Sounds of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel

Sounds of Silence, Simon & Garfunkel's second album, landed on Columbia on January 17, 1966, and it exists because of a studio stunt. After their debut sold poorly the pair had gone separate ways, Paul Simon to England and Art Garfunkel back to his studies at Columbia University, when staff producer Tom Wilson overdubbed electric guitars, bass and drums onto "The Sound of Silence" without telling either of them. The electrified single went to number one, and this album followed with it leading off the record.

Much of the rest is Simon's London songbook given the folk-rock treatment: "I Am a Rock", "Kathy's Song", "April Come She Will" and "Leaves That Are Green" had already turned up as solo acoustic takes on The Paul Simon Songbook, "Richard Cory" is built on Edwin Arlington Robinson's poem, and "Anji" is Davey Graham's guitar instrumental. "Blessed" was the lone brand-new Simon song. Wilson and Bob Johnston share the production credit, and in 2013 the Library of Congress added the album to the National Recording Registry.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.