Granted that Pentatonix group on YouTube does some of the most amazing covers of the most amazing songs ever. But when it comes to covering culturally iconic songs such as “The Sound of Silence” by Simon & Garfunkel from 1965, it takes some special talent and effort. And boy did Pentatonix group just deliver!
Pentatonix members took on the iconic “The Sound of Silence” single and turned it into a capella accompanied with a hauntingly beautiful vocal rendition.
Scott Hoying starts off the a capella with a stripped down-vocal only-intro and it just gives us chills. Part-by-part, the rest of the members join in and perform their bit towards this epic cover. The band released a music video along with the cover and it matches. The members are seen standing in an empty warehouse? as they perform this ballad.
Watch Pentatonix Cover “The Sound of Silence” by Simon & Garfunkel
Before Pentatonix released this cover, the best “The Sound of Silence” cover was credited to Disturbed. Complete with an epic music video, Disturbed had the next-best-thing to the original. This video has gathered over 490 million views on YouTube since its release in December 2015. Disturbed managed to preserve the original ‘folk rock’ aspect of the song. However, Pentatonix’s attempt without instruments couldn’t have been any better.
Pentatonix will be touring the world in 2019. Starting off the tour in May 2019 from Canada, the band will move to US where they will tour till the end of August 2019. You can catch the full tour schedule and purchase tickets on Ticketmaster.
The Story of “The Sounds of Silence”
The original “The Sounds of Silence” (‘sounds’ not ‘sound’) by the American music duo Simon & Garfunkel is a special page in the history of music. The song was written by Paul Simon over a course of several months for their debut album ‘Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M..’ in 1964. Unfortunately, the album flopped and lead to the band to break up. As the artists went on their different paths, the song managed to catch up to the masses and gained some airplay. The song’s producer Tom Wilson remixed the song and re-released without Simon & Garfunkel’s knowledge in 1965. This remix version reached #1 on Billboard Hot 100 in January 1966. This also leads to Simon and Garfunkel’s reunion and their second studio album.
Below is Simon & Garfunkel performing their epic ballad live at the ’25th Anniversary Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Concert’ in 2009, for which themselves were inducted in 1990.
Drop in your thoughts about this song, the cover and Pentatonix in the comments below. Will you be catching Pentatonix during their world tour 2019?