track

The Sound of Silence - Acoustic Version

1964Released
3:05

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Interesting facts and trivia about The Sound of Silence - Acoustic Version. By Songfacts®.

The first recording was an acoustic version on Simon & Garfunkel's first album, Wednesday Morning, 3 AM, which was billed as "exciting new sounds in the folk tradition," and sold about 2000 copies. When the album tanked, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel split up. What they didn't know was that their record company had a plan. Trying to take advantage of the folk-rock movement, Columbia Records had producer Tom Wilson add electric instruments to the acoustic track, and released it as a single. Simon and Garfunkel had no idea their acoustic song had been overdubbed with electric instruments, but it became a huge hit and got them back together. Had Wilson not reworked the song without their knowledge, the duo probably would have gone their separate ways. When the song hit #1 in the States, Simon was in England and Garfunkel was at college.

Paul Simon was looking for a publishing deal when he presented this song to Tom Wilson at Columbia Records. Wilson thought it could work for a group called The Pilgrims, but Simon wanted to show him how it could work with two singers, so he and Art Garfunkel sang it to the guys at Columbia Records, who were impressed with the duo and decided to sign them.

Paul Simon took six months to write the lyrics, which are about man's lack of communication with his fellow man.

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Song Analysis

Key, BPM (tempo) and time signature of The Sound of Silence - Acoustic Version.
F♯Key
MajorMode
4/4Time Signature
107BPM

Album

The album The Sound of Silence - Acoustic Version is released on.

Released By

The record label that has released The Sound of Silence - Acoustic Version.
Columbia
(P) Originally released 1964. All rights reserved by Columbia Records, a division of Sony Music Entertainment

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