Somehow, and again it could be payola, they found themselves on the Thanksgiving edition of Dick Clark’s American Bandstand, the teenage TV show of the day. This live programme for the ABC network, broadcast on 22 November 1957, starred Jerry Lee Lewis with his classic rave-up, ‘Great Balls of Fire’. Paul said, ‘I watched American Bandstand and here I was playing the show. It made me a neighbourhood hero.’
How Artie must have loved watching ‘Hey Schoolgirl’ climb his beloved Billboard chart, reaching a respectable No. 49. It sold 100,000 copies in the face of stiff opposition, not least from the Everlys’ new single, who in years to come would have welcomed a hit that size.
Tom and Jerry played few concerts outside their own area, although they were booked for an otherwise black show at the Hertford State Theatre. The show starred LaVern Baker (‘Jim Dandy’) and Thurston Harris (‘Little Bitty Pretty One’) – ‘and Artie and I came out running in white bucks’. Still, they had enough stagecraft to survive.
Unlike many record company owners, Sid Prosen wasn’t a rogue and they each made $2,000 from ‘Hey Schoolgirl’. Paul bought an electric guitar and a red Impala convertible. He crashed it a few times and its carburettor burned out near Art’s house: ‘I ended up watching my share of the record money getting burned up.’ Not to worry, as he regained the cost many times over as his exploits inspired his song, ‘Baby Driver’.
Sid Prosen promised bigger things next time, but as Simon said, ‘The next one was a flop and the next one a flop and the company went broke and we went back to school.’
As simple as that.
Only it wasn’t. Paul Simon had the bug.
Paul Simon may make glib remarks to throw researchers off the track. He may not want his efforts from the late 50s and early 60s to be remembered, but he is mistaken. You can’t change history and anyway, many of his earlier 45s are both telling and enjoyable.
Some readers may think that I should cut to the chase and get on to Simon & Garfunkel’s albums, but it would be omitting their development. The tracks show Paul Simon singing and playing, working in studios and learning his craft, including how to produce himself and other artists. He was discovering how to avoid mistakes and even before he had a hit single of any consequence, he had formed his own company, Landis Publishing. How far-sighted and confident is that? He was the first major rock musician to own his own catalogue and John Lennon praised him for his insight. There was a precedent as Irving Berlin controlled his songs through Irving Berlin Music.
Simon and Garfunkel have nursed a soft spot for ‘Hey Schoolgirl’. In 1967 they opened for the Mothers of Invention as Tom and Jerry and when they were called back for an encore, they sang ‘The Sound of Silence’, so hopefully everybody got the joke. In 2004 they went on tour with the Everly Brothers and brazenly sang ‘Hey Schoolgirl’ before introducing them.
‘Hey Schoolgirl’ had a catalogue number of Big 613. Big 614 was an echo-drenched ballad à la Paul Anka, ‘Teenage Fool’ coupled with the Elvis-lite rockabilly of ‘True or False’ and attributed to True Taylor aka Paul Simon. ‘True or False’ was written by his father, Lou Simon. His father was always supportive and would transport Tom and Jerry before they could drive.
But Artie was not supportive of True Taylor. Paul hadn’t told him what he was doing. Even now, Art cites this as typical of Paul’s behaviour, their first big argument and one that has been repeated several times. In 1980, Paul Simon told Playboy, ‘Artie looked upon my solo record as a betrayal. That solo record has coloured our relationship. I said, “Artie, I was 15 years old. How can you carry that betrayal for 25 years? Even if I was wrong, I was just a 15-year-old kid who wanted to be Elvis Presley for one moment instead of being in the Everly Brothers with you. Even if you were hurt, let’s drop it.” But he won’t. He said, “You’re still the same guy.”’
Paul Simon was sixteen, not fifteen, and he was feeling the pangs of not being able to follow up a hit record. He told the New York World-Telegram in 1957, ‘Once you’re down, it can be terrible.’
The True Taylor single didn’t make the charts and the follow-up to ‘Hey Schoolgirl’ was ‘Our Song’/‘Two Teenagers’ (Big 616). ‘Our Song’ is a break-up song in which the jukebox makes the singer cry; again heavily Everly with a bridge taken from ‘Wake Up Little Susie’. Long before it was fashionable, Paul and Art were into recycling. The B-side, ‘Two Teenagers’, written by Rose Marie McCoy, who wrote for Elvis, was a cheerful novelty with irritating female back-up singers. They sneaked in the riff from ‘Hey Schoolgirl’.
