The Bangles had been playing this Paul Simon composition in concert for several years when they were approached about contributing a song to the “Less Than Zero” soundtrack (which doesn’t contain Elvis Costello’s “Less Than Zero,” maybe because that’s who author Bret Easton Ellis stole the title from). Under Rick Rubin’s production, the song reached No. 2 on the Hot 100 in early 1988.
The Bangles streamlined the tune by eliminating the bridge and half a verse — lines that rhymed “unpublished rhyme” with “vodka and lime.” The Simon and Garfunkel original was released as a stand-alone single in 1966 and reached No. 13 before appearing on the duo’s “Bookends” album the next year.
Gerard Way, lead singer of My Chemical Romance, recorded it in 2019 for the Netflix superhero series “The Umbrella Academy” (Way is also a comic book author, which might have played into the request). Like the Bangles, he left out the stuff about vodka and lime.
