S.O.D. "The Sound of Silence" by Simon & Garfunkel

5/13/2015     The first recording of this tune in 1964 for the album "Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M." pushed the duo to break apart as it was a commercial failure. After the song began to receive more airplay in 1965 on Boston radio stations and throughout Florida, the song's producer, Tom Wilson, did a remix with electric instrumentation overdubbing using the same musicians who backed Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone".  

     The new version was released in September 1965 unbeknownst to Simon and Garfunkel and immediately started climbing the charts.  It quickly became an international Top 10 hit and was added to the National Recording Registry in the Library of Congress in 2013.  It charted at #1 in the U.S. and Japan.  Many origins have been discussed over the years regarding the songs true meaning which is still unclear.  The most popular belief is that it is a comment on the assassination of John F. Kennedy since it was released three months afterwards.  To this date 37 cover versions have been attempted. Rolling Stone has ranked the song at #156 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.