#60: Fakin’ It by Simon and Garfunkel

City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CJMS
Peak Month: September 1967
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #13
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #23
YouTube: “Fakin’ It”
Lyrics: “Fakin’ It”

Paul Frederic Simon was born in 1941 in Newark, New Jersey, to Hungarian-Jewish parents. His dad was a bandleader who went by the name Lou Sims. When he was eleven years old he met Art Garfunkel and were both part of a sixth grade drama production of Alice In Wonderland. Arthur Ira Garfunkel was born in 1941 in New York City. He is of Moldovian-Jewish decent. By 1954 Paul and Art were singing at school dances. In 1957, in their mid-teens, they recorded the song “Hey, Schoolgirl” under the name “Tom & Jerry”, a name that was given to them by their label Big Records. The single reached No. 49 on the pop charts.

Simon released “Teen-Age Fool” in 1958 under the pseudonym of True Taylor. The single was not a hit. In 1961 he released “Motorcycle” under the name Tico and the Triumphs. The tune made it to #99 on the Billboard Hot 100. That musical experiment disbanded after two more single releases that were both flops. Simon also released ten singles between 1959 and 1962 under the pseudonym Jerry Landis. He had one minor regional hit in 1962 titled “The Lone Teen Ranger” which made the Top Ten in Miami and Newport News (VA). Meanwhile, both Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel studied at university and got Bachelor’s Degrees.

In 1964 Simon and Garfunkel got a record contract with Columbia Records. In the fall they released their debut album Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. The album contained a track titled “The Sounds Of Silence”. However, the album was a commercial failure. Paul Simon moved to England and Garfunkel pursued studies at Columbia University. While in England Paul Simon co-wrote “Red Rubber Ball”, a hit for the Cyrkle in the spring of 1966. Otherwise, that would have been the end of their musical careers except “The Sounds Of Silence” began to get requests from buyers of the album in a few radio markets in Massachusetts and Florida by the spring of ’65. Consequently, “The Sounds Of Silence” was re-recorded in June 1965 and re-issued in September. The song went to number one in November ’65 in Boston, Miami and Providence (RI). It got picked up across the nation and became number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on January 1. It got knocked out of the top spot by the Beatles “We Can Work It Out”, bur returned to the number one spot on January 22nd. It finally peaked at number one in Los Angeles for the first two weeks in February.

With “The Sounds Of Silence” climbing the pop charts across America in the fall-winter of ’65, Simon and Garfunkel reunited. The number one single, owing to its significant chart run in 1965, was the number 54 song of the year in 1966. In mid-December 1965, Simon and Garfunkel went to the studio to record their second album, Sounds Of Silence. The album also included “I Am A Rock”. The track had been included in an album Paul Simon released in the summer of 1965 in the UK only titled The Paul Simon Songbook. In the spring of 1966, “I Am A Rock” became their third single release. The Paul Simon Songbook also included songs the duo re-recorded for Sounds Of Silence: “Kathy’s Song”, “A Most Peculiar Man”, “Blessed”, “Leaves That Are Green” and “April Come She Will”.

From their third album, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, came “Homeward Bound”. The single was released in mid-January 1966, six months before the rest of the tracks on the album were recorded.  “Homeward Bound” climbed to #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was the #56 song of the year. “I Am A Rock” peaked at #3 and ranked #51 for the year 1966, and #4 Vancouver. In the fall of 1966, the duo also released “The Dangling Conversation” from Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, and “A Hazy Shade Of Winter” from the Bookends album, just one month apart. The latter single climbed to #13 but “The Dangling Conversation” struggled to make the Top 30 (#29 in Vancouver). Perhaps lines like “Can analysis be worthwhile? Is the theatre really dead?” just weren’t catchy enough.

In December 1966 Vancouver (BC) was one of the radio markets where the promotional single “7 O’Clock News – Silent Night”, from Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, climbed to #29. Two more singles from Bookends were Top 20 hits in 1967: “At The Zoo” and “Fakin’ It”.

“Fakin’ It” was written by Paul Simon. The song’s lyrics stem from Simon wondering about his occupation and life had he been born a century earlier as well as reflection on his insecurities, facing a situation akin to impostor syndrome. In verse four, Simon writes “Prior to this lifetime, I surely was a tailor, look at me.” A voice is heard to say to the tailor part way through the start of another day at the tailor shop “Good morning Mr. Leitch, have you had a busy day?” Amazed at a glimpse into his past lifetime, Simon exclaims “I own a tailor’s face and hands. I am the tailor’s face and hands.”

All the same, the dramatic interplay between the burden of said insecurities and a simultaneous air of outwardly cool confidence generate significant interest for the listener. Even after numerous listenings, due to the concealment of specifics the fertile ambiguity that permeates “Fakin’ It” allows for both of the two competing interpretations (faking contentment with a mediocre situation, or faking competence in order to hold down a more favorable one?) to be plausible. As well, these could be disparate aspects of the same situation. By the end of the song the writer concedes “this feeling of fakin’ it, I still haven’t shaken it.”

