The Intro

Art Garfunkel’s second solo UK number 1, reigning over the charts as Margaret Thatcher entered Downing Street (see ‘Meanwhile…’), is this haunting ballad. It originally featured on the soundtrack to Watership Down, an animated film that traumatised many children – including me. And this chart-topper and I are forever connected, as it was number 1 the day I was born. A melancholy tune about death, at number 1 when I entered the world. That’s very me.

Before

Watership Down was written, directed and produced by Martin Rosen and was an adaptation of a 1972 novel by Richard Adams. Featuring the voices of John Hurt, Richard Briers and Zero Mostel, it concerns a group of rabbits who escape the destruction of their warren and try to establish a new home.

Although Adams’ novel was for children, it was visceral and bleak. It was more concerned with teaching kids about the harsh realities of nature than entertaining them with lickle fluffy bunnies. Rosen later claimed, despite his movie being animated, that he never intended it for children at all. He wanted the main promo art, of Bigwig in a snare, to be used as a warning to parents to keep their young ones away from the cinema. But the British Board of Classification decided the film was closer to a U than a 15 (there was no PG certificate at the time).

The soundtrack mostly instrumental orchestration by Angela Morley and Malcolm Williamson. Singer-songwriter and producer Mike Batt was asked to contribute. Batt was the man behind novelty band The Wombles, who notched pop a number of hits in the mid-70s, and also helped Steeleye Span and Elkie Brooke score hits. Batt contributed three songs to the Watership Down soundtrack that featured vocals by Art Garfunkel.

Garfunkel’s first number 1, a lovely cover of I Only Have Eyes for You, had been released in 1975. The album, Breakaway, didn’t feature any other hits. He worked with other singers including James Taylor, and then began work on his next LP in December 1976. Watermark hit the shops in 1977 and didn’t sell well. It was re-released in 1978 with a cover of Sam Cooke’s Wonderful World, which featured Paul Simon and Taylor on backing vocals. Perhaps due to the record label choosing not to market it as a new Simon & Garfunkel product, it didn’t chart in the UK.

Which brings us to Bright Eyes. Batt had been asked to write a song about death by original Watership Down director John Hubley (later fired by Rosen when he found out he was working on another project on the side). The song was to be used in the scene where Fiver is led to his wounded brother Hazel by the Black Rabbit of Inlé, the disturbing Grim Reaper of the rabbit world.

Batt struggled at first with the concept. How could he write about death without sounding mawkish? After several days of struggling, he sat at the piano and wrote Bright Eyes in about an hour. Contemplating the mystery of the great unknown, Batt decided to begin by questioning the concept.

‘Is it a kind of dream?
Floating out on the tide,
Following the river of death downstream,
Oh is it a dream?’

Special mention goes out to that third line – what horrible yet beautiful imagery!

The lyrics continue to question what happens not only when we die, but goes deeper and as we all know, the chorus questions why it has to happen at all. It’s my belief that the reason this became the best-selling single of the year was because everyone at some point in their life has lost someone special and identified with the chorus lyrics ‘How can the light that burned so brightly/Suddenly burn so pale?’

Rosen visited Batt and loved what he heard. When he asked who Batt had in mind to sing Bright Eyes, Garfunkel was the instant reply. And why wouldn’t it be? Garfunkel, blessed with one of the most beautiful and ethereal voices in pop, was the ideal choice. Within a day of receiving the demo, Garfunkel had accepted.

Less of a pop song and more film score at the point, Batt described the recording session to the soundtrack version as one of the most difficult of his career. Nonetheless, it paid off, and that scene is one of the highlights of the film. Clearly, they knew they had something special here and decided to turn it into a pop song. The line-up featured session supremo Chris Spedding (who had been in The Wombles) on acoustic guitar, Roland Harker on lute guitar, Les Hurdle on bass, Roy J Morgan on drums, Edwin Roxburgh on oboe and Ray Cooper on percussion.

Review

I think critics of Bright Eyes hear the orchestral opening and Garfunkel’s spectral wailing and think it’s a soppy song about dying cartoon rabbits. But to me and other fans, it’s a deep and bleak song about death that can really hit hard at the right (or wrong times). Garfunkel is blessed with one of the most beautiful voices of all time in pop but occasionally I can find it too twee (I hate The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’Groovy)) so I’m not totally dismissing the voices of concern.

