Simon & Garfunkel ： El Condor Pasa (1970) - Simon & Garfunkel ： El Condor Pasa (1970)

What this video is

Released in September 1970 as the third single from Bridge over Troubled Water, 'El Condor Pasa (If I Could)' represents one of the earliest mainstream Western pop assimilations of Andean folk music. Paul Simon encountered the melody via Los Incas in Paris in 1969 and added English lyrics, inadvertently triggering a landmark copyright dispute when Daniel Alomía Robles's son successfully sued; the case clarified the…

Why it matters

A landmark early example of world-music crossover in mainstream American pop, blending Andean folk instrumentation (via the Los Incas base track) with English-language singer-songwriter craft. The track foreshadowed Paul Simon's later ethnomusicological explorations (e.g., Graceland) and…