The most successful folk-rock duo of all time, Paul Simon and Arthur 'Art' Garfunkel were both born in 1941 and grew up near each other in the Queens borough of New York, first meeting in grade school at the age of 12 and going on to attend Forest Hills High School together. Heavily influenced by The Everly Brothers, they began singing while still at school and, in 1957, released their first single, 'Hey Schoolgirl', under the name of Tom and Jerry.

At which point, this story should go smoothly and directly into an account of an intense artistic collaboration and inexorable musical success. But it doesn't. Instead, Simon and Garfunkel, after a few further releases as Tom and Jerry, went their separate ways, to separate colleges and, eventually, to separate continents.