It might just be the greatest album in music history by an act that was pretty sure they had no future just months before. A series of flops was already behind Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel. Then they were rescued by an industrious DJ and an opportunistic record producer.
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Simon & Garfunkel threw together Sounds Of Silence, released in 1966, from a bunch of songs that were essentially leftovers. They ended up with one of the most accomplished folk albums ever.
Two Flops
They began their recording career under the stage names Tom & Jerry, singing doo-wop songs in the late 50s. When they came back together a few years later, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel had both taken up an intense interest in folk music.
Recording under the Simon & Garfunkel moniker for the first time, they released their debut album, Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., in 1964. The album sold next to nothing. That prompted the duo to go their separate ways, Simon to England and Garfunkel back to college.
Simon eventually drummed up interest in England for his solo music. This afforded him the chance to record a solo album in 1965. The Paul Simon Songbook also largely went unheard, despite containing the raw material of an LP that would become a smash. That’s where the story of Simon & Garfunkel might have ended. But events beyond their control intervened to their benefit.
Suddenly on Top
In the middle of 1965, a DJ in Boston discovered the song “The Sound of Silence” from the Simon & Garfunkel debut album and started playing it on the regular. It built up a buzz that made its way to Tom Wilson, who had produced both the duo’s debut and Simon’s solo record.
Wilson knew that folk-rock was becoming big business, as evidenced by the massive success of The Byrds’ electrified reimagining of Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man”, a hit in the summer of 1965. He hastily assembled some top studio musicians to add similar electric instrumentation to the hushed acoustic version of “The Sound Of Silence” that Simon & Garfunkel had already done.
Released as a single in 1965, the new version of the song took off. It topped the pop charts in January 1966. Suddenly a hot commodity, Simon & Garfunkel hastily reunited in New York. CBS, their label, wanted an album to capitalize on their success, and they wanted it in a hurry. Luckily, the duo had some material that they could utilize, since only a precious few people had heard it before.
‘Silence’ is Golden
Since Simon’s debut album had tanked, the songs were ripe to be reimagined. Then they could be presented as new for the audience ready to hear more of S&G. Garfunkel either added harmonies. Or, in the case of songs like “April Come She Will”, he took over on lead vocal. Electric treatments were done to other songs, such as the soon-to-be hit single “I Am A Rock”.
Paul Simon ended up writing only one new song for the Sounds Of Silence album that was released in January 1966. None of that mattered, as it was all brand-new to the public. And it became the springboard to the legendary duo’s incredible run of success.
Photo by CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images
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