Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence” was originally a commercial failure. Released in October of 1964, it failed to catch the ears of listeners and this led to the duo disbanding. Funny how life works out sometimes.
In 1965, the song began to attract attention which led to Tom Wilson, the song’s producer, to remix the track, overdubbing electric instruments and drums. The song’s remixed version was released as a single in September of 1965.
Simon and Garfunkel 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.
RocKwiz, an Australian television live music trivia quiz show, focused on rock music. They would feature many guest artist musicians who would perform live in each episode. It was a really fun show!
This one had Emma Louise and Husky Gawenda singing a live cover of Simon and Garfunkel’s beloved hit.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BwaseM9BXdE/
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.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CIm48bFBjpv/
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!
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.
Emma and Husky stay true to the original composition. They don’t overplay nor do they play around too much with the notes or the octave. Just singing the song as it was meant to be sang.
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.
Emma and Husky have over 7.4 million views for this amazing cover.
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!!!”
This rendition was just superb. They took a song from the 60’s, performed it live without ruining its original vibe and without knowing it, Emma and Husky brought a classic back to life with a nostalgic touch. Now that’s what real artists do.
Listen to this evocative rendition below!
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