After Simon & Garfunkel, one of the most successful duos in pop history, split up in 1970, Art Garfunkel became a solo artist, as well as pursuing an acting career. Garfunkel's pure, high tenor had been one of the most distinctive elements of the duo's music. Songs from a Parent to a Child is a charming collection of folky children's songs performed by Art Garfunkel and such guest musicians as Billy Preston and John Sebastian. The songs are light and sweet enough to appeal to children, yet there's also enough wit and musical substance to keep parents entertained, which is what makes Songs from a Parent to a Child a cut above most kids' records.

Bridge Over Troubled Water was one of the biggest-selling albums of its decade, and it hasn't fallen too far down on the list in years since. Apart from the gospel-flavored title track, which took some evolution to get to what it finally became, however, much of Bridge Over Troubled Water also constitutes a stepping back from the music that Simon & Garfunkel had made on Bookends – this was mostly because the creative partnership that had formed the body and the motivation for the duo's four prior albums literally consumed itself in the making of Bridge Over Troubled Water. The overall effect was perhaps the most delicately textured album to close out the 1960s from any major rock act. Bridge Over Troubled Water, at its most ambitious and bold, on its title track, was a quietly reassuring album; at other times, it was personal yet soothing; and at other times, it was just plain fun.

In August 1981, Garfunkel released his fifth solo album Scissors Cut (US No. 113, UK No. 51). This album included the Gallagher & Lyle hit "A Heart in New York" (US No. 61). The UK version contains the track "The Romance" rather than "Bright Eyes". The album was co-produced by Roy Halee, who also co-produced the Simon & Garfunkel albums, including Bridge over Troubled Water. Paul Simon makes a brief appearance on "In Cars" performing background vocals. Near the end of the song, Garfunkel sings lines from "Scarborough Fair" – an old English ballad covered by Simon and Garfunkel on the album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme). The album is dedicated to his late partner, Laurie Bird, and includes a partial photograph of her on the rear cover.

Fate for Breakfast is the fourth solo studio album by Art Garfunkel, released in March 1979 on Columbia Records. It was his first album to miss the U.S. Billboard Top 40 (charting at 67) and his first album containing no U.S. Top 40 singles. Yet the album garnered international success, reaching the top-ten in some European countries. The European release includes "Bright Eyes", which was featured in the film version of the novel Watership Down, and reached the number-one spot in the United Kingdom, becoming the biggest-selling single of 1979 there. The album was issued in six different sleeves, each with a different shot of Art Garfunkel at the breakfast table. David Sanborn covered "And I Know" entitled "Love Will Come Someday" for his 1982 album As We Speak. Also on the album is a cover of Cliff Richard's 1976 hit "Miss You Nights".

The original idea was for Art Garfunkel to record an album of songs written by Jimmy Webb. But when the leadoff single, "Crying in My Sleep," failed to make the charts, Columbia Records withdrew the album and induced Garfunkel to put together a cover of Sam Cooke's "(What A) Wonderful World" with Paul Simon and James Taylor harmonizing. The single and a revised version of the album then made the Top 40. But Watermark is still a Garfunkel-Sings-Webb album, except for one song. And the initial idea was a good one: Garfunkel handles Webb's wistful pop songs well, and he has made good choices from Webb's songbook, dating back to the '60s, though avoiding his big bits.

Simon and Garfunkel are undoubtedly one of the most successful songwriting duos of the 60s, reaching a similar level of popularity to the Beatles during the latter part of the decade. This Definite Collection shows what a diverse duo they really were and how many memorable tunes they performed together. Though many were put off by the pair's more sterile folk-rock arrangements and clean choirboy harmonies, this collection shows that there was much more to their artistic palette. Songs such as "Homeward Bound", "I Am a Rock", "Cecilia" and "Mrs Robinson" all show that the duo could rock with the best of them and "The Sound of Silence" and "Bridge over Troubled Water" are just some of the beautifully timeless records the pair gave us. It may not be as definitive as it claims but this is a great collection featuring some of their best and most well known works.

This album has had over three decades to make an impact, and it says something for its staying power that, in the face of more recent, more generously programmed, and better mastered compilations of the duo's work, it remains one of the most popular parts of the Simon & Garfunkel catalog – which doesn't mean it isn't fraught with frustrations for anyone buying it. Its very existence is something of a fluke – in the spring of 1972, the five original Simon & Garfunkel albums, Wednesday Morning, 3 AM, Sounds of Silence, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme, Bookends and Bridge Over Troubled Water, were still selling almost as well as they had in the 1960s; indeed, Bridge Over Troubled Water had carved out a seemingly permanent place for itself on the charts for years; and between the continued radio play of the duo's biggest hits, and the inevitable discovery of their catalog by successive new waves of junior high and high school students, those five LPs stood among the most profitable parts of the Columbia Records back catalog, rivaling Bob Dylan's much larger library in sheer numbers.