Art Garfunkel - Early Life and Career

Early Life and Career

Art Garfunkel was born in Forest Hills, Queens, New York City, the son of housewife Rose and traveling salesman Jacob "Jack" Garfunkel on November 5, 1941. Art has two brothers; the older one named Jules and the younger one named Jerome, who was an actor in his earlier years in Dayton, Ohio, before becoming a travelling menswear salesman. He is Jewish. His paternal grandparents emigrated from Iași in Romania. His cousin on his mother's side is Lou Pearlman, founder of 'N Sync and the Backstreet Boys.

According to the Across America DVD, his love for singing "came 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 goose-bumps 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, Garfunkel sang as a cantor performing over four hours of his repertoire to his family. As a young teen, Garfunkel was struck with a lung infection, leading to a love for basketball. He explained in a 1998 Interview: "In the summer of ’55, I had a lung infection. I couldn’t run around, but I love 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 his 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. It has been said by Garfunkel 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 had performed together as "Tom & Jerry", 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, Simon and Garfunkel recorded the song "Hey, Schoolgirl" under the name Tom & Jerry, given to them by their label Big Records. The single reached number forty-nine on the pop charts. Garfunkel ("Tom Graph") chose his nickname because he liked to track, or "graph" hits, on the pop charts. He also released some singles as a solo artist under the name Artie Garr, a shortened version of his name. In interviews, Garfunkel has noted himself how these early singles distinguished him as a folk-styled crooner, with songs like "Beat Love" and "Dream Alone" (both released 1959).

After graduating from Forest Hills High School alongside Simon, Garfunkel studied at Columbia College, Columbia University in Manhattan in the early 1960s, where he was a brother in the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity. Garfunkel was a team member in tennis, skiing, fencing, and bowling at the college. He was also a member of the all-male a cappella group on campus, the Columbia Kingsmen. After initially majoring in architecture, Garfunkel earned a B.A. in art history in 1962 or 1965, followed by a M.A. in mathematics from Columbia in 1967. Garfunkel also completed coursework toward a doctorate in mathematics education at Teachers College, Columbia University during the peak of Simon and Garfunkel's commercial success.