The Sound of Silence

This article covers the song by Simon & Garfunkel. For other works see Sound of Silence .

The Sound of Silence
Simon & Garfunkel
publication	October 19, 1964 (first version) September 13, 1965 (second version)
length	3:08
Genre (s)	Folk rock
Author (s)	Paul Simon
Publisher (s)	Columbia Records
Award (s)	RS500 , RR-HoF
album	Wednesday Morning, 3 AM (first version) Sounds of Silence (second version)

The Sound of Silence ( English for, The Sound of Silence '), and The Sounds of Silence , Sounds of Silence' is a folk-rock -Song the American duo Simon & Garfunkel . Thepiece, writtenby Paul Simon , was released on the album Wednesday Morning, 3 AM in1964. After it had remained relatively unnoticed until then, a revised version was released as a single around a year later.

In 1966 it reached the top of the charts in the USA , and made it into the top ten in Germany and Austria . In 1967 the song was used in the film The Graduation Exam and appeared on the accompanying soundtrack album . The song was inducted into the list of the 500 Best Songs of All Time and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame .

history

First version

The song begins with the words “ Hello darkness, my old friend / I've come to talk with you again ” (German: “ Hello darkness, my old friend / I've come to talk to you again ”). In an interview with Playboy in 1984, Paul Simon described that he hit the line because as a teenager he often went to the bathroom to play guitar in the dark:

“I used to go off in the bathroom, because the bathroom had tiles, so it was a slight echo chamber. I'd turn on the faucet so that water would run - I like that sound, it's very soothing to me - and I'd play. In the dark. 'Hello darkness, my old friend / I've come to talk with you again'. "

“I often went to the bathroom because it was tiled and therefore a bit like a reverberation room . I turned the tap on so the water would run - I like that sound, it's very soothing to me - and I played. In the dark. 'Hello darkness, my old friend / I've come to talk with you again'. "

- Paul Simon : Interview

When asked whether this was the origin of The Sound of Silence , Simon replied:

“Well, that's the first line. Then it drifts off into some other things. I've always believed that you need a truthful first line to kick you off into a song. You have to say something emotionally true before you can let your imagination wander. "

“Well, that's the first line. It then turns into a couple of other things. I've always believed that you need an honest first line to start a song. You have to say something emotionally true before you can let your imagination drift. "

- Paul Simon : Interview

On October 19, 1964, the song was released as the sixth track from Simon & Garfunkels debut album Wednesday Morning, 3 AM . In this version, the two voices of Simon and Garfunkel were only accompanied by Simon's acoustic guitar . Such music was hardly in demand after the end of the so-called folk revival , and so the record was initially a failure. Only around 3,000 copies were sold and hardly anything was played on the radio. Around Christmas, the Columbia record label considered the album a failure. Simon & Garfunkel separated, Art Garfunkel studied architecture, Paul Simon moved to London.

Second version

In 1965 folk rock became increasingly popular. Tom Wilson , the producer of Wednesday Morning, 3 AM, had accidentally overheard that Sounds of Silence was now being played more often on the radio along the east coast and that the demand for the LP , especially the title The Sounds of Silence , had increased. Wilson decided to turn the song into a folk rock number. To do this, he used the original recording and added the electric guitar , bass and drums to it in the overdubbing process , which start in the second verse. The additional audio tracks were recorded by Dylan's studio musicians following a studio session for Bob Dylan's hit Like a Rolling Stone . Together with sound engineer Roy Halee , who had also worked on Wednesday Morning, 3 AM , Wilson made a second version of the song.

The revised version was released as a single. Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel did not find out about any of this at first. It wasn't until the single was on the shelves that Wilson Garfunkel called and informed him of his approach. Simon, on the other hand, bought a copy of the Billboard , which publishes the US Singles Chart Billboard Hot 100 , in September while he was in Denmark . To his surprise, Simon found The Sounds of Silence at number 86. When he returned to England a few days later, Garfunkel reached him by phone and explained what had happened. Simon and Garfunkel reunited and returned to the studio to record more songs together. On January 1, 1966, The Sounds of Silence topped the US singles charts. A few days later they released their second studio album Sounds of Silence with the revised version of The Sounds of Silence as the first title.

title

The song was released on Wednesday Morning, 3 AM under the title The Sounds of Silence . With the plural sounds in the title, it was also released as a single and on the album Sounds of Silence . On other Simon & Garfunkel albums, but also on Paul Simon's solo LP The Paul Simon Songbook from 1965, the word sound is in the singular . Both variants appear in the lyrics. Simon & Garfunkel refer to the song on their website as The Sound of Silence . The Library of Congress , which manages American copyright , and the collecting society BMI also have the title in the singular in their databases.