The new single didn’t sell but Tom and Jerry tried again with the plaintive ‘That’s My Story’, which has a brassy arrangement similar to Billy Vaughn, and ‘Don’t Say Goodbye’ (Big 618). For Big 621, they did a cover of ‘Baby Talk’ backed by a reissue of ‘Two Teenagers’. Jan and Dean made the US Top 10 with ‘Baby Talk’ but this is okay. Curiously, Tom and Jerry’s version was released in the UK by Gala as one side of a single which sold for four shillings (twenty pence).
That is not quite the end of Tom and Jerry as there is a further single, the quirky novelty ‘Lookin’ at You’ and country ballad ‘I’m Lonesome’, an Ember single, issued by Pye International in the UK but not until 1963. Record Mirror said that ‘showed promise’, not knowing that they were assessing a single made four years earlier.
Another Tom and Jerry single, ‘Surrender, Please Surrender’ and ‘Fightin’ Mad’, features nondescript songs written by Sid Prosen, but I think Prosen invited other wannabes to perform them. I hope it is not Simon singing about the quest ‘to find a girlie just like you’.
There are two Tom and Jerry singles on Mercury (‘South’/‘Golden Wildwood Flower’ and ‘I’ll Drown In My Tears’/‘The French Twist’), but they were the Nashville instrumentalists, Tom Tomlinson and Jerry Kennedy, not to mention some novelty singles from the cartoon cat and mouse themselves.
In 1967 the UK label Allegro released an album of their singles as Tom and Jerry, attributing them to Simon & Garfunkel and slapping a contemporary photograph on the cover. The sleeve note said, ‘We are very fortunate to have captured on this recording the exciting sounds of these two brilliant young men. Contained in this album is a generous sampling of two stars of tomorrow who are the talk of the record world today.’
Paul was indignant, telling Record Mirror, ‘What annoyed me most about the record is that it implied that this was new Simon & Garfunkel material. They used a recent photograph on the cover. If they’d released it saying, “This is Simon & Garfunkel at 15”, it might have been interesting and I would have said, “Okay, that’s me at 15 and I’m not ashamed of it.” I made a record at 15 and everybody wanted to at that age. I just wanted to be Frankie Lymon.’ Later he became more critical, calling the record ‘fodder for mental eunuchs… I’m ashamed of it.’
Simon and Garfunkel took legal action and the album was withdrawn on both sides of the Atlantic. Strangely, Woolworths immediately started selling copies for just five shillings (twenty-five pence) and I recall seeing hundreds in their Liverpool branch. I bought one and I’d have been rich if I’d bought the lot.
The Allegro album has ten tracks, two of them previously unheard instrumentals, the mournful ‘Tijuana Blues’ and the jazzy ‘Simon Says’. ‘Simon Says’ has the songwriting credit of Louis Simon and Sid Prosen.
Paul and Art’s singles as Tom and Jerry are competent and they could have been lucky and had a chart career. Paul summarised it thus: ‘We didn’t plan to go on with music as a career but it wasn’t just for fun. We were deadly serious about everything we did. We wanted to sing and we wanted to play. It wasn’t like we said, “Let’s make one record and that would be it”, and then we’d travel off to university. We loved making records.’
This isn’t wholly true. Paul felt that way but Art’s heart wasn’t in it. He enjoyed making records but he was giving private lessons in mathematics and was planning to study architecture at Columbia, though he switched to maths (sorry, math). Simon w
ould go to Queens College to study English literature but he was less committed and wanted to make music. ‘I was going to be a political science major at one time,’ Paul told journalist Lon Goddard, ‘but the professor used to fart a lot – and so I said, “That’s disgusting – I won’t be that.”’
Paul loved the atmosphere surrounding the music publishing companies in the Brill Building and as well as solo singles, he made demos for songwriters. He would sing a lead vocal for fifteen dollars and he was so proficient that he could make the whole demo, playing instruments and overdubbing where necessary. He explained, ‘After “Hey, Schoolgirl”, I got to know studios and record labels. I’d leave my name with them and they’d call me to cut demos. I learned how to overdub and for $25, I could sound like a full group. I’d play bass, drums, piano in the key of C, and sing oo-ah-ooh in four different voices.’
At Queens College, Paul met Carole Klein who became Carole King. They both wrote songs and made demos calling themselves the Cosines with Paul playing guitar and bass and Carole piano and drums. They’d add their voices and the records would be sent to artists who were currently hot like Frankie Avalon and the Fleetwoods.
