The Essential Paul Simon  The Essential Paul Simon is a compilation album of Paul Simon's songs from the years 1971-2006 and released in 2007. An edition exists with a DVD featuring performances from "The Dick Cavett Show" and "Saturday Night Live". It was re-released in 2010 in Australia through Sony BMG apart of The Essential series. Stephen Thomas Erlewine from Allmusic calls the compilation "efficient, picking up after the parting of ways with Garfunkel and running straight through until 2006's "Surprise"." He believes "some might argue that there's too heavy of a "Graceland" presence here — a whopping six tracks, over half the album — but it is his biggest album and functions as a nice transition between his better-known '70s hits and the more esoteric but frequently compelling work that he's done since." All tracks are written by Paul Simon except as noted. Videos TV Appearances