Simon & Garfunkel - America (1968)

In 1964, Paul Simon was living in London, England with his then-girlfriend Kathy Chitty. His debut album with Art Garfunkel, Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. had recently been finished recording and was now in the stage of being mixed and having the artwork created/picked out. Simon’s producer, Tom Wilson, informed him that he wanted Paul to come back to the United States to assist with the work. Not wanting to leave his girlfriend behind, Simon suggested he and Kathy go together, where they could spend five days touring the country before he got back to work. The resulting road trip became the inspiration for the song heard below.

It was in 1966 when Simon eventually wrote the song; and, according to a former disc jockey from Saginaw, Michigan, Bob Dyer, Simon wrote the song while he was in town- in Saginaw- to perform in a concert series.

The finished song was first released in 1968 on Simon & Garfunkel’s third album, titled Bookends. That version of the song begins with a segue from the previous track; so the version heard below- the single- was chosen for being featured here instead, as the intro is cleaner. The single version heard below and released in 1972 reached #92 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and #25 in the UK. It features Hal Blaine and Larry Knechtel from The Wrecking Crew on drums and bass, respectively.



Simon & Garfunkel - America (1968)

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Lyrics:

Let us be lovers
We’ll marry our fortunes together
I’ve got some real estate here in my bag

So we bought a pack of cigarettes
And Mrs. Wagner’s Pies
And walked off to look for America

“Kathy,” I said, as we boarded a Greyhound in Pittsburgh
“Michigan seems like a dream to me now”
It took me four days to hitch-hike from Saginaw
I’ve come to look for America”

Laughing on the bus
Playing games with the faces
She said the man in the gabardine suit was a spy
I said, “Be careful, his bowtie is really a camera”

“Toss me a cigarette; I think there’s one in my raincoat”
“We smoked the last one an hour ago”

So I looked at the scenery
She read her magazine
And the moon rose over an open field

“Kathy, I’m lost,” I said, though I knew she was sleeping
“I’m empty and aching and I don’t know why”

Counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike
They’ve all come to look for America

All come to look for America
All come to look for America

Tom & Jerry - Hey, Schoolgirl (1957)

“Tom” and “Jerry” had known each other ever since childhood, having grown up just three blocks apart in Queens, New York. While still in elementary school, sixth grade, they were both cast in the Alice in Wonderland school play. Later, they attended Parsons Junior High and Forest Hills High School. In their junior year, 1957, the pair began performing as “Tom & Jerry,” using the record company-appointed stage-names of Tom Graph and Jerry Landis. Although they had been writing songs together as early as 1955, it wasn’t until 1957 that they recorded their first song, heard below, which became a big hit. Dedicated to becoming “rock and roll” singers, the duo tried various aliases and band names, such as Tico & the Triumphs, with only lukewarm success. Upon completing high school, the pair split and went to different colleges, later reuniting in the Greenwich Village scene, having both been infatuated with the growing folk movement. From there, the duo began recording again, but decided to use their real names: Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, from then on known together as Simon & Garfunkel.

Released in 1957, this song was written by both Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel for Sid Prosen at Big Records. Featuring the B-Side “Dancin’ Wild,” the song reached number forty-nine on the charts and sold over one hundred thousand copies. As confirmed by Simon and Garfunkel, and rather apparent from the recording, the duo was heavily influenced at the time by The Everly Brothers. “Tom & Jerry” performed the song on American Bandstand, hosted by Dick Clark, after the rise in its popularity.



Tom & Jerry - Hey, Schoolgirl (1957)

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Lyrics:

Woo, boppa-loocha-bah
You’re mine
I say woo, boppa-loocha-bah
You’re mine

Hey, schoolgirl in the second row
The teacher’s lookin’ over
So I gotta whisper way down low
You say, “woo, boppa-loocha-bah”
“Let’s meet after school at three”

She said, “Hey, baby, there’s a’one thing more”
“School is over at half past four”
“Maybe when we’re older, then we can date”
Ooh, “Let’s wait”

Hey, schoolgirl in the second row
The teacher’s lookin’ over
So I gotta whisper way down low
You say, “woo, boppa-loocha-bah”
“Let’s meet after school at three”

She said, “Hey, babe, I got a lot to do”
“It takes me hours when my homework’s through”
“Someday we’ll go steady, so don’t you fret”
Ooh, “Not yet”

Hey, schoolgirl in the second row
The teacher’s lookin’ over
So I gotta whisper way down low
You say, “woo, boppa-loocha-bah”
“Let’s meet after school at three”

Then she turned around to me with that gleam in her eye
She said, “I’m sorry if I passed you by”
“I’m gonna skip my homework, gonna cut my class”
“Bug out of here real fast”

Hey school girl in the second row
Now we’re goin’ steady
Hear the words that I want you to know
Well it’s, “Woo, boppa-loocha-bah, you’re mine”
I knew it all the time

Woo, boppa-loocha-bah, ah ha, you’re mine
Woo, boppa-loocha-bah, ah ha, you’re mine
Woo, boppa-loocha-bah, ah ha, you’re mine
Woo, boppa-loocha-bah, ah ha, you’re mine
Woo, boppa-loocha-bah, ah ha, you’re mine…

Simon & Garfunkel - The Boxer (1969)

Performing together as early as 1957 under the name of Tom & Jerry, this duet was one of the most successful acts of the 1960s. Composed of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, they rose to fame in 1965 with their signature song “The Sound of Silence” and further propelled their stardom by having their music featured throughout the 1967 film The Graduate. Differences between the two led to the duo breaking up in 1970, but each decade since has seen them perform together, most notably the free Concert In Central Park, which gathered over 500,000 attendees.

This lyrical masterpiece, written by Paul Simon, was released as a single in 1969 and later again on the duo’s last album, Bridge Over Troubled Water (1970). It’s noted for being the duo’s most highly produced song, requiring over 100 hours to record. The “lie-la-lie”, which makes up the choruses, was originally intended as a lyrical placeholder before it was finally cemented into the recorded version.



Simon & Garfunkel - The Boxer (1969)

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Lyrics:

I am just a poor boy
Though my story's seldom told
I have squandered my resistance
For a pocket full of mumbles; such are promises
All lies and jests
Still, a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest

When I left my home and my family
I was no more than a boy
In the company of strangers
In the quiet of the railway station, runnin’ scared
Laying low, seeking out the poorer quarters
Where the ragged people go
Lookin’ for the places only they would know

Lie-la-lie
Lie-la-lie-lie-lie-lie-lie
Lie-la-lie
Lie-la-lie-lie-lie-lie-lie
La-la-la-lie

Asking only workman's wages
I come looking for a job
But I get no offers
Just a come-on from the whores on Seventh Avenue
I do declare there were times when I was so lonesome
I took some comfort there

Lie-la-lie
Lie-la-lie-lie-lie-lie-lie
Lie-la-lie
Lie-la-lie-lie-lie-lie-lie
La-la-la-lie

Then I'm laying out my winter clothes
And wishing I was gone
Going home
Where the New York City winters aren't bleedin’ me
Bleeding me; going home

In the clearing stands a boxer
And a fighter by his trade
And he carries the reminders
Of every glove that laid him down
Or cut him ‘til he cried out
In his anger and his shame
"I am leaving! I am leaving!"
But the fighter still remains

Lie-la-lie
Lie-la-lie-lie-lie-lie-lie
Lie-la-lie
Lie-la-lie-lie-lie-lie-lie
La-la-la-lie...