The album that inspired Simon and Garfunfkel to become a folk duo: “Took hold of my life”
Simon and Garfunkel blew up into one of the biggest folk duos in history. From being best friends in high school, where they performed under the name Tom and Jerry, the two musicians grew up together, crafting their own sound out of a mutual love for certain artists. In particular, one other folk troupe brought them together.
The tight musicality of Simon and Garfunkel is the kind that only comes from closeness. Throughout their discography, with their tight harmonies, unique folk instrumentals and poetic lyricism, the two musicians, for the majority of their career, seemed utterly in sync. It didn’t seem like they ever had to discuss what sound they were going for. Instead, it came naturally to the pair that had grown up together.
The duo have a long history together that truly saw them climb to the top as a team. They both grew up in Queens, New York, living only three blocks away from one another. They attended all the same schools from elementary to high school. They became fast friends after Simon saw Garfunkel singing in a fourth-grade talent show, and then the pair were cast in the same school play.
Instantly, music was the bonding force between them. They were both into early rock and roll, but specifically, they were into the Everly Brothers.
“The arrival of The Everly Brothers really captured my attention and took hold of my life,” Art Garfunkel said. He continued, “I was now friends with Paul Simon, and we fell for Don and Phil Everly.”
In the early days of their friendship, the pair would listen to Everly Brothers records together and try to replicate the duo’s harmonies. Their obsession with the craft and with the sound they were hearing on those tracks led them to start a doo-wop group called the Peptones. Eventually, that split and Tom & Jerry started, slowly morphing into Simon and Garfunkel, the band the world knows.
“That magnificent two-part harmony was fused together so beautifully,” Garfunkel said, making it clear to see where his own band’s love of melding voices together came from. Across every Simon and Garfunkel song, that two-part harmony they first learnt from the Everly Brothers is present. Their isolated vocals are a thing to behold, showing clear as day just how tight and in sync the two musicians were. But they first connected with that sound as teenagers, listening to the original harmonising duo.
In particular, their album Songs Our Daddy Taught Us was formative, with the musician stating, “It’s a killer.”
It’s a musical love that Garfunkel has forever held dear. “I’ll so miss Phil forever,” he said, talking after the death of one half of the band in 2014. Since, in 2021, Don Everly also passed away. Garfunkel said, “I have to pause for a moment and just bow to the brilliance of that harmony singer.”
