simon and garfunkel songs of america 1969

#SIMON AND GARFUNKEL SONGS OF AMERICA 1969 PROFESSIONAL#
#SIMON AND GARFUNKEL SONGS OF AMERICA 1969 SERIES#
#SIMON AND GARFUNKEL SONGS OF AMERICA 1969 TV#

The album swept the Grammys with six awards, sold 25 million copies worldwide, spent 10 weeks at number one in the US, and topped the UK charts for 35 weeks over 18 months. Two months after Songs of America aired, Simon & Garfunkel released Bridge Over Troubled Water (1970) to record-breaking successes. The duo cemented their breakthrough with their follow-up Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme (1966), then achieved monumental success with the soundtrack to Mike Nichols’ The Graduate (1967) and their album Bookends (1968). By January 1966, the song had sold more than a million copies and reached number 1 on the Billboard Top 100. (1964) had pivoted into a massive success thanks to Columbia Records issuing staffer Tom Wilson’s remix of “The Sound of Silence” in late 1965. The lackluster debut of their studio album Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M.

#SIMON AND GARFUNKEL SONGS OF AMERICA 1969 TV#

In the four years prior to the TV special airing on CBS, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel had become musical icons. MMC! will take a different tack, proposing a wacky “C” for one of Grodin’s rare directorial efforts: his 1969 TV special, Simon & Garfunkel: Songs of America.īy all rights, Simon & Garfunkel: Songs of America should have been a resounding success. For many cinephiles with ideas of seeing more Charles Grodin in the Collection, The Heartbreak Kid is a natural first choice, with Grodin giving a bravura performance in black comedy and the film becoming a cinematic delicacy due to its complicated rights and resultant scarcity. Grodin grabbed attention two years later playing Captain “Aarfy” Aardvark in Mike Nichols’ Catch-22 (1970) and then established himself as a comedic actor two years after that as the titular character in Elaine May’s The Heartbreak Kid (1972). Grodin’s sole appearance in the Collection’s physical media library is Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby (1968) wherein he plays the small role of obstetrician Dr. With the sad news of Charles Grodin’s passing in May, thoughts at MMC! have turned to Hollywood’s favourite grump and his place in the Criterion Collection.

PLUS: A new essay by rock journalist Ben Fong-Torres.

Saturday Night Live sketch from 1977 featuring Charles Grodin, Paul Simon, and Art Garfunkel.

#SIMON AND GARFUNKEL SONGS OF AMERICA 1969 PROFESSIONAL#

Remembering Chuck, new interviews with Simon and Garfunkel on their personal and professional friendship with Grodin.The Harmony Game, Jennifer Lebeau’s 2011 feature-length documentary on the making of Simon and Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Water album.Robert Ryan’s 1969 introduction to the television special.New high-definition digital restoration with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition.Robinson,” “The Sound of Silence,” “El Cóndor Pasa (If I Could),” and “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” Though unpopular at the time, Songs of America has become an enduring portrait of an era and of Simon & Garfunkel as artists, with incisive commentary provided by iconic songs like “America,” “The Boxer,” “Scarborough Fair,” “Mrs. The special’s initial sponsor infamously balked at footage of Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers, the Poor People’s March on Washington, and the recently slain Martin Luther King, Jr., President John F.

The documentary follows the duo in cinéma verité style while interspersing footage of the social movements that defined a nation growing more aware, more sophisticated, and more complex.

#SIMON AND GARFUNKEL SONGS OF AMERICA 1969 SERIES#

The Criterion Collection, a continuing series of important classic and contemporary films presents Simon & Garfunkel: Songs of America.ĭirected by their friend Charles Grodin and airing almost two months before the release of Bridge Over Troubled Water, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel’s 1969 television special Simon & Garfunkel: Songs of America previewed their landmark album and shows the two on stage, in the studio, and on a concert tour across a turbulent country.

Simon and garfunkel songs of america 1969