50 years ago: Simon & Garfunkel hit #1 with “The Sound of Silence”

The Sound of Silence (aka “The Sounds of Silence”) Simon & Garfunkel

Writer(s): Paul Simon (see lyrics here) First Charted: November 20, 1965 Peak: 12 US, 11 CB, 12 HR, 50 AC, 1 CL, 7 UK, 2 CN, 2 AU, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, -- UK, 1.0 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 7.0 radio, 193.0 video, 375.54 streaming

The Sounds of Silence Disturbed

Released: December 7, 2015 First Charted: February 6, 2016 Peak: 42 US, 17 AR, 22, 29 UK, 40 CN, 4 AU, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.5 US, 0.6 UK, 3.45 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 7.0 radio, 846.0 video, 651.24 streaming

Awards (Simon & Garfunkel): Click on award for more details.

---

Awards (Disturbed): Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel started working together as teenagers in 1955, writing “The Girl for Me.” Two years, later, they recorded “Hey, Schoolgirl” as Tom and Jerry and took it to #49 on the Billboard Hot 100. They continued to work under different aliases, with minimal success. By 1964, they were performing on the Greenwich Village coffee house circuit, FB but still struggling for their break. It came via the song “The Sound of Silence,” a ballad which featured only vocals and acoustic guitar. Simon said it took him six months to write the song, one line per day. DT He worked in the bathroom. The tiles produced an echo chamber and Simon found it soothing to work in there with the water running and the lights off, TB hence the line “hello darkness, my old friend.” TC Simon played the completed version for Garfunkel on February 19, 1964. SS It was one of four songs on the demo that earned them a contract with Columbia Records. They recorded the album Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., which featured “The Sound of Silence,” and released it in October. Unfortunately, both the album and song went nowhere. Simon went to England and recorded The Paul Simon Songbook, which included an acoustic version of “The Sound of Silence.” Art Garfunkel went back to graduate school. Folk music, however, was big in the Boston area, from where Joan Baez and other folkies hailed SJ and a local station started playing “The Sound of Silence.” Columbia was convinced they’d have a hit if they reworked the song with new electric instrumentation. Wilson, who was producing Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone,” asked the session’s musicians to add electric guitar, bass, and drums to the song. The new, amplified version became a hit before Simon & Garfunkel even heard it. RS500 In fact, Simon didn’t even know it had been re-recorded until he picked up a copy of Billboard in the Netherlands. TC Simon said, “It had some level of truth to it and it resonated with millions of people.” DT He told NPR he thought the success of the song was due to “the simplicity of the melody and the words, which are youthful alienation.” DL The song played a key role in the 1967 movie The Graduate, “underlining the quiet alienation fo Dustin Hoffman’s character Ben.” SS In 2015, Disturbed recorded a cover of the song. While the original was perfect for the radio playlists of middle-of-the-road, adult contemporary stations, this was a cover by a heavy metal band that turned the song into a menancing anthem as singer David Draiman’s voice builds throughout the song. Paul Simon himself endorsed the cover, calling it a “really powerful performance” WK after seeing the band on Conan. Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Disturbed FB Fred Bronson (2003). The Billboard Book of Number One Hits (5th edition). Billboard Books: New York, NY. Page 190. TC Toby Creswell (2005). 1001 Songs: The Great Songs of All Time. Thunder’s Mouth Press: New York, NY. Pages 603-4. DL TheDelite.com (6/26/2019). “The Best Songs of All Time – According to Critics and Fans” by Claire Gillespie RS500 Rolling Stone (4/7/2011). “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time” SJ Bob Shannon and John Javna (1986). Behind the Hits: Inside Stories of Classic Pop and Rock and Roll. Warner Brothers, Inc.: New York, NY. Pages 12-13. SS Steve Sullivan (2013). Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings (Volumes I & II). Scarecrow Press: Lanham, Maryland. Pages 109-10. DT Dave Thompson (2011). 1000 Songs That Rock Your World. Krause Publications: Iola, WI. Page 122. TB Thunder Bay Press (2006). Singles: Six Decades of Hot Hits & Classic Cuts. Outline Press Ltd.: San Diego, CA. Page 74. Related Links: First posted 4/19/2020; last updated 4/3/2023.