“Me & Julio Down By The Schoolyard” by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes

Me First and the Gimme Gimmes took Paul Simon's "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard" for Have a Ball, their 1997 debut album on the independent Fat Wreck Chords, a record built almost entirely from vintage hits (Billy Joel's "Uptown Girl", from 1983, is the youngest thing on it). Simon holds the only writing credit; the joke and the rearranging belong to the band.

Critics got it. The Boston Herald's Larry Katz called the album one of the year's unforgettable records, little-known as it was, and judged the band's cross-genre cover gimmick a darn good joke, while Noel Murray of the Nashville Scene found it fun, mercifully short, and a way to hear the writing in familiar old songs with fresh ears.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.