Paul Simon learned a lot on his trips to England in 1965. He learned how to fingerpick, for one thing. He learned that British folk audiences, unlike those in Greenwich Village, appreciated his music. And he learned the nursery rhyme about the cuckoo that he turned into this song, which appeared on both Simon’s UK-only debut album and Simon & Garfunkel’s “Sounds of Silence” LP.
Americans only hear cuckoos if their Granma had a clock, but in England they’re the migratory harbingers of spring. They appear in mid- to late April, depending on latitude, but by tradition they’re never heard before St. Tiburtius’ Day – April 14 to you heathens – nor after mid-June, once breeding season is over.
Before the song became a showcase for Garfunkel’s tenor, Simon sang it himself, as on this BBC radio show from 1965.
It reached its greatest audience when it was used to great effect in Mike Nichols’ 1967 film “The Graduate.”
