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Simon & Garfunkel were an American folk rock duo consisting of singer-songwriter Paul Simon and singer Art Garfunkel. They rank as one of the best-selling music acts of the 1960s. Their signature recordings include the three US number ones — "The Sound of Silence" (1965) and the two Record of the Year Grammy winners "Mrs. Robinson" (1968) and "Bridge over Troubled Water" (1970) — plus "Scarborough Fair/Canticle" (1966), "America" (1968) and "The Boxer" (1969). Simon and Garfunkel met in elementary school in Queens, New York City, in 1953, where they learned to harmonize and began writing songs. As teenagers, under the name Tom & Jerry, they had minor success with "Hey Schoolgirl" (1957), a song imitating their idols, the Everly Brothers. In 1963, aware of a growing public interest in folk music, they regrouped and were signed to Columbia Records as Simon & Garfunkel. Their 1964 debut album, Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., sold poorly; Simon returned to a solo career, this time in England. In June 1965 "The Sound of Silence" — an acoustic song on the duo's debut album — was overdubbed with electric guitar and drums and in late 1965 became a US AM radio hit, reaching number one on [[Billboard Hot 100|Billboard'''s Hot 100]] in the issued dated January 1, 1966. The duo reunited to release a second studio album, Sounds of Silence (January 1966), and toured colleges nationwide. For their third release, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme (October 1966), the duo assumed more creative control. Their music featured prominently in Mike Nichols's blockbuster film The Graduate (released December 1967), including "The Sound of Silence", "Scarborough Fair" and two short acoustic versions of "Mrs. Robinson". Across 16 consecutive weeks between April and July 1968 the film's soundtrack album and the duo's next studio LP, Bookends (April 1968) — featuring the hit version of "Mrs. Robinson" — alternated at number one on [[List of Billboard 200 number-one albums of 1968|Billboards Top 200]].
