Pulling together all the roots and branches of Art Garfunkel's career in music, THE SINGER is a 40-song collection of songs hand-picked by the artist himself. Spanning the years from the first Simon & Garfunkel album of 1964 (Wednesday Morning, 3AM) up through 2007's Great American Songbook album (Some Enchanted Evening), this two-CD retrospective will be available at all physical and digital retail outlets starting April 10th through Columbia/Legacy, a division of SONY MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT.
In addition to curating THE SINGER, Garfunkel provides his own personal track-by-track annotations, which appear in the booklet in his handwritten form. The notes are as unique as Garfunkel himself. He writes of "Cecilia," the S&G hit single from 1970: "'Car!' we called in Queens. Then we stopped the game and stepped aside. I grew up where the brick houses were semi-attached with driveways in between. Punchball was king. Somehow the yelling we did as street kids found its way to 'Cecilia.' We shouted the song over a track we made from a tape loop of rhythmic hand clapping onto our blue jeans."
The weaving of songs from the Simon & Garfunkel repertoire with songs from Art Garfunkel's repertoire as a solo artist is one of the hallmarks of THE SINGER, as the collection takes on a timeless air, moving back and forth through time in a seamless pattern.
From the five original S&G studio albums (and all-time best-selling Greatest Hits, 14-times RIAA platinum, the largest selling album of all time by a duo):
- Wednesday Morning, 3AM (1964) – "The Sound Of Silence"
- Sounds Of Silence (1966) – "April Come She Will"
- Parsley, Sage, Rosemary And Thyme (1966) – "Scarborough Fair/Canticle"
- Bookends (1968) – "Old Friends / Bookends," "A Hazy Shade Of Winter," "Mrs. Robinson"
- Bridge Over Troubled Water (1970) – "Bridge Over Troubled Water," "The Boxer," "Cecilia," "So Long Frank Lloyd Wright," "El Condor Pasa"
- Greatest Hits (1972) – "For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her"
From the three live concert albums by Simon & Garfunkel:
- Simon & Garfunkel Live From NYC, 1967 (2002) - "Wednesday Morning 3AM"
- Simon & Garfunkel Live 1969 (2008) – "Song For The Asking"
- Old Friends: Live On Stage (2004) – "Kathy's Song"
From 10 of Art Garfunkel's solo albums:
- Angel Clare (1973) – "Barbara Allen"
- Breakaway (1975) – "Breakaway," "I Only Have Eyes For You," "99 Miles From L.A.," "My Little Town," "Disney Girls," "Waters Of March"
- Watermark (1978) – "(What A) Wonderful World"
- Fate For Breakfast (UK, 1979) – "Bright Eyes"
- Scissors Cut (1981) – "Bright Eyes," "Scissors Cut," "A Heart In New York," "In Cars"
- Lefty (1988) – "The Promise," "I Wonder Why," "When A Man Loves A Woman"
- The Animals' Christmas (with Amy Grant, 1986) – "The Decree"
- Up 'Til Now (1993) – "All I Know," "Cryin' In The Rain," "Two Sleepy People," "Skywriter"
- Everything Waits To Be Noticed (2002) – "Perfect Moment," "The Thread"
- Some Enchanted Evening (2007) – "Some Enchanted Evening," "I've Grown Accustomed To Her Face"
Garfunkel's work with Simon generated eight Grammy Awards®, starting with the two won by "Mrs. Robinson" (from the movieThe Graduate) at the ceremony in 1969, namely Record of the Year and Best Contemporary Pop Performance/ Duo or Group. Two years later, Bridge Over Troubled Water was voted Album of the Year, and the title song swept Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Contemporary Song, Best Arrangement Accompanying Vocalists, and Best Engineered Recording. (In 1977, "Bridge Over Troubled Water" received England's prestigious Britannia Award as the Best International Pop LP and Single of the previous 25 years.) Garfunkel added another Grammy Award® to his shelf in 1998, when his album Songs From a Parent To a Child was named Best Children's Album.
