Songoftheday 6/2/15 - I need a photo opportunity I want a shot at redemption. don’t want to end up a cartoon In a cartoon graveyard...

"You Can Call Me Al" - Paul Simon
from the album Graceland (1986)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #23 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 7

Today's SOTD comes from veteran pop singer/songwriter Paul Simon, whose career hit the heights with recording partner Art Garfunkel in the 60s, reuniting in 1981 for their concert in Central Park, which landed the pair a top-40 pop hit the year after with a remake of "Wake Up Little Susie". After the duo split Paul would go on to have a string of solo successes in the 70s, with six top-10 pop hits including the #1 "50 Ways To Leave Your Lover" in 1975. However, by the mid-80s, his mainstream radio career had dimmed a little, with a single "Allergies" that peaked right under the top-40. In 1986, Paul released his world-music opus, Graceland, and the first single, the more pop-inflected "You Can Call Me Al", stalled at the same level at "Allergies" did, at #44, in 1986. However, after Simon collected a handful of Grammys for the record, and a new video was released with Saturday Night Live star Chevy Chase riffing with Simon, did the single gain a new life...

On the second time around "You Can Call Me Al" made the top-40 in America in May of 1987. The single also climbed to #15 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary radio chart. Internationally, the single even better, peaking at #2 in Australia, Belgium, and Ireland, #4 in the UK, and #5 in Holland. It would be his last trip so far in the pop top-40 in the U.S.; he had a few more minor hits with "The Obvious Child" the most recent in 1990. In 2006, his single "Father and Daughter" reached the top-40 in Britain.

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And here's Paul performing the song live in Zimbabwe...

..and again in 1991, bringing Chevy back on stage in Central Park...

Up tomorrow: a band who loves pink gets the big hit.