An electric version of Simon & Garfunkel's "The Sound of Silence" was released on 12 September 1965 (as "The Sounds of Silence").
The original, acoustic, version had appeared on the duo's debut album Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., which had been released in October 1964 but sold poorly. A dejected 23-year-old Paul Simon moved to London to begin work on a solo album, and 22-year-old Art Garfunkel returned to study at Columbia University.
During the spring/summer of 1965 producer Tom Wilson learned that "The Sound of Silence" was gaining radio play and Wilson thought the song could be converted into a pop song, the way the Byrd's had changed Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man" and ushered in "folk rock" (Wilson had produced 4 Dylan albums).
On 15 June, after overseeing recording sessions on Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone," Wilson kept guitarist Al Gorgoni and drummer Bobby Gregg, and brought in guitarist Vinnie Bell and bassist Bob Bushnell to provide overdubs on the original "The Sound of Silence." Neither Simon or Garfunkel were notified (as Wilson and the record label considered the disbanded duo a "nonentity"). Simon did not learn about the release until he saw that it had made the Billboard charts (it would hit #1 in early January 1966). He was reportedly "horrified" when he heard the re-recorded version. It sold more than 1 million copies in the US and Simon & Garfunkel quickly reformed.
