Art Garfunkel

Arthur Ira Garfunkel (born 5 November 1941) is an American singer-songwriter and actor, best known as half of the folk duo Simon and Garfunkel.

Life and work

Early life

Garfunkel was born in Forest Hills, Queens, New York, in New York City. He is of Romanian Jewish ancestry.

He met his future singing partner, Paul Simon, in the sixth grade. Between 1956 and 1962, the two had performed together as Tom & Jerry. Garfunkel ("Tom Graph") chose his nickname because he liked to track, or "graph" hits, on the pop charts. Garfunkel attended Columbia University in the early sixties, where he sang with the Kingsmen, an all-male a cappella group. While at Columbia, he was also a Brother of the Alpha Epsilon Pi Fraternity. In 1962 Garfunkel earned a Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in art history, followed eventually by a Master's degree in mathematics.

In 1963 he and Simon reformed the duo under their own names as Simon and Garfunkel and released their first album, Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. on Columbia Records in October 1964. It was not a critical success, and the duo effectively split again after recording. The next year their producer Tom Wilson lifted the song "The Sound of Silence" from the record, redubbed an electric backing onto it, and released it as a single, which eventually went to #1 on the Billboard pop charts. They reunited and went on to become two of the most popular artists of the 1960s, releasing a total of five studio albums. However, citing personal differences and divergence in career interests, they split following the release of their most critically acclaimed album, Bridge Over Troubled Water, in 1970.

Solo career

In the 1970s, Garfunkel released a few solo albums, and although he did not reach the heights that Simon and Garfunkel had reached, he still scored hits with "I Only Have Eyes For You" (a 1934 song originally written by Harry Warren ^*) and "Bright Eyes" (both British #1 hit singles), and "All I Know" (#9 in the United States). A version of "Bright Eyes" also appeared in the movie Watership Down.

In between, he also acted in a few movies, including Catch-22 and Carnal Knowledge (1971) with Jack Nicholson, Candice Bergen, and Ann-Margret.

Following disappointing sales of his 1981 album Scissors Cut, Garfunkel reunited with Paul Simon for the famous concert in Central Park. They next worked on a new studio album together, but Garfunkel left the project, not agreeing with Simon's lyrics. After this, Garfunkel left the music scene for several years, but returned in 1988 with the album Lefty. None of these projects garnered much critical success, and Garfunkel did not release another album until 1993's Up 'til Now. Perhaps his most noteworthy recent release is his live 1996 concert Across America, recorded live at the registry hall on Ellis Island. The concert features several musical guests, including James Taylor, Garfunkel's wife, Kim, and his son James.

Recent events

In 2003, Garfunkel made his debut as a songwriter on his well-received "Everything Waits to Be Noticed" album. Teaming up with singer-songwriters Maia Sharp and Buddy Mondlock, the album represented some of Garfunkel's strongest solo performances to date, and contained several songs whose origins were poems penned by Garfunkel. Although his name had appeared in songwriting credits for a small handful of Simon and Garfunkel's material, "Everything Waits to Be Noticed" is recognized as his first true effort at songwriting, save his teenage years with Paul Simon in Tom and Jerry.

In 2003, he reunited again with Paul Simon for a U.S. tour, followed by a 2004 international tour.

Garfunkel made news in early 2004 when he was arrested for possession of marijuana.

The only new recording on the collection The Art Garfunkel album (1984), was the song "Sometimes when I'm Dreaming", written by Mike Batt and this was re-recorded in 2004 by ex ABBA singer Agnetha Fältskog on her comeback album "My Colouring Book".

In August 2005, Garfunkel received his second marijuana possession charge after a police trooper found a joint in the ashtray of his car. ^*

Trivia

Art Garfunkel's website contains a year by year listing of every book he has read since 1968.
Appeared in an episode of the PBS television show, Arthur as a moose playing "The Ballad of Buster Baxter."

Discography

(see Simon and Garfunkel for joint works with Paul Simon)

Angel Clare (1973)
Breakaway (1975)
Watermark (1977)
Fate for Breakfast (1979)
Scissors Cut (1981)
The Art Garfunkel album (Non-US collection) (1984)
The Animals Christmas Album (together with Amy Grant) (1986)
Lefty (1988)
Garfunkel (1989) (collection)
Up 'til Now (1993)
Across America (live) (1997)
Songs from a Parent to a Child (1997)
Everything Waits to Be Noticed (2002)

Films

Catch-22 (1970)
Carnal Knowledge (1971)
Bad Timing (1980)
Good to Go (aka Short Fuse) (1986)
Boxing Helena (1993)

External links

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