Simon was born in Norwalk, Conn., Aug.11,1941, the son of a doctor who is an amateur musician. "He maintained that it was impossible to make a living with music and always discouraged me from pursuing music as a career," John recalls.
Nevertheless, after studying music in college, John took a job with Columbia Records, who trained him for eight weeks ans assigned him to edit special projects. His first
record was "Point of Order," a documentary account of the McCarthy hearings.
He also edited some musical comedy recordings, then was assigned to do musical projects in a "pop vein," the first of which were Charles Lloyd and Frankie Yankovic ("I did Movie Time Polkas with him," Simon recalls. "It was my first 'concept album.' ").

  
C y r k l e    H i t

"Then I became involved with the Cyrkle," John says. He produced their single of "Red Rubber Ball," a sizable 1966 hit. Next Simon produced an album by Marshall McLuhan for Columbia.
"I didn't know who McLuhan was, but I took on the project and was more pleased with the way it turned out than I had been with many others before that."
Shortly thereafter, John produced sessions with Simon and Garfunkel and Leonard Cohen before finally leaving Columbia.

  
N o r t h w a r d    M i g r a t i o n

John departed to work on the sound track of "You Are What You Eat." For it, he wrote "My Name Is Jack," which later became a hit for Manfred Mann.
While he was scoring the film, he met manager Albert Grossman, through whom he met Janis Joplin and The Band.
John left New York City and moved to Woodstock (where he still lives) to produce The Band's first album, Music from Big Pink.

  
D o i n g    I t    A l o n e

In Woodstock, John began writing songs again and started thinking of producing his first album. In 1968 he began work on it, spending a full year before emerging with John Simon, a well loved but too little heard excursion through the unique blend of fantasy and reality of his lyric vision and the fine weave of his music.
His second album, Journey, took both longer and shorter to make.
He spent much more than a year pondering it and developing parts of the LP, but the final recording took place in a week-long burst.
Its loose jazz-like feel is a wondrous contrast to the finely wrought intricacy of its predecessor, though both abound in similar subtleties.

  
A l l - P u r p o s e    A r t i s t

So far, John Simon has succeeded spectacularly in a variety of pursuits. As a producer, he has distinguished himself with albums by The Band, Gordon Lightfoot, John Hartford, Jackie Lomax, Seals and Crofts, Bobby Charles, Cass Elliot, Electric Flag, Simon and Garfunkel, Cyrkle, Blood, Sweat and Tears, Marshall McLuhan, and (yes) Frankie Yankovic and his Yanks.
As a composer, his credits also include the film scores for "You Are What You Eat" and "Last Summer."
And as an artist he has shaped two equally marveloius but considerably different Warner Bros. albums.