Paul Simon

Released nearly two years after the split with Art Garfunkel, the album took in Latin music, jazz, blues and reggae. Simon told Jon Landau of Rolling Stone that he did not want to sing Scarborough Fair again. Guests include Stephane Grappelli on violin for Hobo's Blues, which they co-wrote, Ron Carter on bass for Run That Body Down and Airto Moreira on percussion for Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard. Mother and Child Reunion was cut in Kingston with Jimmy Cliff's band.

Columbia's Clive Davis had told him he would never be as successful as Simon & Garfunkel, and Simon answered "Yeah, like Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis". The album reached number four in America, went to number one in Britain, Japan and Norway, and was certified platinum. Several songs touch on his marriage to Peggy Harper, which ended in 1975, and Run That Body Down names "Paul" and "Peg". Robert Christgau wrote in the Village Voice that it was "the only thing in the universe to make me positively happy" in the first two weeks of February 1972. Rolling Stone placed it at number 268 in 2012 and number 425 in 2020.