Prosen renamed the pair Tom & Jerry and released “Hey, Schoolgirl” as a single. At age 16, the pair felt emboldened enough to head into a Manhattan studio and record the song, “Hey, Schoolgirl,” which caught the attention of Sid Prosen who ran a small record label called Big Records. They realized their ability to harmonize during school musical productions and choir, eventually going on to record their voices together before attempting to write their own songs, often in the style of their singing idols such as The Everly Brothers. The duo met in 1953 as music-crazed 11-year-olds in elementary school in Queens, New York. Their first split was because Simon recorded songs solo, without telling Garfunkel
Privately, their friendship would be strained to the point of breaking time and time again as they attempted to forge their own identities, both within the confines of their professional partnership, as well as separate, solo artists.
As Simon & Garfunkel, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel became the darlings of the folk-rock, countercultural movement of the late 1960s, selling millions of albums and performing sold-out shows across the globe.
