Today in Music (1966): 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, 11 GR, 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 Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 7.0 radio, 193.0 video, 513.86 streaming

The Sound 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.

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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 Simon & Garfunkel 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 10/11/2023.

Aretha Franklin held her first Atlantic Records recording session: January 27, 1967

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Aretha Franklin launched her recording career in 1960, releasing her first single for Columbia when she was 18. The song, “Today I Sing the Blues”, reached #10 on the R&B charts and led to a handful of other hits, including two more top tens (“Won’t Be Logn” and “Operation Heartbreak”).

However, she opted not to resign with Columbia when her contract expired in 1966. She’d made nine albums with the company, but didn’t have any money to show for it. Jerry Wexler of Atlantic Records quickly signed her and took her to Alabama’s legendary FAME Studios for her first recording session with the new company on on January 27, 1967. Along with the famed Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, Aretha was joined by Stax Records’ Chips Moman and Tommy Cogbill. While she had largely covered standards while with Columbia, Atlantic would help her forge a new direction which allowed her to display her gospel roots and become one of the most important acts in R&B history.

One of her first endeavors at forging her new direction was a blues ballad called “I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You”. The song topped the R&B charts for eight weeks, peaked at #9 on the pop charts, and gave Aretha her first gold single. During Aretha’s Atlantic stint, she sent more than 30 songs into the top ten of the R&B charts; 17 of those went to #1.

Aretha’s 1967 album I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You also featured the classic “Respect”, a #1 pop and R&B song. The album comprised those first legendary recording sessions as well as recording she did in New York City. The “Queen of Soul” had been born.

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Awards for Aretha Franklin:

• one of the top 100 acts of all time
  
• Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
  
• Hollywood Walk of Fame stars for people in the recording industry
  
• Kennedy Center Honors for musicians
  
• R&B Foundation
  
• Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee
  
• one of the top 100 singers of all time
  

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Resources and Related Links:

• the DMDB page for I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You
  
• the DMDB Music Maker Encyclopedia entry for Aretha Franklin
  
• Historyofrecording.com: Aretha Franklin
  
• Wikipedia.org: I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You (song)
  

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The Birth of the LP: June 21, 1948

June 21, 1948: Columbia Records introduced its new 12” long-playing (LP) record at a New York press conference. It rotated at 33⅓ revolutions per minute (rpm) and became the standard for gramophone records. It also became the dominant music format for a large chunk of the second half of the 20th century, eventually succumbing to cassettes and compact discs.

The Voice of Frank Sinatra is commonly referred to as the first LP and could be called the first genuine concept album. It was originally released in 1946 as a collection (or “album”) of four 78 rpm singles. It was actually released in a 10” format which was introduced at the same time as the 12” format. Also, the Sinatra album was only one of 100 different titles released simultaneously; it was simply the album given the first catalog number (CL 6001).




The Voice of Frank Sinatra 78 RPM cover (left) and 33⅓ cover (right)


Columbia’s president Ted Wallerstein was instrumental in the birth of the LP. He envisioned an entire movement of a symphony to be on one side of an album. Hence, the resulting LP format was particularly suited to classical music. This meant that the first official catalog number for the 12” format was actually for Felix Mendelssohn’s Concerto in E Minor for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 64. It was a performance played by Nathan Milstein with the Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of New York and conducted by Bruno Walter.



By 1949, Capitol Records also began releasing LPs, followed by RCA Victor in 1950. 1949 also marked the first appearance of LPs in Europe thanks to the UK’s Decca Records. Beyond classical music, the first genre to really gain success was cast recordings of Broadway musical, such as 1949’s South Pacific.


Resources:

thelongestlistofthelongeststuffatthelongestdomainnameatlonglast.com World’s First LP Record

Wikipedia Columbia Records: The LP record 1948-1959 entry

Wikipedia Gramophone record entry

Wikipedia LP record entry

Wired.com June 21, 1948: Columbia’s Micogroove LP Makes Albums Sound Good

Today in Music (1939): Frank Sinatra recorded “All or Nothing at All”

All or Nothing at All The Harry James Orchestra with Frank Sinatra

Writer(s): Arthur Altman (m), Jack Lawrence (w) (see lyrics here) Recorded: September 17, 1939 First Charted: June 19, 1943 Peak: 12 PM, 3 GA, 11 HP, 8 RB (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.0 US Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 0.54 video, 29.79 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Frank Sinatra started singing professionally as a teen in the 1930s. In 1939, he contracted with bandleader Harry James and released his first commercial record, “From the Bottom of My Heart,” in July. It sold less than 8000 copies. They also recorded “All or Nothing at All.” Arthur Altman wrote the music for the song and turned to Jack Lawrence, who later wrote the Ink Spots’ “If I Didn’t Care,” for lyrics. Harry James, Freddy Martin, and Jimmy Dorsey’s orchestras all recorded the song, but none had a hit with it. SF Nonetheless, “All or Nothing at All” proved an important stepping point in Sinatra’s career. He said it gave him his start. TC It’s “the song I used to audition for Tommy Dorsey, who signed me on the strength of it.” TC In November 1939, he left James to join Dorsey’s band as the replacement for singer Jack Leonard. Dorsey was “the most successful bandleader of the early ‘40s.” SF From 1940 to 1942, Sinatra was featured on 39 top-twenty singles SF including the #1 hits “I’ll Never Smile Again,” “Dolores,” “In the Blue of the Evening,” and “There Are Such Things.” Sinatra became “a heartthrob sensation, headliner, and show business icon. He was the most talked-about performer in the music industry” SF when he signed as a solo artist with Columbia Records in 1943. Unfortunately, a strike by the American Federation of Musicians left record companies desperate for product to release. Columbia “had the hottest new singer in show business and could not record him.” SF Music publishing mogul Lou Levy came up with a solution. The strike from the musician’s union only restricted current recording. Columbia could still release older recordings. They decided to reissue “All or Nothing at All.” The song, “effectively a Sinatra solo,” TC was rebilled as “Frank Sinatra accompanied by Harry James Orchestra” instead of “The Harry James Orchestra with vocal by Frank Sinatra.” SF The song gave Sinatra his fifth trip to the top of the charts. Resources: TC Toby Creswell (2005). 1001 Songs: The Great Songs of All Time. Thunder’s Mouth Press: New York, NY. Page 743. DJ David Jasen (2002). A Century of American Popular Music: 2000 Best-Loved and Remembered Songs (1899-1999). Routledge: Taylor & Francis, Inc. Page 8. SF Songfacts SS Steve Sullivan (2013). Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings (Volumes I & II). Scarecrow Press: Lanham, Maryland. Pages 200, 373. PM Joel Whitburn (1986). Pop Memories 1890-1954. Record Research, Inc: Menomonee Falls, WI. Pages 133-9, 391. WK1 Wikipedia page on Frank Sinatra WK2 Wikipedia page for “All or Nothing at All” Related Links: First posted 3/29/2021; last updated 5/12/2025.