Simon and Garfunkel: The History of Two Old Friends

The long friendship but relatively short-lived musical team of Simon and Garfunkel began early in the lives of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel. As boys in the 1950s, they lived only three blocks from each other in Queens, New York.

Around age 14, Simon and Garfunkel started writing songs together and practicing harmonies, recording themselves on Garfunkel’s tape recorder. From the beginning, Simon and Garfunkel worked as a team. Simon wrote the lyrics and melodies. Garfunkel contributed his voice and ability to fine-tune the music.

In 1957, Simon and Garfunkel discovered the Everly Brothers, a duo that sang harmony much like they did. Hearing the Everly Brothers made them hunger to make a real record. So they did, releasing “Hey, Schoolgirl” under the stage name of Tom and Jerry later that year.

Simon and Garfunkel as Tom and Jerry performed mostly at school and community functions. But they did get some national exposure playing immediately after Jerry Lee Lewis on the television program “American Bandstand” in late November 1957. “Hey, Schoolgirl” sold a modest 120,000 to 150,000 copies, but it stayed on Billboard Magazine’s Top 100 list for nine weeks.
Folk's Influence

After high school, Garfunkel enrolled at New York’s Columbia University but later left school to travel to Europe. On his return, by way of San Francisco, he became interested in the folk music he heard there. Meanwhile, Simon, attending college in New York, was also developing an interest in folk music. This new influence would transform their sound from adolescent, “bubblegum” pop to a more mature, folk music with story-like lyrics.

In the early 1960s, Garfunkel was finishing his degree. Simon spent some time in law school before dropping out to devote himself entirely to his music. During this time, Bob Dylan’s “rough poetry and driving rhythms” began to influence Simon’s song writing.