One Trick Pony, has some great tracks and relates to a special period for me, so is definitely a long-standing favourite.

Hearts and Bones is good too. I remember talk that this was intended to be the next Simon and Garfunkel album, but disagreements sent Paul Simon back into the studio to erase the Garfunkel additions. Shame. Great songs, and although its a really enjoyable album, I think would be even that bit better with the old curlyheaded one singing along too.

Rhythm of the Saints -- can't abide.
Surprise is good, but very glossy indeed. Loses that sense of intimacy and fragility that is part of the whole PS thing.

Bridge Over Troubled Water -- one of the greatest songs ever. Years ago on a REd Nose broadcast, Lennie Henry introduced Art Garfunkel to sing the song, if enough money was raised. It was, and he did. In my memory it was a sublime performance, but can't find it anywhere. Anyone any suggestions?

Graceland remains a terrific achievement. End of.

simple

in fact, I've just been listening to it on Spotify. Can't believe how overlooked it is. Even Simon seems to dismiss it these days in interviews. Unbelievable.

Bookends came up on shuffle in the car this morning. Love the album but still unsure whether 'Voices of Old People' is moving or patronising!

Leaving that aside, America never fails to move me ("Kathy I'm lost, I said, though I knew she was sleeping") and I love Old Friends (which perhaps justifies 'Voices'...) and Hazy Shade.

Don't know if it's my favourite, but this morning an a sunny journey up the M6, it really hit the spot.

1. Hearts and Bones
2. The Rhythm of the Saints
3. "Paul Simon"
4. Songs from 'The Capeman'
5. There Goes Rhymin' Simon
6. Still Crazy After All These Years
7. Graceland

8. Surprise
9. You're the One
10. Live Rhymin'
11. One Trick Pony

... but really, the top seven are all consistently fine. Superb songwriting. "Hearts and Bones" sold poorly and "the Capeman" got a critical hammering, but I like 'em both a lot.

Saw PS live in Stockholm on the "You're the One" tour, with Steve Gadd in the band. Now that guy can play the drums.

Really good record. At the time it benefited from being just a modern pop album without any forced influences. I think the lyrics are really interesting too, it's his least religious-sounding album. It has Nile Rogers on it. What's not to like?

Great overlooked song: Night Game, from Still Crazy.

S&G? Bookends, definitely.

Graceland and Rhythm of the Saints. Another vote for Bookends.

seems to me to be a good pace. Not so many the quality falls off and yet quite a large body of work. I'd bet there are many who'd give their eye teeth for such a high quality / quantity ratio.

Favourite album: a dead heat between "Paul Simon" and "Graceland." Favourite S&G song: another vote for "Wednesday Morning 3am."

"Parsley Sage Rosemary and Thyme" and even if it now sounds a bit "studenty", I still love it. Of course "Graceland" is magnifico but there is something about "Hearts and Bones" that I keep coming back to ..of course every album contains something wonderful and I would nominate the story/song "Darling Lorraine" from You're The One".Another favourite of mine is the way the band elevates itself lead by the drumming of Steve Gadd, after the line "I went outside and smoked myself a "J"" on "Late In The Evening. Just perfect!..He is one of the great songwriters and is rightly cherished!

ok I'll shut up!

For me its 'There Goes Rhymin Simon' where he's very playful and touching in equal measure. Stuffed full of ace material but the sleeper gem? St Judy's Comet

As far as S&G are concerned I may have come to love the other albums but when I was growing up 'Bridge' was all I wanted to hear from my parents small record collection. Ok you may have heard the biggies too often but 'The Only Living Boy In New York' frzakin ACHES,man. And 'Keep The Customer Satisfied' is just brills with a rockin horn section. Just bought my umpteenth copy, 40th Anniversary with DVD and live album - flippin magic.

...is probably the best song by anyone ever. So there you go. I like the Negotiations & Love Songs LP, it's where I heard most of the pre-Gracelands stuff first.

between There goes rymin' and Graceland, though like Ola, also share a soft spot for Songs from the capeman.

for 'Hazy Shade Of Winter' alone, it's more precious than gold dust.

One Trick Pony for 'Late In The Evening', if only for the fact that my Dad loves it, and there's a line that goes "rolled myself a 'J'".

... but Bookends is my choice as well, if only for "Fakin' It" and "Hazy Shade.." - he's a great pop writer, apart from anything else.

opened my ears to all sorts that did. And is there a better opening lyric than "Fat Charlie the Archangel sloped into the room"?

for me - it has 'American Tune' fer chrissakes! A song that has on more than one occasion found me with 'something in my eye' and I'm not even American.

although I would have considered myself a Paul Simon fan, I only own Graceland. Which is a completely wonderful album. OK, I do have the best of Paul Simon & a best of S&G, but that doesn't really count, I know.

I hadn't really noticed this terrible hole in my collection before, but now I'm going to shamefacedly check out some of his other albums.

Hearts and Bones, followed by Rhymin'

And for S&G - Bookends

"Late in the evening" (From 1980 IIRC)

Without doubt for me it has to be Hearts and Bones

For S and G then again without doubt it is Bookends.

By the way: has anyone noticed that the album 'So Beautiful.......' seems to have been put back a couple of months? I had been looking forward to hearing it on Monday :(

and its to conicide with the tour. So get it from Amazon.com etc

for me.

Add Art, and it's more difficult. Gems on all albums and some clunkers. I'd probably have to go for a compilation. So long as this is on it

Huge fan here; Sounds of Silence was the first album (LP!) I ever bought.

Or, as a Widdie heckled during tonight's gig, "Julio and I...

Genuinely surprised (but delighted) that so many others rate it, it's not exactly his most famous piece of work but it helped me through a rough patch, not one duff song on it.

Just bought it on LP as my old copy was so worn.

How many of Simon´s peers can claim to have peaked commercially in the eighties?

And with one of his best and Massive approved albums at that.

is my favourite Simon album and ranks in my top 5 of any artist. Individual songs would include Late in the evening, American Tune and Darlin Lorraine.
I dont think he has made a bad album at all and if the 2 songs I have heard so far from the new album are anything to go by he is in a rich vein of form. I am looking forward to its release but am a little puzzled that its release date is showing June but all of the mags have reviewed it already.

A brilliant songwriter who doesn't get the credit he deserves. I'd take him over Dylan any day. Paul Simon is such an emotive songwriter and I find many of his songs very affecting. He has a fantastic insight into the human condition and has a gift for expressing the esscense of what lies at the heart of our souls. I can barely listen to Hearts and Bones, Slip Sliding Away, America, Overs, Song For The Asking, and countless others without getting a wobbly lip and a tear in my eye.

favourite albums ever without a doubt, even if chordwise it's variations on Davey Graham's theme. Richard Cory would be the first song that sent a shiver down my spine as a young pup not even quite sure what music and LPs were as I sneaked the disc onto my parent's record player. Kathy's Song, A Most Peculiar Man, April Come She Will...all that on an album that starts with the title track and ends with I Am A Rock. It's breathtaking and keeps up an unbelievable standard of songwriting.
As for his solo career I'd rather take a collection of his fabulous solo singles. If forced I go for There Goes Rhymin' Simon.