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel was a friendship forged all the way back in junior high school. By their early teens, they were recording music together and in 1957, managed to a get a record deal of sorts to record one of Simon’s compositions called “Hey Schoolgirl.” Thanks no doubt to record executive somewhere who didn’t particularly think their names were marketable, they were renamed Tom(Art) and Jerry (Paul.) Their efforts led to television exposure on American Bandstand and a Top-40 hit, but things sort of fizzled out after that for Tom and Jerry. They decided to take a break from each other (a recurring trend,) with Paul continuing to hone his songwriting skills and Art getting a college education but their was no denying that their voices perfectly complimented each other.

They decided to make another collaborative attempt in the early 60s, this time deciding that their own names were just fine. Record executives thought so as well, and in 1964, they released Wednesday Morning at 3 AM for Columbia Records. The public response was lukewarm, so the group disbanded again, with Paul taking off to live in Great Britain, where he had made a minor name for himself as a folk singer. But Columbia exec, Tom Wilson wasn’t ready to give up on the duo quite so easily. He took it upon himself to remix one of their singles, upgrade the orchestration to make it a little more lush, and released it as a single without ever telling either singer of his intentions. The haunting “Sounds of Silence” proved to be just the breakthrough hit they needed, jumping to #1 almost immediately and causing Paul to quickly purchase an airline ticket back to America.

While the success of the single caused the public to take another look at the album from which it came, placing it on the charts for the first time, the duo was busy in the studio recording a follow-up album that would put the duo on the map as a voice for a new generation. Titled The Sound of Silence, the new album featured such radio friendly hits as “I am a Rock” and “Homeward Bound,” another equally haunting interweaving of vocal harmonies accentuating a sole acoustic guitar. The same year, the prolific pair would release Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme. Two singles would immediately become minor successes, “The Dangling Conversation” and “Hazy Shades of Winter,” but the biggest hit from the record would come a bit later. A number of their songs would be used in the upcoming film, The Graduate, starting a young Dustin Hoffman, including a new offering “Mrs. Robinson,” which not only stayed on the charts in the #1 spot for three weeks, but helped earned the pair a trio of Grammy Awards. Radio listeners also began demanding the release of a song from their previous album, their unique take on a traditional song called “Scarborough Fair.” Simon and Garfunkel were emerging folk heroes for a new generation, who preferred the pristine simplicity of this new sound to the mindless pop they had previously been subjected to. 1968 brought another album, Bookends, a compilation of earlier hits along with such new offerings as “Old Friends” and “America.”

Something big was looming on the creative horizon, however, and it would arrive with their 1970 masterpiece, Bridge Over Troubled Water. Art would take lead singing duties for the title track, delivering a mesmerizing performance that few have equaled. It swiftly moved into the #1 spot on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean and became one of their most beloved hits of all time. And thanks to other hits such as “El Condor Pasa (If I Could) and “The Boxer,” the album quickly achieved multi-platinum status and rested atop the US and UK charts in the #1 spot for ten weeks. The following year, Simon and Garfunkel’s efforts would increase their Grammy Award collection substantially.

But while Art sang of the power of friendship, the truth was, Simon and Garfunkel were again ready for some alone time, this time lasting for years. They would make a celebrated surprise appearance together to perform for stunned and overjoyed audiences on Saturday Night Live in 1975, and release another hit called “My Little Town,” but it would be another five years before they took the stage together again. In 1980, they announced a free concert to be held in Central Park. Over a half-million people turned out for the event, simply to hear those two angelic voices harmonize together again. The live recording of the performance would be released as a highly successful double album. A tour soon followed which sold out stadium-sized venues wherever they appeared.

Paul Simon continued a very successful solo career, releasing two astounding internationally -flavored albums in the 80s – Graceland (which would win Album of the Year) featuring a roster of African musicians, and the South American influenced Rhythm of the Saints. In 2003, the pair put aside their celebrated differences to appear together for the opening of the Grammy Awards, for which they were being honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award, and they soon embarked upon a substantial tour called “Old Friends”. The success of the tour led them to go back on the road for another 25 dates in 2004, which ended with a performance at the Colosseum in Rome in front of an estimated 600,000 people.

Clearly, whenever these two men decide to put their voices together, the world will respond en masse. The phenomenon isn’t hard to understand. Two pristine voices, a catalog of beloved material and a chance to see history in the making – it is clear that as long as Simon and Garfunkel have the ability to make amends every few years, the rest of the world will applaud and celebrate the reconciliation.