50分求英文歌《The sound of silence》的英文简介

50分求英文歌《The sound of silence》的英文简介
要英文的 要用英文介绍给别人

"The Sound of Silence" is the song that propelled the 1960s folk duo Simon and Garfunkel to popularity. It was written by Paul Simon in the aftermath of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22 1963. The song was included in the 1966 album Sounds of Silence. Simon conceived of the song as a way of capturing the emotional trauma felt by many Americans left by the sudden death of a vigorous and visionary leader.
The song features Simon on acoustic guitar and both Simon and Garfunkel singing.
History
The song took several months to write. Although Simon took a relatively short period of time to construct the melody, he did not fully nail down the lyrics until February 19, 1964, when, according to some accounts, the song seemed to "write itself." It was originally released exactly eight months later on the duo's debut album Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., on 19 October. Despite the fact that in the liner notes Art Garfunkel described "The Sound of Silence" as "a major work" for the duo, Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. flopped on its initial release.
Simon and Garfunkel then split up, with Simon going to England for much of 1965. There he often performed the song solo in folk clubs, and recorded it for a second time on his solo LP in May 1965, The Paul Simon Song Book.
In the meantime, Simon and Garfunkel's producer at Columbia Records in New York, Tom Wilson, had learned that the song had begun to receive airplay on radio stations in Boston, Massachusetts and around Gainesville and Cocoa Beach, Florida. In the summer of 1965 he took the original track of Simon & Garfunkel and Simon's guitar, and overdubbed the recording with electric guitar, electric bass, and drums, and released it as a single without Simon or Garfunkel's consent or even consulting them. The song entered the U.S. pop charts in September 1965 and slowly began its ascent. Simon learned that it had entered the charts minutes before he went onstage to perform at a club in Copenhagen, Denmark, and soon afterwards he returned to the United States. By the end of 1965 and the first few weeks of 1966, the song reached number one on the U.S. charts. Simon and Garfunkel then reunited as a musical group, and included the song as the title track of their next album Sounds of Silence, hastily-recorded in December 1965 and released in January 1966 to capitalize on their success. The song propelled them to stardom and, together with two other top-five (in the U.S.) hits in the summer of 1966, "I Am A Rock" and "Homeward Bound," ensured the duo's fame. In 1999, BMI named "The Sound of Silence" as the 18th-most performed song of the 20th century. [1]
In the media
Featured in the soundtrack to The Graduate, "The Sound of Silence" carries themes of isolation and individuality.
The song, and the sequence from The Graduate it features in, was pastiched as "The Sound of Grandpa" in a 1994 episode of The Simpsons [2].
In 2000, Seattle-based metal band Nevermore covered the song for their LP Dead Heart in a Dead World. Their interpretation of the song, however, hardly resembles the original's calm and quiet mood, despite the fact that it features the same lyrics (though in a slightly rearranged order).
Single
"The Sound of Silence" was released on Columbia Records as 45rpm catalog number #4-43396. The single has several variations:
One variation was a promotional release on red vinyl. This copy was unique in that it featured the original acoustic version found on Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. on one side and the electric overdubbed version later featured on Sounds of Silence on the other. This release was mainly distributed to radio stations and carries a white label. This version is rare to find today, and quite valuable to collectors.
The standard version of the single was released on black vinyl, with a red label the same Columbia catalog number, and backed with "We've Got A Groovey Thing Goin'."
"The Sounds of Silence" was later released in the 1970s on the Columbia "Hall of Fame" series, catalog number 13-3396, which featured back-to-back hits of a group on 45. This time the song was backed by "Homeward Bound."