Carole wanted to be a professional songwriter, working with her boyfriend, soon her husband, Gerry Goffin. Paul shared the advice his father had given him. ‘She wanted to quit Queens and be a songwriter. I said “Don’t, you’ll ruin your career”. And she quit and had ten hits that year.’ ‘Will You Love Me Tomorrow’ ensured her an income for life. Goffin and King were signed by Aldon Music, run by Don Kirshner, but he turned Paul Simon down.
Paul recorded solo as Jerry Landis, the first single for MGM in 1959 featuring two of his compositions. The mawkish ‘Loneliness’ is a typical teenage-wallowing-in-misery song from the late 50s. The B-side, ‘Annabelle’, is the worst song he ever wrote, his vocal competing with a squawking sax.
Also in 1959, Jerry Landis recorded two Marv Kaplin songs for Chance, ‘Just to Be with You’ and ‘Ask Me Why’. He and Carole King worked on the arrangement of ‘Just to Be with You’ together. The song was picked up by the Brooklyn doo-wop group, the Passions, and their single made No. 69.
Paul Simon knew the management and the acts at Laurie Records, but he was never able to place his songs with their top artist, Dion. Mostly Paul’s songs remained demos but sometimes they were released in their own right. ‘Cry, Little Boy, Cry’ was a carbon copy of ‘Runaround Sue’, while ‘Noise’ emulated the party feel of ‘The Majestic’. Simon sounded like Dion singing ‘I Wonder Why’ on ‘Cards of Love’, a clever song about how the Jack steps in between the King and Queen. Most significant of all was ‘Wildflower’ from 1962 – the lyric ‘She was a wanderer through and through’ was aimed at Dion, and its Bo Diddley/Buddy Holly beat would have suited him. Oddly, the song suddenly changed to an African chant. Unlikely of course, but was this the starting block for Graceland?
Paul was mostly working at Associated Studios, again on Seventh Avenue and close to the Brill Building. He played lead guitar on Johnny Restivo’s rock’n’roll chart single, ‘The Shape I’m In’ (US 80) and its B-side ‘Ya Ya’. Restivo was a poster boy, a veritable Adonis, but the single had rock’n’roll credibility and is heard on oldies shows.
Another single was a wimpish ballad with a light beat, ‘Shy’, inspired by Frankie Avalon’s ‘Why’. The playful vocal suggests that Simon wasn’t taking it seriously. The B-side was the saccharine ‘Just A Boy’, which would have suited Avalon, but the bridge steals from ‘Secret Love’.
Paul worked, somewhat unsuccessfully, in music publishing, although one song he promoted, ‘Broken Hearted Melody’ by Sarah Vaughan became a huge hit. It was written by Hal David and Sherman Edwards, who passed him a teen song they had written ‘I’d Like to Be (The Lipstick on Your Lips)’. This was a sugary teen ballad, typical of Frankie Avalon and Fabian. The B-side was a reprise of ‘Just A Boy’, so somebody liked it.
Paul recorded about ten demos for the up-and-coming songwriter Burt Bacharach. Knowing Bacharach’s fastidiousness, this illustrates that Paul had his chops even at this young age.
The third Warwick single was the best track from the early years, ‘Play Me a Sad Song’, with the songwriting credit (Landis-Simon) indicating that he wrote it with his brother Eddie. The theme is familiar: Simon wants the radio DJ to play him a sad song as he is feeling lonely and the song borrows from Tab Hunter’s ‘Young Love’, Sam Cooke’s ‘You Send Me’ and Ben E King’s ‘Don’t Play That Song’. The biographer Patrick Humphries has likened this track to ‘I Am a Rock’. Paul is singing well and this could have been a hit. Indeed if it had had the distribution, what DJ could have resisted the title? The B-side, ‘It Means a Lot to Them’, is an unlikely song about the importance of getting the consent of his girlfriend’s parents. It was not Paul’s song and was as awkward as its title.
In 1963 Jerry Landis arranged and produced an excellent single for the soul singer Dotty Daniels. He didn’t write ‘I Wrote You a Letter’, which is a strong soul ballad written by Dickie Goodman, but the other side is an impassioned deep soul version of ‘Play Me a Sad Song’ with an orchestral arrangement.
Another Jerry Landis single was released on Canadian-American Records; Simon wrote both sides. ‘I Wish I Weren’t in Love’ sounds like a demo for Dion and the Belmonts, and is the first track that is recognisably Paul Simon. The B-side, ‘I’m Lonely’, is a plea for a girlfriend; a ‘Lord above, won’t you hear my plea’ song.
