Paul McCartney’s favourite Paul Simon songs
As a member of the most influential band of all time, Paul McCartney’s musical opinions hold a lot of weight. With a successful career spanning over six decades, Macca is undoubtedly one of the most successful musicians to ever grace the airwaves. The approval of a Beatle is perhaps the highest praise most musicians could ever imagine. Over the years, McCartney has dished out this approval to a variety of artists, including Paul Simon.
Obviously, Simon is a legend in his own right. As one half of Simon and Garfunkel, the musician played a key role in soundtracking the counter-cultural movement of the 1960s. Very prevalent in the music charts throughout the decade, Simon and Garfunkel witnessed success in providing tracks for the hit film The Graduate, and their final album, Bridge Over Troubled Water, remains one of the best-selling records of all time.
Much like McCartney, Simon split from his counterpart in 1970 to embark on a hugely successful solo career. Hailed as one of the great songwriters of his generation, Simon’s solo work borrowed influences from across the world. Particularly interested in music from Jamaica, South America and Africa, his work was eclectic but incredibly successful. He has a staggering 21 top 40 albums in the UK, as well as hit singles, including his most popular, ‘You Can Call Me Al’.
Throughout the years, there has been mutual respect between McCartney and Simon. The two iconic songwriters have repeatedly hailed each other for their respective abilities. In fact, during the Wings period of McCartney’s career, he would often play the Simon and Garfunkel song ‘Richard Cory’, during live performances. More recently, the pair performed together on the Saturday Night Live 40th Anniversary Special, when they performed a version of The Beatles’ ‘I’ve Just Seen a Way’.
Although the pair have not always been so complimentary of each other’s songwriting talents, with Simon once referring to the McCartney-penned track ‘Give Ireland Back to the Irish’ as “garbage”, they appear to remain on good terms. When Macca was asked to name works by his favourite songwriters, he could not resist the chance to pile on the praise for Simon’s work, stating: “I think Paul Simon has written some amazing songs,” he said. “I wouldn’t want to just say one of them but he’s certainly written some great stuff.”
Selecting some highlights from Simon’s long, ongoing musical career, McCartney continued: “Some of his things have been very good,” he said, “‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’, ‘Sound of Silence’, ‘Mrs Robinson’, ‘The 59th Street Bridge Song’ and ‘Homeward Bound’…. to name a few personal faves”.
Presumably, the bassist could have continued for a while longer, given the amount of hits written by Simon over the years. The mutual respect between two of the most renowned songwriters of the 20th century is still clearly very strong, and as their respective careers approach their 70th anniversary, perhaps their paths will cross again soon.
