Art Garfunkel

Art Garfunkel - Quick Facts

Profile Overview of Art Garfunkel

Arthur Ira Garfunkel (born November 5, 1941) is an American singer, actor and poet who is best known for his partnership with Paul Simon in the folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel.

This profile of Art Garfunkel covers Early Life and Family Background, Simon & Garfunkel, 1970–1975: Hiatus and first album, 1976–1979: Solo efforts and 1980–1995: Depression and withdrawal.

Born in Forest Hills, Queens, New York, Garfunkel became acquainted with Simon through an elementary school play, a production of Alice in Wonderland. Their combined presence in music began in the 1950s, and throughout the 1960s the duo of Simon & Garfunkel achieved great chart success with tracks such as "The Sound of Silence", "Mrs. Robinson" (written for the 1967 film The Graduate), "Scarborough Fair", "The Boxer" and "Bridge over Troubled Water". The last song's title also served as the name of Simon & Garfunkel's final album in 1970. Simon & Garfunkel split for personal reasons, but the pair have occasionally reunited in the years since. Both experienced success solo in the years following their breakup.

Highlights of Garfunkel's solo music career in the US include one top 10 hit, three top 20 hits, six top 40 hits, 14 Adult Contemporary top 30 singles and five Adult Contemporary number ones. He scored two UK number ones and a People's Choice Award. Through his solo and collaborative work, Garfunkel has earned eight Grammy Awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award. In 1990, he and Simon were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2008, Garfunkel was ranked 86th in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time.

Early Life and Family Background of Art Garfunkel

Garfunkel was born on November 5, 1941 in Forest Hills, Queens, New York City, to Rose (née Pearlman) and Jacob "Jack" Garfunkel, a traveling salesman. Art was a middle child with two brothers, the older Jules and the younger Jerome. Jacob's parents had emigrated to the United States at the beginning of the twentieth century and settled in Manhattan. Before his career in sales, Jacob worked as an actor in Dayton, Ohio. Garfunkel is of Jewish-Romanian descent. When he was young, he often sang in synagogue.

Garfunkel's love of singing originated in the first grade. "When we were lined up in size order, and after everyone else had left, I'd stay behind and enjoy the echo sound of the stairwell tiles and sing "Unchained Melody" and "You'll Never Walk Alone", learning to love this goosebumps song from the tender age of five." Later, Garfunkel's father bought him a wire recorder, and from then on, Garfunkel spent his afternoons singing, recording, and playing it back, so he could listen for flaws and learn how to improve.

At his bar mitzvah in 1954 in the Jewish Center of Kew Gardens Hills, Garfunkel performed as a hazzan, a cantor, singing over four hours of his repertoire for his family. At age 14, Garfunkel became ill with a lung infection, which lead to a love for basketball. "In the summer of '55, I had a lung infection. I couldn't run around, but I loved basketball and there was a hoop nearby. Much of the summer I spent methodically hitting 96, 98 foul shots out of 100. Then 102! I never played on a team after junior high school. Just 3 against 3, half court pick up games in the schoolyard." He met future singing partner Paul Simon in the sixth grade at PS 164, when they were both cast in the elementary school graduation play, Alice in Wonderland. Garfunkel said that Simon first became interested in singing after hearing Garfunkel sing a rendition of Nat King Cole's "Too Young" in a school talent show.

Between 1956 and 1962, the two performed together as Tom & Jerry, a moniker coined by their label Big Records, occasionally performing at school dances. Their idols were the Everly Brothers, whom they imitated in their use of close two-part vocal harmony. In 1957, they recorded the song "Hey, Schoolgirl" under the name Tom & Jerry. The single reached number 49 on the pop charts. After Tom & Jerry came to a close, Garfunkel released two singles under the name Artie Garr: "Dream Alone"/"Beat Love" and "Forgive Me"/"Private World" with Warwick and Octavia Records respectively. Both singles failed to chart.

After graduating from Forest Hills High School alongside Simon, Garfunkel initially majored in architecture at Columbia University, where he was a brother in the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity and lived in Carman Hall. Garfunkel was a team member in tennis, skiing, fencing, and bowling at the college and also joined the all-male a cappella group on campus, the Columbia Kingsmen. While at Columbia his roommate, Sanford Greenberg, developed glaucoma and went blind. Garfunkel assisted him in his homework by reading his textbooks to Greenberg, who went on to graduate with honors. Another roommate of his was Tishman Speyer founder Jerry Speyer. Greenberg gave Garfunkel $500 to go and record a demo of "The Sound of Silence". Garfunkel earned a bachelor's degree in art history in 1965, followed by an master's degree in mathematics education from Teachers College, Columbia University in 1967. He completed coursework toward a doctorate in the latter discipline at Teachers College, Columbia University during the peak of Simon & Garfunkel's commercial success. He dropped out.

Simon & Garfunkel of Art Garfunkel

In 1963, Garfunkel and Simon reformed their duo under their own names as Simon and Garfunkel. They released their first album, Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. On Columbia Records in October 1964. It was not a critical or commercial success, and the duo split. 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 number one on the Billboard pop charts.

Simon had gone to the United Kingdom in 1965 after the initial failure of Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., to pursue a solo career. He briefly teamed with songwriter Bruce Woodley of the Seekers. After "The Sound of Silence" had started to enjoy commercial success, he returned to the US to reunite with Garfunkel. The duo recorded four more influential albums: Sounds of Silence; Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme; Bookends; and the hugely successful Bridge over Troubled Water.

They contributed to the soundtrack of the 1967 Mike Nichols' film The Graduate. While writing "Mrs. Robinson", Simon originally considered the title "Mrs. Roosevelt". When Garfunkel reported this indecision over the song's name to the director, Nichols replied, "Don't be ridiculous! We're making a movie here! It's Mrs. Robinson!" Simon & Garfunkel traveled together to England in the fall of 1968. They made a concert appearance at Kraft Hall, which was broadcast on the BBC and featured Garfunkel's solo performance of "For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her".

Source: adapted from Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Garfunkel), text available under CC BY-SA 4.0.