Paul Simon

'There was no place to play in New York City,' he later recalled, so in 1965 the young songwriter decamped to London's folk clubs. Martin Carthy showed him finger-picking, old English songs opened his ears, and he wrote 'Homeward Bound'.

Meanwhile, producer Tom Wilson had quietly overdubbed electric guitar, bass and drums onto 'The Sound of Silence'. Simon was horrified, but the single went to number one, pulling him home to Art Garfunkel and a run of harmony-rich records ending with Bridge over Troubled Water (1970).

Alone again, he roamed further: reggae on 'Mother and Child Reunion', cut with Jimmy Cliff's band, gospel on 'Loves Me Like a Rock', and a darker, post-divorce mood on Still Crazy After All These Years. Graceland (1986), drawing on South African styles, became his most successful album, and Seven Psalms arrived in 2023.