Rolling Stone
‘New York Lonely Boy’: Inside That ‘Girls5eva’ Simon & Garfunkel Homage
How the sitcom’s creators and the folk duo the Milk Carton Kids came up with the show’s breakout song
By
Heidi Gutman/Peacock
Early this year, Joey Ryan, half of the indie folk duo the Milk Carton Kids, received a text from his friend Sara Bareilles. No surprise there — she, Ryan and Ryan’s musical partner Kenneth Pattengale have known each other for over a decade. This time, Bareilles asked if she could pass Ryan’s contact info along to some TV people she was working with. “I said, ‘Sure, of course, what is it?’ ” he recalls. “And she goes, ‘They want someone to do this song and it’s supposed to sound like Simon and Garfunkel.’ And we were like, ‘