1 week Ago By Scarlett O'Toole
Simon and Garfunkel may be one of the biggest folk rock acts in history , but that doesn't mean fans know everything about them. The duo shot to fame in the 1960s thanks to their songs The Sound of Silence , Homeward Bound and I Am a Rock. However, the pair started out years earlier under the name Tom and Jerry, like the iconic cat and mouse cartoon .
Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel were just two New York City teenagers who grew up in the Jewish neighborhood of Kew Gardens, Queens, when they decided to start making music together in the late 1950s. They recorded a demo tape and were quickly signed with producer Sid Prosen's label, Big Records. However, the pair were ordered to change their names.
The record label was concerned their last names were "too ethnic-sounding" for Middle America. As a result, Paul and Art decided to go by the names Tom and Jerry after the cartoon series. Fans have been left shocked after discovering the duo's name and took to Reddit to share their thoughts.
"Well that's a little piece of history I never knew," one stunned person admitted. Another admitted, "I am a huge fan of Paul Simon and I probably wouldn‘t have recognized him wthout the title, this is really early," while someone else questioned, "Like the cartoon?" Over on X, a third person posted, "Well, I never knowed dat x." Another joked, "Thanks, I thought it was Tweety and Sylvester.
." Luckily, one fan was on hand to explain the thinking behind the Tom and Jerry names. They shared, "Garfunkel settled on "Tom Graph," a reference to both his love of mathematics and habit of marking the chart position of favorite pop songs on graph paper.
Simon christened himself "Jerry Landis," after the surname of then-girlfriend Sue Landis." Simon and Garfunkel had a number of hit songs, but ultimately ended up parting ways in 1970 following a bitter feud. The pair struggled with power dynamics and personal conflicts, with creative differences also adding to their downfall.
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