5. July 2026
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Songs of my Life: Paul Simon – You Can Call Me Al

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

Maybe you know that feeling as well. I went to a concert, heard a live performance of a song and felt being into it from the very first note. And somehow, the much I felt pushed and enthusiastic about it, it was somehow sad when it was over. Doesn’t that perfectly describe that it is a Song of my Life? I feel so – and thus, I have to praise You Can Call Me Al, a song originally recorded by Paul Simon.

 

You Can Call Me Al – The Story of the Song

Paul Frederic Simon is a US-American folk and rock singer-songwriter. The Newark, New Jersey, native is known as a solo artist as well as part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, which has already been founded in 1956 and had several big songs. However, Paul Simon’s solo career is extremely successful as well. While is 1965 debut album The Paul Simon Songbook did not have too much commercial success, this changed with his 1972 sophomore self-titled one. The album topped the charts in Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

Paul Simon’s solo work had a large number of platinum records all over the world. By far the most successful album, though, was the 25th August 1986 release Graceland.  Eight time platinum in Australia, quintuple platinum in the USA and being at least a Top 3 album in all major markets. Simon sold 16 million copies of it. The lead single was You Can Call Me Al.

Not a Chart-Topper, but Still a Global Success

The single has been released before the album, in July 1986. The B-side was Gumboots. It did not top any of the major global single charts, but had several Top 3 positions. In the U.K., it topped the airplay charts and received a triple platinum record for 1.8 million sales. The song is some sort of a parody. Together with his wife at that time, Peggy Harper, he attended a party. The French conductor and producer mixed up their names and called Simon “Al” and Peggy “Betty”. This explains one of the central lyrics of the chorus,

I can call you Betty
And Betty, when you call me, you can call me Al

The song in general describes a man who feels being in a mid-life crisis. A key feature of the song is its musical complexity. The credits state a total of seventeen musicians, including Simon himself. For example, they list two trombone and four trumpetists.

 

And then, there is the Music Video – and Aftermath

A key component why the song is still having a huge popularity, is its music video. I remember that it confused me for years during my childhood years. Apart from Simon, it features former Saturday Night Live member Chevy Chase. Apart from that Chase more than 30 centimeters taller at that time, which is kind of funny, they changed roles in the video. While Simon lip-synched the backing vocals, Chase did the main vocals recorded by Simon. This also underlines the overall funny and entertaining attitude of the track.

Until today, Paul Simon is a globally successful artist. His most recent solo album has been released in 2023. Seven Psalms is his fifteenth studio album overall. He had major tours in Europe and North America in 2026. Simon won 16 Grammy Awards. Remarkably, he is also a double inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as a solo artist as well as Art Garfunkel. In 2020, the Rolling Stone magazine placed Graceland 46th in their The 500 Greatest Albums of All Times.

 

You Can Call Me Al – My Story of the Song

I am an 1980’s music fan. Thus, there are quite many songs in my Songs of my Life from that decade. And, indeed, I really loved You Can Call Me Al, when I was young, the song came out, and it was shown on MTV and played in radio stations again and again. At some time in the 1990’s I finally bought the Graceland album. It is a central piece of Paul Simon’s work to me. And You Can Call Me Al is special to me in that version, up until today.

However, I introduced this posting with being in a concert and completely getting into a song. The concert was rather recently, on 5th June 2026. The location: Greensboro, North Carolina, USA. And the artist was not Paul Simon, but Weird Al Yankovic. The US-American comedy pop artist is one of my all-time favorites. This year, I will – health-permitting – see my 50th Weird Al show. Weird Al introduced playing You Can Call Me Al before the Bigger & Weirder Tour I saw in North Carolina. It was already part of The Return of the Ridiculously Self-Indulgent, Ill-Advised Vanity Tour, which started in North America in 2022 and later also was the concept of Al’s European tour comeback in 2023 (where I saw ten stages, including my photographer debut of him in Tilburg, Netherlands). The tour is my favorite one of all times, regardless of the artist. The band focused on the originals (so that the shows were rather for fans and was played in comparably small venues). The remarkable thing was that the setlist differed every day. Not just a single song. The majority of tracks shuffled from a big list of songs. One of the songs each evening was a cover. And one of the covers on that list was You Can Call Me Al.

If You Can Call Me Al was on the list, Al always introduced it with that people on the street sometimes struggle how to name him. Al or Alfred? Giving him a nickname? Of course, that’s all ironic, but the song feels like a perfect fit for the artist. The cover song thing stayed at the Bigger & Weirder Tour, which kicked off in 2025 and has its second part in 2026. You Can Call Me Al is back on the list – and the performance, if they do it, is better than ever. Al has added three members to the band. Sheila Gonzales and Probyn Gregory do the brass part of the Paul Simon original. And it sounds great. It also has these short bass solos, which gives Al’s bassist Stephen Jay the focus he deserves. I love the song, I love the way they do it – and I hope to hear it a few more times during the shows I am still attending. And maybe, Al is bringing it back to Germany one day again. I would love being there.

Pictures taken at First Horizon Coliseum, Greensboro, North Carolina, on 5th June 2026. Link to the full post.

 

You Can Call Me Al – Spotify and Lyrics

Here is You Can Call Me Al on Spotify:

Among other sources, you can find the lyrics here.

 

Songs Of My Life Playlist

I created a playlist with all the Songs Of My Life songs so far. It will be updated with very new episode:

 

Flyctory.com about Weird Al Yankovic

Here are all postings related to Weird Al Yankovic:

 

Songs Of My Life

Here are the postings of the personal Songs Of My Life category:

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