Art Garfunkel Biography
Arthur Garfunkel, 5 November 1941, Forest Hills, New York City, New York, USA. The possessor of one of the most pitch-perfect voices in popular music has had a sparse recording career since the initial demise of Simon And Garfunkel in 1970. The break-up of one of the most successful post-war singing duos was due in part to Garfunkel's desire to go into acting, and Paul Simon's understandable resentment that his non-songwriting partner took the glory on his compositions like "Bridge Over Troubled Water". While Simon had the songs, Garfunkel possessed the voice. The split would be revisited in "The Breakup', included on Garfunkel's 1993 oddities collection, Up "Til Now, though by this time the two parties had made their peace.
In terms of personal history, Garfunkel can lay claim to a masters degree in mathematics, and the fact that he completed a mission to walk all the way across the USA, in 100-mile increments (commemorated by the 1997 live release Across America). His solo recording career actually started while he was singing with Simon as the duo Tom And Jerry. Two solo singles were released in 1961 under the name of Artie Garr, "Private World"/"Forgive Me" and "Beat Love"/"Dream Alone". In the late 70s and early 80s, Garfunkel's acting career landed him substantial parts in Catch-22, Carnal Knowledge, Bad Timing and Good To Go. During this time his recorded output, although sporadic, was of a consistently high quality. His 1973 debut Angel Clare contained the beautiful "All I Know", which was a US Top 10 hit. In the UK two of his records made the top spot, a luscious "I Only Have Eyes For You" and the Mike Batt theme for Watership Down, "Bright Eyes". In 1978 "(What A) Wonderful World" featured the additional voices of James Taylor and Paul Simon, fuelling rumours of a reunion. The track appeared on Watermark, which otherwise featured Garfunkel tackling an album's worth of Jimmy Webb classics. Garfunkel and Simon appeared together occasionally both on television and on record, but it was not until October 1981 that the historic Central Park concert occurred. The duo struggled through a world tour, opening up old wounds, until once again they parted company. Garfunkel resumed his solo career, the best moments of which remained largely attributable to the songwriting of Jimmy Webb (notably on 1981's Scissors Cut and 1986's delightful seasonal album The Animals' Christmas, recorded with Amy Grant). In the autumn of 1993, he reunited with Paul Simon to complete 21 sell-out dates in New York. A further reunion took place in 2003. The previous year Garfunkel had recorded an album with Maia Sharp (daughter of songwriter Randy Sharp) and Buddy Mondlock.
Source: The Encyclopedia of Popular Music by Colin Larkin. Licensed from Muze.
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