Simon & Garfunkel were an American folk rock duo comprising the singer-songwriter Paul Simon and the singer Art Garfunkel. They were one of the best-selling musical acts of the 1960s. Their most famous recordings include three U.S. number-one singles—"The Sound of Silence" and the two Record of the Year Grammy winners "Mrs. Robinson" and "Bridge over Troubled Water"—as well as "Homeward Bound", "I Am a Rock", "Scarborough Fair/Canticle", "A Hazy Shade of Winter", "America", "The Boxer" and "Cecilia".

Simon and Garfunkel met in elementary school in Queens, New York City, in 1953, where they learned to harmonize and Simon 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, they regrouped and were signed to Columbia Records as Simon & Garfunkel. Their debut album, Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. (1964), sold poorly; Simon returned to a solo career, this time in England, while Garfunkel resumed his studies at Columbia University. In 1965, a remixed version of "The Sound of Silence", became a US AM radio hit, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100. They released their second album, Sounds of Silence, in 1966, and toured colleges nationwide. They assumed more creative control on their third album, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, released in 1966. Their music featured prominently in Mike Nichols's 1967 film The Graduate, and in 1968 the soundtrack album and the duo's fourth album, Bookends, featuring the hit version of "Mrs. Robinson", alternated at number one on the Billboard Top 200.

Simon and Garfunkel had a troubled relationship, leading to artistic disagreements and their breakup in 1970. Their final studio album, Bridge over Troubled Water, released that January, became one of the world's best-selling albums. Following their split, Simon had a successful solo career, releasing albums including the acclaimed Graceland (1986). Garfunkel released successful singles such as "All I Know" (1973) and "I Only Have Eyes for You" (1975) and "Bright Eyes" (Britain's top single of 1979), and pursued acting, with leading roles in the Mike Nichols films Catch-22 (1970) and Carnal Knowledge (1971) and in Nicolas Roeg's Bad Timing (1980). The duo have reunited several times; their 1981 concert in Central Park may have attracted more than 500,000 people, one of the largest concert attendances in history.

Simon & Garfunkel won seven Grammy Awards—plus four Grammy Hall of Fame Awards—and in 1990 were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Richie Unterberger described them as "the most successful folk-rock duo of the 1960s" and one of the most popular artists from the decade. They are among the best-selling music artists, having sold more than 100 million records. They were ranked 40th on Rolling Stone's 2010 list of the Greatest Artists of All Time and third on its list of the greatest duos.

Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel grew up in the 1940s and 1950s in the predominantly Jewish neighborhood of Kew Gardens Hills in Queens, New York, three blocks away from one another. They attended the same schools: Public School 164 in Kew Gardens Hills, Parsons Junior High School, and Forest Hills High School. They were both fascinated by music; both listened to the radio and were taken with rock and roll as it emerged, particularly the Everly Brothers. Simon first noticed Garfunkel when Garfunkel was singing in a fourth-grade talent show, which Simon thought was a good way to attract girls. They became friends in 1953, when they appeared in a sixth grade adaptation of Alice in Wonderland. They formed a streetcorner doo-wop group, the Peptones, with three friends, and learned to harmonize. They began performing as a duo at school dances.

Simon and Garfunkel later attended Forest Hills High School, where in 1956 they wrote their first song, "The Girl for Me"; Simon's father sent a handwritten copy to the Library of Congress to register a copyright. While trying to remember the lyrics to the Everly Brothers song "Hey Doll Baby", they wrote "Hey, Schoolgirl", which they recorded for $25 at Sanders Recording Studio in Manhattan. While recording they were overheard by promoter Sid Prosen, who signed them to his independent label Big Records after speaking to their parents. They were both 15.

Under Big Records, Simon and Garfunkel assumed the name Tom & Jerry; Garfunkel named himself Tom Graph, a reference to his interest in mathematics, and Simon Jerry Landis, after the surname of a girl he had dated. Their first single, "Hey, Schoolgirl", was released with the B-side "Dancin' Wild" in 1957. Prosen, using the payola system, bribed DJ Alan Freed $200 to play the single on his radio show, where it became a nightly staple. "Hey, Schoolgirl" attracted regular rotation on nationwide AM pop stations, leading it to sell more than 100,000 copies and to land on Billboard's charts at number 49 and number 45 in Canada. Prosen promoted the group heavily, getting them a headlining spot on Dick Clark's American Bandstand alongside Jerry Lee Lewis. Simon and Garfunkel shared approximately $4,000 from the song—earning two percent each from royalties, the rest staying with Prosen. They released two more singles on Big Records ("Our Song" and "That's My Story") neither of them successful.

After graduating from Forest Hills High School in 1958, the pair continued their education should a music career not unfold. Simon studied English at Queens College, City University of New York, and Garfunkel studied architecture before switching to art history at Columbia College, Columbia University. While still with Big Records as a duo, Simon released a solo single, "True or False", under the name "True Taylor". This upset Garfunkel, who regarded it as a betrayal; the emotional tension from the incident occasionally surfaced throughout their relationship.