This is a great story on why Paul Simon said “You Can Call Me Al”. My parents heard it at a performance of some music by a man named Stanley Silverman:
The eclectic work refers to a road in the Hamptons, takes inspiration from the fact that New York’s classical and Latin music FM stations are next to each other on the radio dial and closes with variations on Paul Simon’s “You Can Call Me Al.” (The elder Mr. Silverman, it turns out, took Pierre Boulez to the 1970 party that inspired the song, at which Mr. Simon was mistakenly called Al and his wife at the time, Peggy, was called Betty.)
The Times clips the story, but according to my parents, Boulez, who had never heard of Paul Simon, is the one who called him “Al” and his wife “Betty”.
Also too, this is open thread.