This is not your ordinary collab. Living legend Paul Simon has teamed up with many stars over the years, but it’s safe to say no one was expecting the 83-year-old to hit the stage with Sabrina Carpenter for an acoustic duet. But that’s exactly what he did on Saturday Night Live’s 50th anniversary show, where the pair teamed up for a heartfelt and intimate performance of “Homeward Bound.” Sometimes the most unexpected collabs produce the most beautiful chemistry, and that was certainly the case here.
Simon opened the stripped-back ballad by playing fingerstyle guitar as only he can while delivering a tasteful lead vocal. Carpenter then dropped in to create a dual vocal part, and the pair just sounded heavenly together. The 25-year-old pop star then took the lead, and wow, it was really a revelation for what she is capable of vocally. We’ve all seen Carpenter crush the big stage with her full dance pop production, but The Music Man is loving seeing her show her skills on a delicate acoustic number like this.
Saturday Night Live uploaded the “Homeward Bound” duet to YouTube on February 17, 2025, and in the two weeks since then it’s already drawn 2.2 million views. Fans had plenty of praise for Simon and Carpenter’s duet, adding comments such as “Sabrina was such a respectful duet partner, they harmonized wonderfully. And man that guitar!” and “That is the best showcase of her voice I’ve ever heard. Stripped down, she really showed she’s a singer.”
Before his duet with Carpenter, Simon mentioned that he’d previously performed “Homeward Bound” with Beatles legend George Harrison on Saturday Night Live in 1976. That’s certainly a collab for the history books, and luckily the duet is still available on YouTube. Hearing Simon and Harrison’s voices together, as well as their intertwining guitar parts, is truly a thing of remarkable beauty.
Paul Simon wrote “Homeward Bound” and released it on January 19, 1966, as a single for his duo Simon & Garfunkel. The group recorded it as part of the sessions for their second album, Sounds of Silence, and it was included on the UK release of the album. The Music Man readers might be interested to know that Simon, who is from Newark, New Jersey, wrote “Homeward Bound” while he was in England in 1964. He said that he wrote the song while waiting at a train station in Warrington, Cheshire, and the lyrics reflect the theme of a railway journey.