Singer Arthur (Art) Garfunkel was born November 5, 1941 in Forest Hills, New York to Rose and Jack Garfunkel. Sensing his son's enthusiasm for music, Jack, a traveling salesman, bought Garfunkel a tape recorder.
Even when he was only four years old, Garfunkel sat for hours with a tape recorder; sang, listened and tuned his voice, and then recorded again. “It got me into music even more. Singing, and especially being able to record it, is just wonderful, ”he recalls.
At Forest Hills Elementary School, young Art Garfunkel was known for singing songs in empty hallways and acting in plays. In the 6th grade, he participated in the school play "Alice in Wonderland" along with classmate Paul Simon.
Simon knew Garfunkel as a singer who was always surrounded by girls. They lived blocks apart in Queens, but it wasn't until Simon heard Garfunkel sing that their destinies were connected. The duo soon began singing at school talent shows and practicing their skills every night in the basement.
During their high school years, future Grammy winners acted as Tom Landis and Jerry Graf, fearing that their real names sounded too Jewish and would hinder success.
They performed Simon's original song and raised their money to make their first professional recording. Their Everly Brothers-influenced track Hey Schoolgirl was a minor hit, and in 1957 he landed a recording contract with Big Records.
They became frequent visitors to the Brill Building, offering their services as demo artists to songwriters. Their hit single earned them an appearance on the American Dick Clark bandstand, continuing right after Jerry Lee Lewis.
After that, their musical career came to a halt and they began to worry that they had reached their peak at 16.
Simon and Garfunkel
When high school ended, Simon and Garfunkel decided to go their separate ways and go to college. Garfunkel stayed in his town and attended Columbia University, where he studied art history and joined a fraternity.
He later received a master's degree in mathematics. Continuing his academic work throughout his career, Garfunkel never stopped singing while in college, releasing several solo tracks under the name Artie Garr.
Once again, parallel talents and interests brought Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel together. In 1962, the former Tom and Jerry reunited as a new, more folk-oriented duo. They no longer worried that they would somehow be misunderstood and they began to use their real names Simon & Garfunkel.
At the end of 1964 they released the studio album Wednesday Morning, 3 AM Commercially, nothing much happened, and Simon went to England, the duo decided to separate professionally.
Producer Tom Wilson remixed the song The Sounds of Silence from this album and released it. A few days later, she took 1st position on the Billboard charts. Simon returned to Queens where the duo reunited and decided to record and perform more music together.
Simon & Garfunkel released another hit album, and then another, and so one after another, where each record took their music and lyrics to a new level.
Critical and commercial success occurred and increased with each release: Sounds of Silence (1966), Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme (1966) and Bookends (1968). While they were working on Bookends, director Mike Nichols asked them to contribute songs to the soundtrack for The Graduate (1967).
As part of an original film about alienation and conformity, the duo solidified their reputation. Their song Mrs. Robinson became a No. 1 hit, appearing on both The Graduate soundtrack and the Bookends album.
A year later, Nichols directed Catch-22 and offered Garfunkel the role. This delayed the production of their next album and began "sowing the seeds" for their future breakup. They both moved in new creative directions.
In 1970 they released their most successful album, Bridge Over Troubled Water, recorded using innovative and homemade studio techniques and influenced by a wide variety of musical styles.
The album became a massive commercial hit and won six Grammy Awards including Album of the Year, Song of the Year and Record of the Year for the title song.
This was their last studio album. They originally planned to get back together after a hiatus, but after being separated for a while, continuing their creative pursuits separately seemed to make more sense. Simon & Garfunkel was no more.
Two years after their breakup, Simon & Garfunkel's Best Hits were released and stayed on the US charts for 131 weeks.
Solo career: All I Know, I Only Have Eyes for You & More
Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel separated in 1970, but they remained connected to each other personally and professionally.
Constantly returning to friends and co-workers, they reunited several times in their careers only to find that they couldn't work together outside of short-term projects, of course.
Over the years, Garfunkel fondly remembered their time together: "I'm always happy to say a little on behalf of the duo. I am proud to sing these wonderful songs. Now Paul Simon's songs are even being sung in churches and schools as part of the curriculum..."
In the meantime, he devoted himself entirely to his solo career. His first album Angel Clare (1973) had the hit All I know written by Jimmy Webb and produced by Simon & Garfunkel Roy Haley. (The song was given new life in 2005 when it was featured on the Five For Fighting on the Chicken Little soundtrack.)
