Paul Simon's Concert in the Park was similar to The Concert in Central Park, a reunion concert for Simon and Garfunkel held ten years earlier. The album was released on the 50th birthday of Art Garfunkel. Special Guests: Briz and Grupo Cultural OLODUM for "The Obvious Child" and Chevy Chase join Paul, dancing for the second of two performances of "You Can Call Me Al". This title was released in both audio and video formats. In July 2011 a Facebook campaign was started to request a release of the concert on DVD and Blu-ray. It was released on DVD in 2018 through PBS membership rewards. The
The Concert in Central Park the backing band was "one of the finest groups of musicians ever to play together at a New York rock concert", and the rearrangements of Simon's solo material were improvements over the originals. Despite the risks in performing so many acoustic ballads in an open-air concert on a cool night, the songs "were beautifully articulated, in near-perfect harmony." An October 1981 review in "Rolling Stone" called the concert "one of the finest performances of [1981]", one that "vividly recaptured another time, an era when well-crafted, melodic pop bore meanings that stretched beyond the musical sphere and into the realms of