UPDATE (2/21): A representative from Legacy has confirmed that this title is currently "on hold." Stay tuned for more information as it develops.

When the singer’s gone, let the song go on…

How lucky we are that Arthur Garfunkel is still very much with us. Jimmy Webb wrote those words for the unlikely rock star, a former architecture student endowed with a purity of tone and the ability to pierce the heart. Garfunkel, of course, was the yin to Paul Simon’s yang, the Tom to his Jerry. And so, he once again bookends his old friend with a new anthology coming from Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings. Art Garfunkel: The Singer serves as a welcome companion to the recently-released Paul Simon: Songwriter.

Set for release on April 10 from Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings, Art Garfunkel’s The Singer is the first ever 2-CD career-spanning anthology for Garfunkel. Its forty tracks have been personally selected by the artist, beginning with 1964’s Simon and Garfunkel debut Wednesday Morning, 3 AM and going right up to his most recent studio set, 2007’s Some Enchanted Evening. Twelve original studio tracks from the legendary duo have been chosen for inclusion, as well as three live tracks and two “reunion” cuts: the hit singles “My Little Town” and “What a Wonderful World,” on which Garfunkel was joined not only by Simon but by James Taylor. Like the Paul Simon collection, this isn't a standard "greatest hits" but rather a chronicle of the artist's personal journey in music.

The Forest Hills-born Garfunkel, who turned 70 on November 5, met his future partner Paul Simon in the halls of P.S. 164 in the sixth grade, with both young men cast in a school production of Alice in Wonderland. They soon bonded over a mutual love of music, with Garfunkel citing Nat “King” Cole as just one early influence. (Garfunkel would come full circle, recording an entire album of American standards in 2007.) Beginning in 1956, Simon and Garfunkel locally performed as “Tom and Jerry,” modeling themselves on the Everly Brothers, with whom they would later collaborate. Though he and Simon briefly split in the early 1960s, with Garfunkel pursuing his continuing education at New York’s Columbia University, they reunited for Wednesday Morning 3 AM, a low-key collection of folk songs, including a number of originals penned by the precociously talented Simon. It was lost in the shuffle of the British Invasion, however, and Simon retreated to England while Garfunkel resumed his studies. When Columbia Records decided to reissue Wednesday Morning’s “The Sound of Silence” with electric overdubs in September 1965, Simon and Garfunkel were presented with ample reason to reform: the song was climbing its way to No. 1, hitting that coveted spot on New Year’s Day, 1966. Their second album, Sounds of Silence, was recorded in December 1965 during that heady time when “Silence” was making waves in the music industry. The rest is history.

Hit the jump to explore The Singer, plus a pre-order link and full track listing with album discography!

Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel called it quits following the release of 1970’s epochal Bridge Over Troubled Water, but Garfunkel (always a renaissance man) had already begun a second career as an actor, receiving a Golden Globe nomination for his work in Mike Nichols’ 1971 film Carnal Knowledge. Nichols, of course, had directed The Graduate, featuring Simon and Garfunkel’s evocative score. Garfunkel returned to Columbia Records in 1973 for his solo debut, Angel Clare. It included two songs from the pen of Jimmy Webb, who would become a close ally to Garfunkel, and one of them, “All I Know,” became Garfunkel’s first solo hit. The album peaked at No. 5, and also featured compositions by such luminaries as Randy Newman, Van Morrison, and the team of Paul Williams and Roger Nichols. Rather than the orchestrated original version of “All I Know” (featuring “Bridge Over Troubled Water”-styled piano from that recording’s Larry Knechtel), Garfunkel has opted to include the song in a later rendition recorded with Jimmy Webb from 1993’s Up ‘Til Now. Webb is also represented on the new anthology with “Scissors Cut” and “In Cars” from Scissors Cut (1981) and a duet with Amy Grant, “The Decree,” from Webb’s cantata The Animals’ Christmas (1986).

Eight of Garfunkel’s solo albums between 1973 and 1993, all recorded on the Columbia label, have been tapped for The Singer. (1997’s intimate Songs From a Parent to a Child is the only overlooked solo LP.) Every No. 1 hit from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee is featured, including three Adult Contemporary No. 1s all from the 1975 album Breakaway: the title track, a revival of the standard “I Only Have Eyes For You” and the darkly-tinged Simon and Garfunkel duet “My Little Town.” Garfunkel’s gift of interpretation served him well, allowing him to tackle the works of many respected composers. On The Singer, you’ll hear songs written by Bruce Johnston (“Disney Girls,” introduced on The Beach Boys’ Surf’s Up), Carole King and Howard Greenfield (“Crying In The Rain” (with James Taylor joining Garfunkel in this Everly Brothers homage), Antonio Carlos Jobim (“Waters of March”) and Frank Loesser and Hoagy Carmichael (“Two Sleepy People”). After having contributed to the arrangements of many traditional songs both with Paul Simon and as a solo artist, Garfunkel began songwriting himself. “The Thread” and “Perfect Moment” are both co-written by Garfunkel, included from 2002’s Everything Waits to Be Noticed.

