{"id":746335,"date":"2026-08-22T16:30:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T16:30:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/746335\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T16:30:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T16:30:18","slug":"the-story-of-simon-garfunkel-breakout-hit-the-sound-of-silence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/746335\/","title":{"rendered":"The story of Simon & Garfunkel breakout hit The Sound Of Silence"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some songs stop you dead in your tracks the second you hear them. They seem to change the molecules in the air. <\/p>\n

The Sound Of Silence, the breakout hit that announced Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel as a powerhouse songwriting duo, is one of them. But it took its time to work its magic on a wider audience.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

When it did, Simon & Garfunkel were on opposite sides of the Atlantic. Their 1964 debut album, Wednesday Morning, 3AM, had flopped and they were doing what twenty-somethings did in the mid \u201860s. Simon headed across the pond and was living in England, working on his debut solo album, The Paul Simon Songbook, working the local folk circuit. Garfunkel was still at Columbia University where he was studying art history.<\/p>\n

Latest Videos FromMusicRadar<\/p>\n

At Columbia Records, the phone was ringing off the hook. There was a song off Wednesday Morning, 3AM that radio audiences across the Eastern Seaboard couldn\u2019t get enough of.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a radio contact business in Cocoa Beach, Florida, it became a call-in favourite,\u201d said Garfunkel, speaking to MusicRadar in 2012<\/a>. \u201cIt made the promotion man call the home office in New York and say, \u2018It\u2019s been a year now, and they won\u2019t quit over this one folky song from a group called Simon & Garfunkel. The album isn\u2019t selling, but this one tune just won\u2019t quit with its appeal.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t just Florida. Audiences in Boston were entranced by it, too. The Sounds Of Silence, as it was originally titled, was speaking to the youth of America, haunting the airwaves with its minimalist folk presentation, just two voices and an acoustic guitar<\/a>. This song had potential.<\/p>\n

Columbia had recognised this when Simon & Garfunkel first auditioned for them. As did Garfunkel when Simon first showed it to him.<\/p>\n

Want all the hottest music and gear news, reviews, deals, features and more, direct to your inbox? Sign up here. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the sixth song Paul ever wrote,\u201d said Garfunkel. \u201cHe would come to my apartment on Amsterdam Avenue, where the roaches were in the kitchen, and he\u2019d play me his songs. When he got to this one, I said, \u2018Best one yet! If that\u2019s not a commercial hit record, I don\u2019t know what is.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sound Of Silence was such a good song that Simon was initially going to give it away. He was exploring his post-college options once his degree in English at Queens College was finished, and took a job in music publishing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had either graduated from college, or I was in my last year, and I was working part-time for a publisher in New York, trying to get songs from their catalogue recorded by other recording artists,\u201d said Simon, speaking to NPR in 2003. \u201cA job that I was completely unqualified to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

What to read next<\/p>\n

But the job paid in other ways. It was there Simon met Tom Wilson of Columbia Records, the producer who had worked with Sun Ra and had just been picked up to work with folk\u2019s new superstar, Bob Dylan. Wilson could have used a song like this.<\/p>\n

Simon & Garfunkel – The Sounds of Silence (Audio) – YouTube
\n\"Simon<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cHe had a group that he was recording called The Pilgrims. The only great artist that he had was Bob Dylan,\u201d continued Simon. \u201cI said to him, ‘Well, I have a song that I wrote that I think might be good for The Pilgrims’, and I played the song, The Sound Of Silence.<\/p>\n

I said to him, ‘Well, I have a song that I wrote that I think might be good for The Pilgrims’, and I played the song, The Sound Of Silence<\/p>\n

Paul Simon<\/p>\n

And he said, \u2018Oh, yeah, I\u2019d like to record that with them.\u2019 And then I said, \u2018Well, you know, I sing. I sing with a friend. Could we come and sing this for you?\u2019 So, he said yes, and he arranged an audition for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilson had Dylan. He had the Pilgrims. After Columbia president Goddard Lieberson liked what he heard, Wilson now had Simon & Garfunkel. Although there was still some disagreement over what they should call themselves.<\/p>\n

The duo had been operating under the name Tom & Jerry back when they were high-school kids signed to Big Records, scoring a hit with Hey, Schoolgirl and appearing on Dick Clark\u2019s American Bandstand.<\/p>\n

