„The sound of silence“ is a song by the American duo Simon and Garfunkel. It was written by Paul Simon over the period of several months around the beginning of 1964. Columbia Records signed a record deal with the duo, so the song was soon recorded in March 1964 as a new song on their studio album Wednesday Morning 3 A.M.
After its release, the album was a commercial failure wich made the duo break apart. However, in 1965, the song started playing at a bunch of radio stations. The growing popularity of the song, led Tom Wilson, the producer of the song, to remix and overdub it. He virtually added instruments other than an acoustic guitar and released the single. Simon and Garfunkel were not informed until after the release.
The song hit No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1966 reuniting the band to make a new album with the remixed track on it. It was a top-ten hit in multiple countries.
Many believe that the song commented on the John F. Kennedy assasination but the origins of the classic folk rock song remain unclear. The path from failure to succes is a known one. Many great classical composers were also “discovered“ years after their time. We can’t imagine how many more great ones we don’t know about.
Napisao: Marko Duvnjak