The Sound of Silence on Wikipedia
"The Sound of Silence" is the song that propelled the 1960s folk music duo Simon and Garfunkel to popularity. It was written by Paul Simon in the aftermath of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. Simon conceived of the song as a way of capturing the emotional trauma felt by many Americans left by the sudden death of a vigorous and visionary leader. It was originally recorded as an acoustic piece for their first album Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. but was later electronically overdubbed and released as a single. The single slowly climbed the charts until it reached number one on New Year's Day 1966. The song was included in the 1966 album Sounds of Silence.The song took several months to write. Although Simon took a relatively short period of time to construct the melody, he did not fully nail down the lyrics until February 19, 1964, when, according to some accounts, the song seemed to "write itself." It was originally released exactly eight months later on the duo's debut album Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., on October 19. Despite the fact that in the liner notes Art Garfunkel described "The Sound of Silence" as "a major work" for the duo, Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. flopped on its initial release.
Simon and Garfunkel then split up, with Simon going to England for much of 1965. There he often performed the song solo in folk clubs, and recorded it for a second time on his solo LP in May 1965, The Paul Simon Song Book.
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