Sometimes it takes a cover to show everyone how great a song can be.
“The Sound of Silence” was the song that made Simon & Garfunkel famous, but not right away. When the duo first began playing it at Gerde’s Folk City in 1963, Dave Van Ronk said, audiences thought it was a joke. He told Simon’s biographer, “For a while there, it was only necessary to start singing ‘Hello darkness, my old friend’ and everybody would crack up.”
It wasn’t until 1965, when producer Tom Wilson overdubbed an electric guitar track over the duo’s acoustic original, that it went to No. 1 on the Hot 100.
Fifty years later, heavy metal band Disturbed covered it for their LP “Immortalized.” Most listeners think David Draiman’s impassioned delivery outdoes the original. Even Paul Simon was impressed. After he saw the band do it live with orchestral backing on “Conan,” he sent Draiman an email: “Really powerful performance on Conan the other day. First time I’d seen you do it live. Nice. Thanks.” As a single it topped the Hard Rock Digital Songs chart and, in a rare feat for a heavy metal band, reached No. 42 on the Hot 100.