His next album, Breakway (1975), gave him another hit, a cover version of the classic I Only Have Eyes for You. The album featured guest appearances from David Crosby, Graham Nash and Stephen Bishop, as well as Simon and Garfunkel's first new track in five years, My Little Town, which also appeared on Simon's solo album Still Crazy After All These Years.
With his next album, Watermark (1977), Garfunkel focused on collaborating with one songwriter. Jimmy Webb wrote all the songs with one exception: a cover of Sam Cooke's hit What A Wonderful World by Garfunkel, Simon and James Taylor, which peaked at number 17 on the charts.
The singer got another hit from Watermark with Bright eyes, which was the sad, beautiful theme song for Richard Adams' film adaptation of Watership Down.
His album Scissors Cut (1981) was a critical success but a commercial "flop". A year later, Simon and Garfunkel played a concert together in Central Park, breaking all existing records, gathering an audience of 500 people.
They then went on a world tour and released a double album and an HBO special for their show in Central Park. But the reunion did not last long. Together they dropped plans to release new material, and Simon kept the songs for his own solo album.
Returning to his solo career again, Garfunkel began with forays into acting. He had already acted in several films with director Mike Nichols, including Carnal Knowledge (1971), and he also appeared in TV series, including the episode "Laverne and Shirley". And in 1998, he appeared on the children's TV show Arthur Like A Singing Moose.
Garfunkel continued to perform on stage and record new material. In 1990, he spoke to 1,4 million people at the request of the US State Department at a democracy promotion rally in Sofia, Bulgaria.
That same year, Simon and Garfunkel were also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Three years later, he released the album Up 'Til Now, which included his duet with James Taylor Crying in the Rain, as well as the song for the show "Brooklyn Bridge" and "Two Sleepy Men" from the hit film A Their Own League.
In October, she and Simon played 21 sold-out performances at the Paramount Theater in New York. In 1997, he recorded an album for children inspired by his son James, featuring songs by Cat Stevens, Marvin Gay and John Lennon-Paul McCartney.
In 1998, he made his songwriting debut on his album Everybody Wanna Be Seen.
In 2003, he took the stage again with Simon, winning a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and playing Sounds of Silence live.
They toured again after that, and in 2005 they performed Bridge over Troubled Water, On the Way Home, and Mrs. Robinson at a benefit concert for victims of Hurricane Katrina at Madison Square Garden.
He had a busy and restless year every year. Always a busy schedule and tour planning, but in 2010 he began to have problems with his vocal cords, which became noticeable to the public. I especially remember the concert with Simon at the Jazz and Heritage Festival in New Orleans. It was a struggle to sing anything at all.
He had vocal cord paresis and began to lose his mid-range. It took him about four years to recover. He told his story to Rolling Stone magazine in 2014 that he was 96% back, but it still takes a little time for his health to get better.
In 2016, the Simon and Garfunkel song "America" was used (with their permission) by Bernie Sanders in his unsuccessful campaign to secure the Democratic nomination for president. "I like Bernie," Garfunkel told the New York Times. “I love his fight. I like his dignity and his position. I like this song!".
Currently,
Today, Art Garfunkel continues to record and perform solo projects, as well as teaming up with established artists such as James Taylor and Bruce Springsteen. The singer also continues to appear in films.
In the 1980s, one of his hobbies was long-distance walking; he crossed Japan and the United States on foot. During his walks, he began to write poetry and in 1989 published Still Water.
In 2017, he added another published autobiography, What's It All But the Light: Notes from an Underground Man, an eccentric mix of poetry, lists, travels, and reflections on his wife.
Garfunkel continued his passion for long distance walks for several decades. Now, having traveled through a large part of the world, he still believes that his life experience is not so much about what he achieved, but about what he was endowed with.
Art Garfunkel's personal life
While the 1970s proved successful, the 1980s were a challenge for Garfunkel both professionally and personally. After a brief marriage to Linda Grossman in the early 1970s, Garfunkel dated actress Laurie Bird for five years.
In 1979, she committed suicide, leaving Garfunkel heartbroken. He credits his brief but happy relationship with Penny Marshall for helping him recover from the loss, after which he channeled his depression into his 1981 album Scissors Cut dedicated to Byrd.
In 1985, he met model Kim Cermak on the set of Good To Go. The couple married three years later and have two sons.
