Paul Simon's '50 Ways to Leave Your Lover': The Divorce Anthem That Helped People Move On

Jacqueline Burt CoteSun, May 3, 2026 at 4:35 AM UTC

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Breaking up is hard to do, but a little bit of humor can help. That's what Paul Simon discovered, anyway, and it sent him straight to #1.

"50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" wasn't just the only chart-topping single of Simon's late-1975 album Still Crazy After All These Years, it was the only song of his solo career to hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 (which happened on February 7, 1976). Simon wrote the tune after his divorce from first wife Peggy, and while he later said she wasn't the "lover" in the song, it's definitely about someone who's ready to move on from their relationship.

As Simon told author Timothy White, he came up with the idea for the song one morning in his Central Park apartment.

"The opening words just popped into my mind," Simon said, per The Independent. "'The problem is all inside your head, she said to me...'. That was the first thing I thought of."

Simon got the idea for the comedic verses while playing a rhyming game with his 3-year-old son, Harper, ad-libbing the suggestions for extricating oneself from a situationship: "Slip out the back, Jack / Make a new plan, Stan."

'50 Ways to Leave Your Lover' reflected the rising divorce rates of the time

"50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" was — and is — a refreshing change from the usual love-gone-wrong song. That's why when TIME included the track on a roundup of 30 Best Breakup Songs of All Time, it was in the category of "Bangers to Help You Move on."

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Tom Breihan of Stereogum called it the "single silliest divorce song ever put on record," acknowledging its influence on listeners at the time.

Paul Simon and son HarperPhoto by Hulton Deutsch on Getty Images

"The divorce rate was skyrocketing by the mid-'70s, so maybe that had something to do with the song's popularity," he wrote.

"A whole lot of the baby boomers who'd gotten married straight out of college — as well as those who, like Simon, were slightly older than the boomers — were starting to figure out that they didn't have to stay with the same person for their entire lives. Heard from a certain perspective, '50 Ways To Leave Your Lover' works as a celebration of that ability to get yourself free, and of the loss of stigma around it."

As Simon sang...no need to be coy.

Related: Beloved Folk Icon, 84, Brings Audiences to Tears in Stunning Performance: 'Love This Song'

This story was originally published by Parade on May 3, 2026, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”