Simon formed studio band Tico & the Triumphs and, in line with their name, he sang lead and wrote ‘Motorcycle’ for Madison in 1961. He called himself after Tico because it was one of George Goldner’s labels and the Triumphs because he wanted a motorbike. It was a nonsense song like ‘Barbara Ann’ and ‘Rama Lama Ding Dong’. Simon is recognisable and the song has a good sax break but the record is disjointed. It crept into the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 99. The B-side is another song, teen ballad ‘I Don’t Believe Them’, in which he mimics Dion. How he must have enjoyed himself in 2009 singing back-up for Dion who was being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
The second Tico single, this time on Amy Records, was ‘Wildflower’, another Simon song, this time crossing ‘His Latest Flame’ with world music. He was trying something different that didn’t come off. ‘Express Train’ is a train song, based on ‘The Wanderer’ and although a rough-voiced vocal didn’t suit Simon, the session sounds fun.
With the advent of the twist, the mashed potato, the watusi and the fly, Simon created his own dance song, ‘Get Up & Do the Wobble’. He rhymed ‘potatoes’ with ‘later’, something that would not have passed his Quality Control in later years.
In 1962 Simon revived Jerry Landis for a single on Amy, ‘The Lone Teen Ranger’, inspired by the Coasters’ ‘Along Came Jones’ and the Olympics’ ‘Western Movies’. There are rudimentary sound effects and a very playful vocal from Paul Simon. It’s his song but it does incorporate Rossini’s William Tell Overture. His girl will fall for him if he wears a mask – kinky stuff. The B-side, ‘Lisa’, features Paul singing lead on a teen ballad. It means little more than a few radio plays but ‘The Lone Teen Ranger’ was on the Hot 100 for three weeks, peaking at No. 97, thereby being Paul Simon’s first chart record as a solo artist.
The final Tico & the Triumphs single in January 1963 combined a fast doo-wop song, which Simon didn’t write, ‘Cards of Love’, and a revival of his own ‘Noise’, which is party time in the Curtis Lee vein.
Just as Paul Simon wanted to write for Dion, the Mystics were about to record Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman’s ‘A Teenager In Love’ for Laurie when the label’s owner, Bob Schwartz, thought it was too good for them and gave it to Dion. Simon helped with arrangements for the Mystics. He sang second tenor on their doo-wop interpretation of the Welsh lullaby ‘All Through the Night’. Jim Gribble, their manager, offered him a royalty or $100. Wisely, he took the money as the record only had airplay on the east coast, but who knows, it might have given
him the idea for modernising old folk tunes such as ‘Scarborough Fair’. He also sang on the B-side, ‘(I Begin) To Think Again of You’.
By comparison, Art Garfunkel was studying hard and had done little recording, but he also recorded for Warwick. As Artie Garr, he wrote the teen ballad ‘Beat Love’ which opens with his solo voice. He says he is proud to be part of ‘the age of the beatniks’, so this is an unusual record and a good one. He wrote the B-side ‘Dream Alone’, a decent teen lullaby.
In 1962 and inspired by the Brothers Four folk hit, ‘Greenfields’, Art wrote the romantic ‘Private World’, which he recorded for Octavia. Garfunkel is double-tracked to resemble a group and it is good work. The B-side, ‘Forgive Me’, written by Jeff Raphael, is about a man awaiting death.
Just two singles from Garfunkel then, but it is odd that no one picked up on his exceptional voice. He recalled, ‘I wrote some banal rock’n’roll songs in the mid-50s, and then I wrote things of a more folky, sensitive nature, but I rated myself as weak. I never felt comfortable with it.’
Several of Paul Simon’s demos from around this time have come to light. Sung with Garfunkel, ‘Bingo’ is a children’s rhyme about a farmer’s dog – a variant of ‘Ol’ MacDonald’ really. If Simon & Garfunkel had ever made a kids’ album, this would have been ideal.
‘Dreams Can Come True’ is a Simon & Garfunkel demo, purloining a little of ‘All I Have to Do Is Dream’ but mostly sounding like Donovan in the mid-60s. They are edging towards the Simon & Garfunkel sound here.
The romantic ballad about a girl called Flame (‘Being with Flame set me on fire’) has a nice combination of Paul’s voice and flute. The other songs include the jazzy ‘Lighthouse Point’ (slow and fast versions, but the song’s construction is similar to ‘The Green Door’ and ‘At the Hop’), a song about a lethargic schoolboy, ‘Up and Down the Stairs’, a touch of social commentary in the folky ‘A Charmed Life’, while ‘Sleepy Sleepy Baby’ is a reflective song, which turns into a calypso – two takes have surfaced.
Simon & Garfunkel Page 2