Art Garfunkel: The Singer celebrates but one central aspect of this performer, writer, actor and poet. It arrives in stores on April 10, and you can pre-order below. Listening to its forty songs, it’s clear that, at least for a couple of hours, what a wonderful world this will be.

Art Garfunkel, The Singer (Columbia/Legacy 88691 95801 2, 2012)

CD 1

1. Bridge Over Troubled Water (Simon and Garfunkel)
2. All I Know (with Jimmy Webb)
3. Perfect Moment (with Buddy Mondlock and Maia Sharp)
4. Scarborough Fair/Canticle (Simon and Garfunkel)
5. Cryin’ in the Rain (with James Taylor)
6. I Only Have Eyes For You (with Nicky Hopkins)
7. The Boxer (Simon and Garfunkel)
8. Cecilia (Bridge Over Troubled Water)
9. 99 Miles From LA
10. Wednesday Morning 3 AM (Simon and Garfunkel)
11. (What A) Wonderful World (with James Taylor and Paul Simon)
12. Bright Eyes
13. Two Sleepy People
14. Skywriter
15. My Little Town (Simon and Garfunkel)
16. For Emily, Wherever I May Find Her (Simon and Garfunkel)
17. Some Enchanted Evening
18. Disney Girls (with Bruce Johnston and Toni Tennille)
19. The Thread (with Maia Sharp and Buddy Mondlock)
20. Barbara Allen

CD 2

1. Kathy’s Song (Simon and Garfunkel)
2. Scissors Cut
3. The Sound of Silence (Simon and Garfunkel)
4. Breakaway (with Graham Nash and David Crosby)
5. So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright (Simon and Garfunkel)
6. Waters of March (with Billy Payne)
7. Old Friends/Bookends (Simon and Garfunkel)
8. The Decree (with Amy Grant)
9. A Hazy Shade of Winter (Simon and Garfunkel)
10. El Condor Pasa (Simon and Garfunkel)
11. I Wonder Why (with Kenny Rankin)
12. The Promise (with Steve Gadd)
13. I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face
14. When A Man Loves A Woman (with Michael Brecker)
15. O Come All Ye Faithful (with Eric Weissberg)
16. April Come She Will (Simon and Garfunkel)
17. Mrs. Robinson (Simon and Garfunkel)
18. A Heart in New York (with Michael Brecker)
19. Song for the Asking (Simon and Garfunkel)
20. In Cars

CD 1, Tracks 1 & 7-8 and CD 2, Tracks 5 & 10 from Bridge Over Troubled Water (Columbia, 1970)
CD 1, Tracks 2, 5 & 13-14 from Up ‘Til Now (Columbia, 1993)
CD 1, Tracks 3 & 19 from Everything Waits to Be Noticed (Blue Note/Manhattan, 2002)
CD 1, Track 4 from Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme (Columbia, 1966)
CD 1, Tracks 6, 9, 15 & 18 and CD 2, Tracks 4 & 6 from Breakaway (Columbia, 1975)
CD 1, Track 10 from Live From New York City: 1967 (Columbia/Legacy, 2002)
CD 1, Track 11 from Watermark (Columbia, 1978)
CD 1, Track 12 from Fate for Breakfast (Columbia U.K., 1979)
CD 1, Track 16 from Simon & Garfunkel’s Greatest Hits (Columbia, 1972)
CD 1, Track 17 & CD 2, Track 13 from Some Enchanted Evening (Atco, 2007)
CD 1, Track 20 from Angel Clare (Columbia, 1973)
CD 2, Track 1 from Simon & Garfunkel – Old Friends: Live on Stage 2004 (Columbia, 2004)
CD 2, Tracks 2, 18 & 20 from Scissors Cut (Columbia, 1981)
CD 2, Track 3 from Wednesday Morning 3 AM (Columbia, 1964)
CD 2, Tracks 7, 9 & 17 from Bookends (Columbia, 1968)
CD 2, Track 8 from The Animals’ Christmas (Columbia, 1986)
CD 2, Tracks 11-12 & 14 from Lefty (Columbia, 1988)
CD 2, Track 15 from Acoustic Christmas (Columbia, 1990)
CD 2, Track 16 from Sounds of Silence (Columbia, 1965)
CD 2, Track 19 from Simon & Garfunkel – Live 1969 (Columbia/Legacy, 2008)