![\"Paul](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Paul-Simon-Musician-1980-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jpg\")
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(Credits: Far Out \/ Alamy)<\/p>\n
Tue 20 January 2026 16:00, UK <\/p>\n
In the age of singer-songwriters, there\u2019s hardly anyone who could really compete with what Paul Simon<\/a> could do.\u00a0<\/p>\n There are some artists who have tried their hardest to be sincere in their songs, but the kind of character portraits that Simon has in his arsenal has made for one of the most consistent careers of any rock and roll act. But when looking at the technical side of his work, Simon was more likely to be remembered as much for his ear for arranging as he is for those works of poetry.<\/p>\n No matter what genre he found himself in, Simon always knew what the greatest songs needed to become legendary. Anyone wouldn\u2019t have had the first clue of what to do if they were working with South African musicians when making Graceland, but given how long Simon had been working on his classics, he practically reverse-engineered his process and translated what he wanted to the musicians in whatever way they knew how.<\/p>\n That might have made for some of the greatest world music to ever hit the charts, but they were still pop records at the end of the day. Simon always had a great melody as the foundation to whatever he did, but even if he had made a tune that was impossibly catchy from the minute it hit your eardrums, it wasn\u2019t going to mean anything if it didn\u2019t have the right person singing along with him.<\/p>\n Which probably explains why he and Art Garfunkel worked so well together. They might not have seen eye-to-eye on every single thing, but it\u2019s hard to imagine anyone else but Garfunkel singing \u2018Bridge Over Troubled Water<\/a>\u2019, despite Simon saying that he wished he had been able to sing it. He may have missed out on one of the greatest songs of all time, but he knew which songs suited someone\u2019s voice the best.<\/p>\n But rarely do you get a songwriter who was as singular as Neil Diamond was whenever he wrote a tune. His habit for schmaltzy tunes might not have been the coolest thing in the world, but when anyone else grabbed ahold of his tunes, they would fly off into the stratosphere. The Monkees turned \u2018I\u2019m A Believer\u2019 into a classic, UB40 transformed \u2018Red Red Wine\u2019 whenever they heard it, but it was \u2018You Don\u2019t Bring Me Flowers Anymore\u2019 that made Simon stand at attention when he first heard it.<\/p>\n