That was a real-life American Graffiti scene, and the name would never have worked with this new folk direction. And the record companies back then discouraged to Jewish artists from using their own names.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Simon\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Columbia Records\/Michael Ochs Archives\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a duo called Art and Paul, a folk duo, so that was out,\u201d said Simon. \u201cSo then, they were tossing out different names that they might come up with to give to us. And it was never a consideration to call the group Simon and Garfunkel, because it was \u2018too ethnic.\u2019 It was just nobody did that. Nobody did that then.<\/p>\n

\u201cBob Dylan was called Bob Dylan; he wasn\u2019t called Bob Zimmerman. So, when they came to a stalemate and couldn’t find the name, it was Goddard Lieberson, who said, \u2018Call the group Simon and Garfunkel.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilson handled production duties for Wednesday Morning, 3AM. The engineer Roy Halee, who had recorded the audition tapes, was in the studio to work his magic. He had a burgeoning reputation as a genius in the studio and would be a regular collaborator of the duo\u2019s, with arguably his greatest production feat coming in 1986 when he produced Simon\u2019s Graceland.<\/p>\n

Simon and Garfunkel ( The Concert in Central Park 1981 ) Full Concert 16:9 HQ – YouTube
\n\"Simon<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

The album was recorded in spring \u201864, released in fall, forgotten by winter, and by the summer of \u201965 Garfunkel considered himself \u201ca veteran of failure\u201d. At least that\u2019s how he remembered it when speaking to NPR.<\/p>\n

He had gone out to visit Simon during his summer vacation and upon returning to the States, he discovered The Sound Of Silence had been remixed by Wilson for a new single release scheduled for September 12. Wilson played it for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just, you know, amused,\u201d said Garfunkel. \u201cI was not so invested in whether it\u2019ll be successful or not. I was feeling like a veteran of failure at that point. So I was just amused \u2013 and then I watched my life change over the ensuing months.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilson had an ear for the zeitgeist and the electric 12-string guitar was becoming the sound of the mid \u201860s. Roger McGuinn\u2019s playing on the Byrds\u2019 Mr Tambourine man transformed the sound of \u201860s guitar. That jangle and chime was in. So too was reverb, and Halee applied it generously to this remix.<\/p>\n

I had no power, no creative leg to stand on, so by definition I was just a bemused listener: \u2018Whatever the label is going to do, OK, cross your fingers\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n

Art Garfunkel<\/p>\n

Wilson had just finished up recording Like A Rolling Stone with Bob Dylan and rehired guitarist Al Gorgoni and drummer Bobby Gregg, adding Vincent Bell on guitar and Bob Bushnell on bass guitar<\/a>. They were going to give it the Byrds treatment.<\/p>\n

Garfunkel told MusicRadar that he had no bargaining power to persuade the label to think twice about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe home office overdubbed electric bass, drums and the electric 12-string guitar, which was the sound of the era if you know The Byrds and Mr Tambourine Man,\u201d he said. \u201cWe were using electric 12-strings that season. They did this while we were away in Europe. I had no power, no creative leg to stand on, so by definition I was just a bemused listener: \u2018Whatever the label is going to do, OK, cross your fingers\u2026\u2019 It\u2019s not like I could have a point-of-view like, \u2018How dare you! You ruined my record\u2019 \u2013 I could never go down that path.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simon & Garfunkel Interview Speaking About Sound Of Silence – NPR Interview 2003 – YouTube
\n\"Simon<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

We can look back and say this proto-psychedelic treatment of this folk arrangement was just what it needed, Messrs Simon and Garfunkel\u2019s vocals hanging disembodied in the mix, ethereal, godly. The problem was the original was just two voices and the guitar and naturally the rhythm did not sit on the grid. They did the best they could but there\u2019s no question, it sounds a little off.<\/p>\n

\u201cI heard it and thought, \u2018OK, the rhythm slips a bit between the fourth and fifth verses, the overdubs aren\u2019t exactly in sync, but the sound is commercial. Who knows?\u2019 You can\u2019t figure out the market,\u201d said Garfunkel. \u201cNow it becomes a giant world-wide hit. What can I say? I knew the song within.\u201d<\/p>\n

Great songs are rugged. They can be remarkably resilient to reinterpretation. Even so, Garfunkel thought that the 12-string guitar<\/a> stepped on the vocal a bit.<\/p>\n

