Writer: Paul Simon
Producer: Tom Wilson
Recorded: March 10, 1964 and June 15, 1966 at CBS Studios in New York City
Released: Late 1965
| Players: | Paul Simon — vocals, guitar Art Garfunkel — vocals Others unknown |
| Album: | Sounds of Silence (Columbia, 1966) |
Boyhood friends Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel began performing together as Tom & Jerry, scoring a Top 50 hit with the song “Hey Schoolgirl” while in high school during 1957. After drifting apart, the duo came back together in 1964.
Simon originally wrote and recorded “The Sound of Silence” for the duo's first album, Wednesday Morning, 3 AM. At that time it was an acoustic rendition, featuring the two singing over Simon's gentle guitar playing.
After artists such as Bob Dylan and the Byrds began to score hits mixing folk-style songs with electric rock instrumentation, producer Tom Wilson re-cut the song with an electric rhythm section — though neither Simon or Garfunkel were present for that session and, in fact, initially balked at Wilson's tampering with their song.
They weren't upset for long, however. “The Sounds of Silence” was their first Number 1 hit, topping the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks.
The song's success also resurrected Simon & Garfunkel's career. Garfunkel had returned to graduate studies at Columbia University, while Simon had returned to England, where he had gone in 1964, to continue pursuing music.
The musicians who performed on the electric “Sounds of Silence” had just finished the session for Bob Dylan's “Like a Rolling Stone.”
Garfunkel remembers that “The Sounds of Silence” was not birthed easily. “We were looking for a song on a major scale, but this was more than either of us expected. Paul had the theme and the melody set, but three months of frustrating attempts were necessary before the song 'burst forth.' On February 19, 1964 the song practically wrote itself.”
Garfunkel explains the song's social and political tinged lyrics thusly: “Its theme is man's inability to communicate with man. The author sees the extent of communication as it is on only its most superficial and 'commercial' level (of which the 'neon sign' is representative). There is no serious understanding because there is no serious communication — 'people talking without speaking, hearing without listening'… The ending is an enigma. I find my own meaning in it, but like most good works, it is best interpreted by each person individually. The words tell us that when meaningful communication fails, the only sound is silence.”
“The Sounds of Silence” album reached No. 21 on the Billboard Top 200 and has sold more than two million copies.