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Happy Birthday To New Canaan’s Paul Simon

NEW CANAAN, Conn. -- Happy Birthday To New Canaan’s Paul Simon!

Paul Frederic Simon turns 72 on Sunday.

Paul Frederic Simon turns 72 on Sunday.

Simon, who has owned a home in New Cannan, turns 72 on Sunday. The singer-songwriter was born Oct. 13, 1941, in Newark, N.J.

He began his musical career with Art Garfunkel at the age of 11 and his commercial success began as part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, formed in 1964. He wrote most of the pair's songs, including three that reached No. 1 on the U.S. singles charts: "The Sound of Silence", "Mrs. Robinson", and "Bridge Over Troubled Water".

He began a successful solo career as a guitarist and singer-songwriter and released Graceland, an album inspired by South African township music.

He received a Grammy Hall of Fame Award for the Simon & Garfunkel album Bridge over Troubled Water in 1998, He also won 12 Grammy Awards including the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001.

He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and was selected as one of the "100 People Who Shaped the World" by Time magazine in 2006. He was the first recipient of the Library of Congress's Gershwin Prize for Popular Song in 2007.

He received an Oscar nomination for the song "Father and Daughter" in 1998. He was awarded the Polar Music Prize, shared with Yo-Yo Ma in 2012.

He is the honorary member of Little Kids Rock, a nonprofit organization that provides free musical instruments and free lessons to children in public schools throughout the US and also the  co-founder of the Children's Health Project and The Children's Health Fund.

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