However I think this is my favourite vocal I’ve heard by the curly-haired crooner. It’s not as powerful as Bridge over Troubled Water – but it’s sometimes as moving. Batt deserves lots of credit too, for a great song, well-produced and expertly arranged. A long way from the novelty upbeat pop of The Wombles. And before you ask, I felt like this about Bright Eyes before I discovered it was number 1 the day I was born (apparently I entered the word trying to hang myself on my umbilical cord). I’m pretty chuffed I was born to such a good song at the top, though.

After

A timely release in more ways than one, Bright Eyes became top of the pops on the biggest rabbit-related weekend of the year – Easter. Although I consider it deeper than your average number 1, ultimately it could be the masses simply found it a sweet song about cute animals after all, as it was 1979’s biggest seller. It was a huge hit across Europe too, however, Bright Eyes didn’t even reach the Billboard Hot 100. The album Fate for Breakfast was also a flop in the US.

The 70s ended with tragedy for Garfunkel when his girlfriend, actress Laurie Bird, committed suicide in June 1979, leaving him in a deep depression. He dedicated his 1981 album Scissors Cut to her. This album also fared poorly, but Simon & Garfunkel reunited for a concert in Central Park that year, in front of 500,000 people. The duo embarked on a world tour, but their old rivalry soon returned and a predicted Simon & Garfunkel album, Hearts and Bones was eventually released as a Paul Simon solo LP in 1983 with Garfunkel’s voice wiped. They split again.

Garfunkel releases were few and far between in the mid-80s, save for the festive album The Animals’ Christmas in 1986, written by Jimmy Webb and also featuring Christian singer Amy Grant. He left the music business again when his father died, but resurfaced in 1988 with the LP Lefty, the same year he married Kathryn Cermak.

He disappeared from the public eye yet again and has only returned sporadically since. The 1997 album Songs from a Parent to a Child was his first since Lefty and it spawned the single Daydream, which was his first charting single in the UK since Bright Eyes. It peaked at 17. The romantic comedy As Good as It Gets, also released that year, features Garfunkel singing Always Look on the Bright Side of Life over the closing credits.

Five years later came Garfunkel’s ninth solo album Everything Waits to be Noticed. Featuring poems he had written set to music, it was the first time he was credited as a songwriter.

Simon & Garfunkel reunited again in 2003 for a world tour, which went so well, they made it to the end a year later without killing each other. Three years later Garfunkel released his last album to date – Some Enchanted Evening, a collection of standards from his youth.

Another Simon & Garfunkel tour began in 2009 but was cut short due to the latter’s ongoing vocal problems after choking on lobster. Their last performance to date and likely forever due to Simon’s retirement was at the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award tribute to Mike Nichols, who directed The Graduate. They performed Mrs Robinson.

The Outro

Garfunkel’s vocal issues remained until 2014, when he was finally able to tour properly again. He released his memoir What Is It All But Luminous: Notes From An Underground Man in 2017. He’s gone quiet again and, at the age of 79, may never record or tour again. If not, he’ll always be remembered as one half of one of the most famous folk and pop duos of the 60s, with a beautiful voice that can move the stoniest of hearts.

The Info

Written & produced by:

Mike Batt

Weeks at number 1

6 (14 April-25 May) *BEST-SELLING SINGLE OF THE YEAR*

Trivia

Births

14 April: English rugby player Iain Balshaw

19 April: Me

21 April: Actor James McAvoy

12 May: Gymnast Karin Szymko/Cricketer Robert Key

15 May: Field hockey player Rachel Walker

25 May: Rugby union player Jonny Wilkinson

Deaths

11 May: Geneticist Bernard Kettlewell

Meanwhile…

1 May: The London Underground Jubilee Line is inaugurated. 

4 May: Life in the UK changes forever when the Conservatives win the General Election with a 43-seat majority and Margaret Thatcher becomes the first female UK Prime Minister. Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe becomes the most notable MP to lose his seat in the election. Among the new members of parliament is John Major, 36-year-old MP for Huntingdon.

8 May: Former Liberal Party leader and MP Jeremy Thorpe’s problems continue when his trial for the attempted murder of Norman Scott begins at the Old Bailey.

9 May: Liverpool win the Football League First Division title for the 12th time.

12 May: Arsenal achieve a 3-2 defeat over Manchester United in the FA Cup final at Wembley Stadium.

15 May: The new Tory government abolishes the Price Commission. 

21 May: Elton John becomes the first musician from the west to perform live in the Soviet Union. 
Also on this day, Conservative MPs back Margaret Thatcher’s proposals to sell off parts of nationalised industries.

24 May: The theme park Thorpe Park opens in Chertsey, Surrey. 

25 May: The price of milk increases more than 10% to 15 pence a pint.