Overview of chart placements

Country, charts	Best placement	Length of stay in the charts
USA, Billboard Hot 100	1	14 weeks
Germany, music market	9	14 weeks *)
Austria	3	8 weeks
Swiss hit parade	94	1 week

^*)the German single charts appeared on the 1st and 15th of each month in 1966. The Sounds Of Silence was listed for the first time in the March 1st issue and for the last time on May 15th 1966, which corresponds to 14 calendar weeks.

List placements and cover versions

The music magazine Rolling Stone chose the song in 2004 at number 156 on its list of the 500 best songs of all time . It rates it as the third best song by Simon & Garfunkel after Bridge over Troubled Water and The Boxer . The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame tops the song in their list of Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll . The Recording Industry Association of America placed the piece 79th on their list of Songs of the Century . The briefly popular and three years later discontinued American music magazine Blender led the song in 2004 at position 42 of the 50 worst songs of all time and justified this with the " pompous " lyrics. The line “ Hear my words that I might teach you ” (German: “ Hear my words that I might teach you ” ) was highlighted as an example . In the German Most Wanted Charts , the piece took first place in the hit list of the 1960s in September and October 2016.

2015 Song of the US was Metal - band Disturbed on their album Immortalized gecovert. Disturbed's version reached number one in the Austrian and number two German single charts and was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Rock Performance category.

The American rapper Eminem sampled the song in his 2020 song Darkness .

Awards for music sales

Simon & Garfunkel

Country / Region	Award	Sales
Awards for music sales (country / region, Award, Sales)
Denmark (IFPI)	gold	45,000
Italy (FIMI)	platinum	50,000
Canada (MC)	gold	50,000
United States (RIAA)	gold	1,000,000
United Kingdom (BPI)	gold	400,000
All in all	4 × gold 1 × platinum	1,545,000

Main article: Simon & Garfunkel / Music Sales Awards

Disturbed

Country / Region	Award	Sales
Awards for music sales (country / region, Award, Sales)
Australia (ARIA)	2 × platinum	140,000
Denmark (IFPI)	gold	45,000
Germany (BVMI)	3 × gold	600,000
Italy (FIMI)	gold	25,000
Canada (MC)	4 × platinum	320,000
New Zealand (RMNZ)	gold	15,000
Norway (IFPI)	2 × platinum	20,000
Austria (IFPI)	platinum	30,000
Sweden (IFPI)	2 × platinum	80,000
Switzerland (IFPI)	gold	15,000
United States (RIAA)	3 × platinum	3,000,000
United Kingdom (BPI)	gold	400,000
All in all	6 × gold 15 × platinum	4,690,000

literature

• Marc Eliot: Paul Simon: A Life . John Wiley and Sons, Hoboken NY 2010, ISBN 978-0-470-43363-8 , pp. 52–75 ( limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed January 6, 2012]).
  • German: Marc Eliot: Paul Simon . The biography. Edel Germany, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-8419-0093-7 .
• David Simons: Studio stories: how the great New York records were made: from Miles to Madonna, Sinatra to the Ramones . Backbeat Books, San Francisco CA 2004, ISBN 978-0-87930-817-9 , pp. 94-97 ( passage online at songwriter101.com [accessed March 3, 2012]).

