When Paul Simon released Still Crazy After All These Years on 17 October 1975, he wasn’t just releasing another solo record. He was putting a final full stop on the Simon & Garfunkel era, finding his footing in a changing world, and proving that introspection and pop craftsmanship could live side by side. Now, fifty years later, the album remains one of Simon’s most enduring works – a record that captures the sound of 1970s New York with grace, wit and melancholy.
By the time Still Crazy After All These Years arrived, Simon had already delivered three successful solo albums following the breakup of Simon & Garfunkel in 1970. His 1972 self-titled debut produced Mother And Child Reunion and Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard, blending folk with reggae and world rhythms long before “world music” was a marketing term. His 1973 follow-up There Goes Rhymin’ Simon refined that sound, giving him hits like Kodachrome and Loves Me Like A Rock.
But Still Crazy After All These Years was different. It was darker, more reflective, written by an artist who had entered his mid-thirties and was beginning to question everything he once celebrated. The title track alone – gentle, wistful and deceptively simple – captured Simon’s lifelong theme of time’s quiet cruelty.
The album produced four U.S. Top 40 hits: 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover (which reached No. 1), Gone At Last (No. 23, a spirited gospel duet with Phoebe Snow), My Little Town (No. 9, credited to Simon & Garfunkel), and the title track (No. 40). My Little Town reunited Simon and Art Garfunkel for the first time since Bridge Over Troubled Water five years earlier, offering a rare and fleeting glimpse of their chemistry amid the fallout of their split.
Still Crazy After All These Years went on to win two Grammy Awards in 1976, including Album of the Year and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, cementing Simon’s status as one of the premier songwriters of his generation.
The record’s production, shared between Simon and the legendary Phil Ramone, was meticulous. Two tracks featured the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, whose work on albums by Aretha Franklin and Wilson Pickett had already defined the sound of Southern soul. The rest of the sessions featured New York’s finest session musicians: Steve Gadd, who created one of the most iconic drum patterns in pop history on 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover, alongside Tony Levin, Michael Brecker, David Sanborn, and Richard Tee.
Simon’s writing was at its most cinematic. Night Game is a quietly devastating story of loss told through a baseball metaphor, while Silent Eyes closes the album with gospel-tinged reflection. I Do It For Your Love, later covered by Herbie Hancock and Karen Carpenter, revealed Simon’s understated sense of romantic disillusionment.
The album’s sound palette of smooth jazz chords, subtle horns, Fender Rhodes piano and Simon’s gentle voice helped define the “adult contemporary” sound that would shape singer-songwriter pop for years.
Still Crazy After All These Years reached No. 1 in the U.S. and charted worldwide, including No. 6 in the UK and No. 39 in Australia. It eventually earned Gold and Platinum certifications across several regions, including the U.S., UK and Canada.
Over the decades, the album’s songs have been revisited by an array of artists.
Rosemary Clooney, Ray Charles, Karen Carpenter and Willie Nelson have each covered the title track. David Sanborn and Herbie Hancock reimagined I Do It For Your Love, proving the album’s deep resonance across genres.
Fifty years later, Still Crazy After All These Years feels as relevant as ever. The album is a snapshot of an artist wrestling with adulthood, fame and faith. Simon would go on to explore even broader musical territory with Graceland in 1986, but this 1975 classic remains his most personal document of change, reflection and quiet brilliance.
Still Crazy After All These Years (1975) – Track Listing
Side One
Still Crazy After All These Years – 3:26
My Little Town – 3:51
I Do It For Your Love – 3:35
50 Ways To Leave Your Lover – 3:37
Night Game – 2:58
Side Two
6. Gone At Last – 3:40
7. Some Folks’ Lives Roll Easy – 3:14
8. Have A Good Time – 3:26
9. You’re Kind – 3:20
10. Silent Eyes – 4:12
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