It is a feeling that informs how he performs it to this day, almost as though he is singing it for an audience who is hearing those lyrics clearly for the first time, even if the truth is those lyrics could well have accompanied them during the most significant, maybe the toughest, moments in their lives.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Simon\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Columbia Records\/Michael Ochs Archives\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

But it matters little; the emotional temperature of the remix is little different to the original recording, and the chord changes still effectively betray Simon\u2019s prodigious genius. He was just 21 when he wrote it.<\/p>\n

The fact that Halee cloaked it in reverb, this great splash of ambient melancholy, is more than appropriate \u2013 not only was it consonant with contemporary production styles, it was just as Simon had originally written the song.<\/p>\n

In his NPR interview, Simon explained the kind of at-home setup he would put together to get him in the zone, and it is quite funny to picture, maybe a little melodramatic, but just ask any guitar player who has played acoustic in the bathroom. There\u2019s a natural reverb there that makes for an echo room that some studios would pay thousands to install in their facility.<\/p>\n

Simon & Garfunkel – The Boxer (from The Concert in Central Park) – YouTube
\n\"Simon<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI wrote it in the bathroom of our house in Queens, with the lights off and the water running,\u201d said Simon. \u201cThat was the atmosphere that I liked. If you put a candle in there, then, you\u2019ll immediately understand what it\u2019s like.\u201d<\/p>\n

We can\u2019t say for sure what guitar Simon used to write it. Likely it could have been one of the big-bodied Guild acoustics that were favoured by that generation of folkies, and later when he came to perform it live he would typically rely on his Martin D-18. Those are guitars of considerable boom, but Simon tamed that, capoing his at the sixth fret for the recording.<\/p>\n

What makes the chord progression so genius is how it sits in conversation with the lyrics. It opens with an Asus2 shape, neither major nor minor, then an open G major then back to A minor on \u201cagain\u201d \u2013 and in just two lines, three chords, and the audience is right where they want them, and the whole song unspools as some gentle, dark night of the soul.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Simon\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: CBS Photo Archive\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Even after all this time, it still hits Art Garfunkel hard. He says his appreciation of it has only increased as the decades rolled by.<\/p>\n

\u201cAhhh, what a tune! Sound Of Silence has more melodic genius, and simple power than I ever realised,\u201d he said. \u201cAs the years go by, there\u2019s something extraordinarily hooky about that simple melody \u2013 I didn\u2019t know that. I knew it was a good-sounding record when it emerged.\u201d<\/p>\n

Well the passing of four decades has given the lyrics an extraordinary power<\/p>\n

Paul Simon<\/p>\n

\u201cWell the passing of four decades has given the lyrics an extraordinary power simply because they have endured for such a long time,\u201d Simon told NPR. \u201cAgain, for me, I am always aware of the fact that I was 21 years old when I wrote it, so I am kind of amazed that I wrote that. Although at the time I just thought that I was writing better. But now when I look at it I think, \u2018Well, that was really something extraordinary that I wasn\u2019t aware of at the time.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sound Of Silence is a \u201cserious song\u201d but what is it about? Simon is coy. It\u2019s about \u201cmany things\u201d. To explain it would be to rob it of its magic. We can assign our own meaning to them. That\u2019s what makes them endure between the melody sticking in our head.<\/p>\n

Simon and Garfunkel The Sound Of Silence Guitar Lesson + Tutorial – YouTube
\n\"Simon<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

What The Sound Of Silence meant to nu-metal band Disturbed when they covered it will have been different to the kinds of things that were percolating in Simon\u2019s mind when he wrote it in late \u201963, early \u201964, when the US was roiling after the assassination of a sitting president and the civil rights movement was working for a better union, an end to segregation.<\/p>\n

Simon, for what it\u2019s worth, had rerecorded it in the UK for The Paul Simon Songbook but that always sounded incomplete, like a demo. Art Garfunkel\u2019s vocal makes it transcendent.<\/p>\n

Purists might cite the original 1964 recording as the definitive take, others Wilson\u2019s remix. We don\u2019t have to choose. But in remixing it and rereleasing it in \u201965 Wilson helped Simon and Garfunkel on their way to their first number one \u2013 and there was more where that came from.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some songs stop you dead in your tracks the second you hear them. They seem to change the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":746336,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,128,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-746335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=746335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746335\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/746336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=746335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=746335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=746335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}