Today’s classic Jimmy Webb song of the day is “All I Know,” sung by Art Garfunkel. Released as a single in September of 1973, this track peaked at #9 on the Billboard Hot 100, #6 on the Cash Box Top 100, and #1 on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart (for four weeks).
“All I Know” was the first track on side two of Art Garfunkel’s 1973 album, Angel Clare. That album, Garfunkel’s first solo record after splitting with Paul Simon, hit #5 on the Billboard 200 top albums chart and spawned three singles: “Traveling Boy” by Paul Williams and Roger Nichols, “I Shall Sing” by Van Morrison, and Jimmy Webb’s “All I Know.”
Webb wrote “All I Know” as an overture to Welsh beauty Rosemarie Frankland, who was Miss World in 1961, and with whom he was smitten. I guess Jimmy figured writing a song for the lady might win her affections. He was wrong; after Jimmy played the song for her, she declared it “silly.” He was better off without her.
Here’s what Jimmy remembers about later pitching the song to Art Garfunkel:
“Art had been acting for a while after the break-up of Simon & Garfunkel. He wanted to get back into music. He was calling songwriters up to San Francisco to play songs for him. All the hottest writers were there—Stephen Bishop, James Taylor, David Crosby, and Graham Nash. He was discarding songs right and left. I sat at the piano and played just about everything I had. Nothing interested him. After a couple of hours, dozens of songs, and a couple of Baptist hymns had played out I remembered a song written for a girl who had broken my heart. The song had been spoiled for me as the romance soured but in a moment of desperation I pulled it out and… Art loved it. ‘All I Know’ went on to be his first solo hit, Number 9 on the Billboard Hot 100. We have been close friends and collaborators ever since.”
Webb’s painfully romantic tune was a perfect fit for Garfunkel’s angelic voice. Just listen to those lyrics and how Artie delivers them:
I bruise you, you bruise me
We both bruise too easily
Too easily to let it show
I love you, and that’s all I know
All my plans have fallen through
All my plans depend on you
Depend on you to help them grow
I love you, and that’s all I know
Then there’s that last bit that always gets me with it’s wide-eyed honesty:
But the ending always comes at last
Endings always come too fast
They come too fast, but they pass too slow
I love you, and that’s all I know
That’s the way life is. Endings always come too fast but they pass too slow. Yeah.
Jimmy went on to write the bulk of Art’s third solo album, Watermark. Released in 1977, that album included all Jimmy Webb tunes save for a cover of Sam Cooke’s “(What a) Wonderful World.” That tune, which Art sang along with Paul Simon and James Taylor, became the album’s lead single. Jimmy’s “Crying in My Sleep” was also released as a single, but it failed to chart.
And here’s your daily bonus song of the day, Art Garfunkel singing Jimmy Webb’s “Crying in My Sleep” from the Watermark album. This one should have been a hit, too.