“Fakin’ It” peaked at #1 in Montreal, #2 in Vancouver (WA), #3 in Dayton (OH), and Geneva (NY), #4 in Hamilton (ON), and Santa Rosa (CA), #5 in Grand Rapids (MI), Akron (OH), Green Bay (WI), Madison (WI), and San Jose (CA), #6 in Cleveland, and Rochester (NY), #7 in Toronto, Toledo (OH), Wilkes-Barre (PA), Ann Arbor (MI), Abilene (TX), Cincinnati (OH), Bakersfield (CA), and Tucson (AZ), #8 in Yakima (WA), Easton (PA), Columbus (OH), Milwaukee (WI), Grand Junction (CO), Salt Lake City, Denver, Jackson (MI), and Battle Creek (MI), #9 in Syracuse (NY), and #10 in Montgomery (AL).

On December 22, 1967, a film was released called The Graduate starring Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft. It became a huge box office hit. With figures adjusted for inflation, the film grossed $805 million, making it the 23rd biggest All-Time grossing film. All the songs for the soundtrack were written by Paul Simon, including “The Sounds Of Silence”, “Scarborough Fair/Canticle” and “Mrs. Robinson”. The latter song became a number one hit in America for three weeks in June. “Mrs. Robinson” won the duo Grammy Awards in 1969 for both Record of the Year and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. And the soundtrack for The Graduate won them a Grammy for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media.

In November 1968 Simon and Garfunkel recorded “The Boxer”, which would become the first track recorded for their 1970 album release Bridge Over Troubled Water. The single was a Top Ten hit in the spring of ’69. But it was the title cut that became their biggest hit, spending six weeks at number one from late February into April 1970. The song was ranked number one for the year 1970. “Bridge Over Troubled Water” won Simon and Garfunkel Grammy Awards in the categories of Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Contemporary Song. While the album won Album of the Year and Best Engineered Album – Non-Classical.

Other singles from the album included “Cecilia” and “El Condor Pasa”. The recording of Bridge over Troubled Water was difficult and Simon and Garfunkel’s relationship had deteriorated. “At that point, I just wanted out,” Simon later said. The duo split up in April 1970. Aside from a benefit concert in support of the George McGovern presidential candidacy for the Democratic Party in June 1972, Simon and Garfunkel hardly spoke to each other for a number of years.

In early 1972 Paul Simon released his second solo album, Paul Simon. The debut single, “Mother And Child Reunion” climbed to #4 in the USA in March 1972. His followup single was another family-themed lyric titled “Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard”.

In 1973 Paul Simon released his third solo album There Goes Rhymin’ Simon. It included two tracks that became big hit singles in 1973: “Kodachrome” and the gospel-infused “Loves Me Like A Rock”. The album was nominated for Album of the Year and Simon also was nominated in the Best Male Pop Vocal Performance category. Meanwhile, Art Garfunkel released “All I Know” and a cover of the pop standard “I Only Have Eyes For You”. The latter topped the pop chart in the UK and climbed to #2 in Ireland. He also released “I Shall Sing” which peaked at #8 in South Africa in 1974.

In 1975 Simon and Garfunkel reunited to record “My Little Town”. The single was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1976. In 1976 Simon won two Grammy Awards (Album of the Year and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance) for his 1975 album Still Crazy After All These Years. The album included “50 Ways To Leave Your Lover” which became his only number hit single in February 1976. The song was nominated for Record of the Year at the Grammy Awards in 1977. That year he had another Top Ten hit titled “Slip Sliding Away.” While in 1979, Garfunkel had a number-one hit in Ireland and the UK with “Bright Eyes”.

In the 1980s Paul Simon was recognized again at the Grammy Award with another nomination in hte Best Male Pop Vocal Performance category for “Late In The Evening”. Though he struggled with his next two albums, in 1986 he released Graceland. The album won a Grammy for Album of the Year and Simon got another Grammy nomination for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. And at the 1987 Grammy Awards Paul Simon got a nomination for Song of the Year and won a Grammy for Record of the Year, both for “Graceland”.  In succeeding years Paul Simon was nominated again for Album of the Year at the Grammy’s in 1992 for The Rhythm of the Saints and in 2001 for You’re The One.

May 9, 2025
Ray McGinnis

References:
“Paul Simon Biography,” Paul – Simon.info
Geoffrey Himes, “How “The Sound of Silence” Became a Surprise Hit,” Smithsonian Magazine, January, 2016.
Robin Denslow, “Paul Simon’s Graceland: the Acclaim and the Outrage,” Guardian, April 19, 2012.
Cornel Bonca, Paul Simon: An American Tune, (Roman and Littlefield, 2017).
“Paul Simon To Be Awarded First Annual Gershwin Prize for Popular Song by Library of Congress,” Library of Congress, March 1, 2007.
Josh Tyrangiel, “The 2006 Time 100 – Heroes and Pioneers: Paul Simon – #82,” Time, May 8, 2006.
Bryce Kirchoff, “Simon (Without Garfunkel) Says Goodbye,” Next Avenue, February 16, 2018.
“Garfunkel’s Ageless Art,” Telegraph, September 11, 2012.
Paul Lester, “Art Garfunkel: ‘Weird is a fair word for me’,” Guardian, June 24, 2015.

CJMS 1280-AM Montreal (PQ) Top Ten | September 10, 1967