1975 Art Garfunkel: I Only Have Eyes For You

A much covered song, 'I Only Have Eyes For You' has been knocking about since 1934, but it's the 1959 version by The Flamingos that's become the definitive version that everybody knows. In their hands the song skews on an off-kilter arrangement with a spooky, moonlit ambience that elevates what is basically a Tin Pan Alley 'moon in June' love song into something more memorable. Garfunkel's take though is a straight pop arrangement that follows the melody faithfully and springs no surprises.

That Garfunkel can sing there can be no argument and I don't doubt the sincerity of his performance on this either, but the backing it's hitched to is a predicable and cloying syrup of strings that borders on muzak. Couple this with Art's vocal and it's akin to decorating a chocolate cake with even more chocolate. Fine if you like chocolate I guess (and let's face it, plenty do - hence the number one status of this), but for my money his perpetual choirboy pitch is always more agreeable when it's put up against something more jagged and substantial. Reason enough as to why, when he was in partnership with Paul Simon for example, I can listen to 'The Sounds Of Silence' or 'The Boxer' forever and a day, while their more overly twee output only serves to irritate.

Art Garfunkel's 'I Only Have Eyes For You' is a nice version of a nice song, nothing more and nothing less. That may sound overly pithy, but the only real emotion that the song generates for me is casual indifference. Which, I think, could be my review in a nutshell.