After the disappointment of Fate for Breakfast, Art Garfunkel returned to old friends for his fifth solo album, co-producing with Roy Halee, who had worked with Simon & Garfunkel and on Garfunkel's debut album, Angel Clare, and singing several songs written by Jimmy Webb, who had written nearly all the songs on Garfunkel's third album, Watermark. But though Scissors Cut came closer to the sound of a good Garfunkel album, material remained a problem. "A Heart in New York," the LP's sole American chart single, was second-rate, as were many of the other compositions, Garfunkel scored a surprise number one hit in Great Britain with the Mike Batt-written and produced "Bright Eyes," the theme from the movie Watership Down, but that wasn't enough to make the album on the whole a success, Garfunkel then re-teamed with Paul Simon for a world concert tour, and it was five years before he was back in record stores with the seasonal release The Animals' Christmas and nearly seven years before his next regular solo album, Lefty.