{"id":606580,"date":"2026-09-05T09:32:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T09:32:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/606580\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T09:32:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T09:32:16","slug":"this-is-before-tape-wed-record-our-harmonies-and-then-put-another-layer-on-top-we-were-very-young-but-learning-to-produce-art-garfunkel-remembers-how-he-and-paul-simon-s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/606580\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThis is before tape. We\u2019d record our harmonies and then put another layer on top. We were very young, but learning to produce\u201d: Art Garfunkel remembers how he and Paul Simon started their recording career"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n

\"Art\n<\/p>\n

Art Garfunkel and Paul Simon as Tom and Jerry, circa 1957 (Image credit: Getty Images\/Michael Ochs Archives)<\/p>\n

Art Garfunkel turns 85 in November but is still very much an active artist. Back in 2024 he released an album with his son Art Jr, called, well, Father and Son, and next month he heads out on another world tour.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also given an extensive interview with the Guardian<\/a>, which covers his long career and, of course, his relationship with Paul Simon.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The pair, of course, go way back to high school. Garfunkel describes them at the time as \u201creally tight, laughing all the time\u201d, and recalls recording their harmonies in the basement of his parents\u2019 home in Queens, New York, on a wire recorder. \u201cThis is before tape. We\u2019d record our harmonies and then put another layer on top. We were very young, but learning to produce.\u201d<\/p>\n

Latest Videos FromMusicRadar<\/p>\n

They were both just 16 when, billed as Tom & Jerry, they had their first hit with Hey, Schoolgirl and performed on American Bandstand. \u201cWe followed Jerry Lee Lewis, who did Great Balls of Fire,\u201d Garfunkel says.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a wild man. I remember going to the urinal before going on. One of the dancers asked: \u2018Who have we got on today?\u2019 And someone else said: \u2018Some jerks calling themselves Tom & Jerry.\u2019 I just stood there, saying nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

Simon & Garfunkel – The Sound of Silence – Madison Square Garden, NYC – 2009\/10\/29&30 – YouTube
\n\"Simon<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

The duo\u2019s career only took off in the mid-’60s when The Sound of Silence became their first US Number One. For Garfunkel, the 1960s were \u201cwonderful\u2026. He remembers \u201csocial evenings with each of the four Beatles<\/a>. George Harrison<\/a> took me to his castle, which had a four-storey papier-mache model of the Alps in the back yard. I think the person he\u2019d bought the place from was a bit eccentric.\u201d<\/p>\n

The singer says that back then he was \u201ca workaholic who lived in the studio\u201d. Indeed, for Bridge Over Troubled Water he recorded no less than 300 takes: \u201cWhatever you do, you gotta do it well. Why not try to be the best in the world, just for the fun of it?\u201d<\/p>\n

Want all the hottest music and gear news, reviews, deals, features and more, direct to your inbox? Sign up here. <\/p>\n

What about the current state of his relationship with Simon? Well, the friends met over dinner in 2024 and made plans to catch up again soon after. \u201cThat was about a year ago, and I haven\u2019t seen him in the last year,\u201d says Garfunkel.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut yes, we got together. Who knows what the future will bring? Life is a surprise. I don\u2019t know what happens next month. I don\u2019t know what happens after we die.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Art Garfunkel and Paul Simon as Tom and Jerry, circa 1957 (Image credit: Getty Images\/Michael Ochs Archives) Art…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":606581,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[146,85,46,409],"class_list":["post-606580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=606580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/606581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}