Art Garfunkel

Art Garfunkel

Arthur Ira "Art" Garfunkel (born November 5, 1941) is an American singer, poet and actor, best known as half of the Grammy Award winning folk duo Simon & Garfunkel.

Early life and career

Garfunkel was born in Forest Hills, Queens, New York City, the son of Rose, a housewife, and Jacob "Jack" Garfunkel, a traveling menswear salesman. His family was Jewish and his paternal grandparents immigrated from Iaşi in Romania. Garfunkel attended Forest Hills High School.

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 1960s, where he sang with the Kingsmen, an all-male a cappella group (not to be confused with The Kingsmen of "Louie Louie" fame) and was a Brother in the Alpha Epsilon Pi Fraternity. In 1962, Garfunkel earned a Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in art history, followed by a Master's degree in mathematics.

Simon and Garfunkel

In 1963 he and Simon reformed their 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 subsequently split again. The next year, producer Tom Wilson lifted the song "The Sound of Silence" from the record, dubbed an electric backing onto it, and released it as a single that went to #1 on the Billboard pop charts. Simon and Garfunkel reunited and went on to become one of the most popular acts of the 1960s, releasing four more studio albums. 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

Art Garfunkel (center) with his band after the show at Liseberg fairground on June 4 1998

Garfunkel pursued an acting career in the early 1970s, appearing in the films Catch-22 (1970) and Carnal Knowledge (1971). He also recorded several solo albums, scoring hits with "I Only Have Eyes For You" (a 1934 song 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 (based on the famous novel) Watership Down. Garfunkel briefly reunited with Paul Simon for the 1975 hit "My Little Town"; Simon, and mutual friend James Taylor, also contributed backing vocals to Garfunkel's 1977 cover of Sam Cooke's "(What a) Wonderful World", which reached #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart and #17 pop.

Following disappointing sales of his 1981 album Scissors Cut (which included one song, "In Cars", that featured Simon on backing vocals), Garfunkel reunited with Simon for The Concert in Central Park and a world tour. They had disagreements during the tour. In 1984 Stereo Review Magazine reported that Simon mixed out Garfunkel's voice from a new album, initially slated to be a Simon and Garfunkel studio reunion, but ultimately released as a Simon solo album (Hearts and Bones). Garfunkel then left the music scene until his 1988 album, Lefty and later 1993's Up 'til Now, neither of which received significant critical or commercial success. His live 1996 concert Across America, recorded at the registry hall on Ellis Island features musical guests James Taylor, Garfunkel's wife, Kim, and his son James.

Garfunkel performed the theme song for the 1991 television series, Brooklyn Bridge, and "The Ballad of Buster Baxter" for a 1998 episode of the children's educational television series Arthur, where he was depicted as a singing/narrator moose. Garfunkel's performance of Monty Python member Eric Idle's "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" was used in the end credits of the 1997 film As Good as It Gets.

Recent events

In 2003, Garfunkel made his debut as a songwriter on his Everything Waits to Be Noticed album. Teaming up with singer-songwriters Maia Sharp and Buddy Mondlock, the album contained several songs whose origins were poems written by Garfunkel. The album is recognized as his first effort at songwriting since his teenage years with Tom & Jerry.

In 2003, Simon and Garfunkel reunited again for a successful world tour that extended into 2004. In 2005, his song "Sometimes When I'm Dreaming" from The Art Garfunkel Album (1984) (written by Mike Batt) was re-recorded by ex-ABBA singer Agnetha Fältskog on her album My Colouring Book.

In 2006, Garfunkel signed with Rhino Records (revived Atco Records), and his first Rhino/Atco album Some Enchanted Evening was released in America on January 30, 2007. In late February 2007 during a German television interview to promote the new album, he expressed interest in reuniting with Paul Simon on a new Simon and Garfunkel album.

Personal life

Garfunkel is an avid reader and bibliophile; his website contains a year-by-year listing of every book he has read since 1968. Currently the list contains more than 1,000 books.

Garfunkel has undertaken several cross-continental walks in his lifetime, writing poetry along the way. In the early 1980s, he walked across Japan in a matter of weeks. From 1983 to 1997, Garfunkel walked across America, taking 40 excursions to complete the route from New York City to the Pacific coast of Washington. In May 1998, Garfunkel began an incremented walk across Europe.

Garfunkel has been arrested twice for the possession of cannabis: in early 2004 and again in August 2005.

Garfunkel is the brother of Jerome Garfunkel, the former editor of the specification for the COBOL programming language.

Garfunkel was the younger brother of Jules B. Garfunkel, a financial consultant who died on September 17, 2006 in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Awards

• 1969 Grammy Award, Record of the Year, for "Mrs. Robinson" (with Paul Simon)
• 1969 Grammy Award, Best Contemporary Pop Performance, for "Mrs. Robinson" (with Paul Simon)
• 1970 Grammy Award, Best Album, for Bridge Over Troubled Water
• 1970 Grammy Award, Best Single Record, for "Bridge Over Troubled Water"
• 1970 Grammy Award, Best Arrangement Accompanying Vocalists, for Bridge Over Troubled Water
• 1977 Britannia Award, Best International Pop LP and Single, 1952-77, for "Bridge Over Troubled Water"

• Washingtom State Art Garfunkel look-alike contest winner: Mark Mitchell

Discography

See Simon & Garfunkel discography for joint works with Paul Simon.

Solo albums

• Angel Clare (1973) (US #5 UK #14)
• Breakaway (1975) (US #9 UK #7)
• Watermark (1977) (US #19 UK #25)
• Fate for Breakfast (1979) (US #67 UK #2)
• Scissors Cut (1981) (US #113 UK #51)
• The Art Garfunkel album (Non-US collection) (1984) (UK #12)
• The Animals Christmas Album (together with Amy Grant) (1986)
• Lefty (1988) (US #134)
• 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)
• Some Enchanted Evening (2007)

Singles

• "All I Know" – 1973 (US #9)
• "I Shall Sing" – 1973 (US #38)
• "Second Avenue" – 1974 (US #34)
• "Breakaway" – 1975 (US #39)
• "I Only Have Eyes for You" – 1975 (US #18 UK #1)
• "Crying in my Sleep" – 1977 (UK #25)
• "Wonderful World" with Paul Simon and James Taylor – 1977 (US #17)
• "Since I Don't Have You" – 1979 (US #53 UK #38)
• "Bright Eyes" – 1979 (UK #1)
• "A Heart in New York" – 1981 (US #66)

Appearances

• The Wide World Over, The Chieftains (2002) — performed "Morning Has Broken"

Filmography

• Catch-22 (1970)
• Carnal Knowledge (1971)
• Bad Timing (1980)
• Good to Go (also known as Short Fuse) (1986)
• Boxing Helena (1993)
• The Rebound (2008)

External links

• Official website
• Arthur Ira Garfunkel - Columbians Ahead of Their Time, article at Columbia University.
• Art Garfunkel at IMDb
• Template:WiredForBooks
• The Life and Music, Thus Far, Of Art Garfunkel - An Interview