The Sound of Silence
Written by Paul Simon in the dark following JFK's assassination, the original acoustic version flopped. Producer Tom Wilson secretly overdubbed electric instruments on it without the duo's knowledge. The electrified version hit #1 in January 1966.
Simon & Garfunkel's breakthrough created the folk rock template. The imagery — neon gods, words written on tenement walls — brought poetic ambition to the pop charts. Used as a lament in The Graduate (1967) cemented its cultural resonance.
Written in 1963 and released in 1964, in the shadow of Kennedy's assassination. The song's vision of alienation in a mass-media culture was immediately legible to a generation raised on television.
Songs became anthems for equality, blending spirituals with contemporary R&B.