Web links

• Lyrics on the website of Simon & Garfunkel
• The Sounds of Silence at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
• The Sound of Silence on MusicBrainz (English)
• The Sound of Silence at songfacts.com (English)
• The Sound of Silence at Discogs (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Tony Schwartz: The Playboy Interview . In: Playboy . February 1984 ( willyrauch.de [accessed December 12, 2011] interview with Paul Simon). willyrauch.de ( Memento of the original dated December 23, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll: "The Sounds Of Silence". Rock and Roll Hall of Fame , accessed March 1, 2012 . 
3. ^ Marc Eliot: Paul Simon: A Life . 2010, p. 53 .
4. ^ Marc Eliot: Paul Simon: A Life . 2010, p. 64 .
5. ^ Richie Unterberger: Simon & Garfunkel Biography. (No longer available online.) Vocal Group Hall of Fame , archived from the original on February 27, 2012 ; accessed on March 1, 2012 (English, identical wording from Allmusic : Simon & Garfunkel Biography , accessed on March 1, 2012). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
6. ↑ ^{a b c} The RS 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. In: rollingstone.com. Rolling Stone , December 9, 2004, archived from the original on June 20, 2008 ; accessed on December 12, 2011 (English). 
7. ↑ There are different statements about who these musicians were in detail. For example, Marc Eliot in Paul Simon: A Life (p. 65) lists Al Gorgoni (guitar), Bob Bushnell (bass) and Bobby Gregg (drums). In contrast, David Simons mentions Al Gorgoni and Vinnie Bell (guitar), Joe Mack (bass) and Buddy Salzman (drums) in Studio Stories (p. 96).
8. ^ David Simons: Studio stories . 2004, ISBN 978-0-87930-817-9 , pp. 94-97 .
9. ^ Marc Eliot: Paul Simon: A Life . 2010, p. 66 .
10. ↑ Simon & Garfunkel biography at laut.de.
11. ^ Marc Eliot: Paul Simon: A Life . 2010, p. 65 .
12. ^ Marc Eliot: Paul Simon: A Life . 2010, Paul Simon Discography, p. 253 ff .
13. ↑ The Sound of Silence Lyrics. (No longer available online.) Simon & Garfunkel, formerly in the original ; accessed on February 28, 2012 (English).  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
14. ^ Public Catalog. Copyright Catalog (1978 to present). In: Library of Congress. Retrieved March 5, 2012 . 
15. ^ Search the repertoire. In: BMI. Retrieved March 5, 2012 . 
16. ↑ Simon & Garfunkel Album & Song Chart History. In: Billboard.com. Retrieved February 29, 2012 . 
17. ↑ Simon & Garfunkel, The Sounds Of Silence. In: charts.de. Music market , accessed February 29, 2012 . 
18. ↑ Simon & Garfunkel - The Sounds Of Silence. In: austriancharts.at. Retrieved February 29, 2012 . 
19. ↑ Simon & Garfunkel - The Sounds Of Silence. In: hitparade.ch. Retrieved February 29, 2012 . 
20. ↑ Archive of the German single charts 1966 ( Memento of the original from June 12, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on musikmarkt.de; accessed on June 12, 2016 
21. ^ Songs of the Century. BBC , March 7, 2001, archived from the original on May 2, 2014 ; accessed on March 4, 2012 (English). 
22. ↑ The 50 Worst Songs Ever . Blender, April 2004
23. ↑ gfk Entertainmen: Most Wanted Charts: GfK Entertainment starts investigating cult songs. officialcharts.de, October 11, 2016, accessed on March 17, 2020 . 
24. ↑ gfk Entertainmen: Most Wanted Charts: October 2016. officialcharts.de, November 7, 2016, accessed on March 17, 2020 . 
25. ↑ METALLICA, DISTURBED, KORN, MEGADETH, GOJIRA, BARONESS, PERIPHERY Among GRAMMY AWARDS Nominees. Blabbermouth.net, accessed December 7, 2016 . 
26. ↑ Eminem - Darkness (Official Video). youtube.com, accessed on January 18, 2020 . 
27. ↑ Award in Australia
28. ^ Award in Denmark
29. ↑ Award in Germany
30. ↑ Award in Italy
31. ↑ Award in Canada
32. ↑ Award in New Zealand
33. ^ Award in Norway
34. ↑ Award in Austria
35. ↑ Award in Sweden
36. ↑ Award in Switzerland
37. ↑ Distinction in the United States
38. ↑ Award in the United Kingdom