It’s funny how life works sometimes.
Did you know the song “The Sound of Silence”, one of the most-covered hit songs of all time, was originally a “commercial failure”?
Yep. Simon and Garfunkel released the song in 1964, only to disband shortly thereafter when the song failed to strike a chord with listeners.
Of course, that later changed. The song picked up traction in 1965 and inspired Tom Wilson, the producer, to remix the track to include electric instruments and drums.
The remix was then released as a single in September of the same year.
Simon and Garfunkel weren’t aware.
The duo only found out about the remix after its release.
So here we are, all those decades later with the song still making its rounds online.
There have been countless cover versions of this hit, with other artists putting their own spin on the classic.
Enter RocKwiz, an Australian television live music trivia quiz show, focused on rock music.
They would feature many guest artists and musicians who would perform live in each episode.
It was a really fun show.
This episode had Emma Louise and Husky Gawenda singing a live cover of Simon and Garfunkel’s beloved hit.
They covered “The Sound of Silence”
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Emma is an Australian indie pop singer-songwriter from Cairns and she provides a fresh new take on the song as this tune was usually more popular with male singers. Mostly.
Gawenda is the singer, songwriter, and guitarist of the Melbourne band Husky.
He’s playing guitar for this one too, as well as providing backup vocals for Emma. And wouldn’t you know it, their blending is fantastic.
Their voices make a perfect duet.
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A senior named Larry Beavens left a touching comment,
“I’m 75 and grew up with this song; I’ve listened to the original hundreds of times and many different covers as well. I have to say, this is the best cover of the song I have ever heard. The vocals are beautiful, the background music subdued as it should be, and the delivery is perfect. The song is performed here exactly in the spirit that it was written. Great stuff; thanks for posting.”
And you know what? Larry is absolutely right.
They kept it pure and simple.
They honored the original composition.
They don’t overplay nor do they play around too much with the notes or the octave.
They simply sing the song as it was meant to be sung.
And that’s how it should be done as the song was a top ten hit in countries worldwide.
We’re talking places like Australia, Austria, West Germany, Japan, and even the Netherlands.
Their cover has over 11M views.
Another viewer named Ivan says,
“This is the song that changed my whole life! I’m Japanese and heard this song when I was in high school. I got so interested in the lyric of this song and started to study English. Now I’m over 60 and have been teaching how to speak English to Japanese for over 30 years. Thank you S&G. Your are my eternal heroes!!!”
Their duet of this song was simply superb. They brought a 60s classic back to life while honoring the original spirit in which the song was written it.
It’s a beautiful tip of the hat from one duo of artists to another.
See Emma and Husky’s evocative deliverance of “The Sound of Silence” in the video below!
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