Paul Simon has written some of the most iconic songs in music history. However, there is one tune he believes will last for 100 years, and it's a Simon & Garfunkel classic.
In a 2025 conversation with Stephen Colbert, Simon discussed the many aspects of his career. However, Simon's commentary took a serious turn when the talk show host was asked about his enduring body of work.
Simon, 83, who's been performing professionally since the age of 16, discussed the oldest song he's currently performed, and the one he believes will last for 100 years. It's the 1965 classic, "The Sound of Silence."
The songwriter revealed, "I think if any of my songs have a chance of … lasting 100 years, I think it may be that one.” Simon added, "I was looking on YouTube to hear some Andean flutes, you know, pan pipe flutes, for something that I thought about in the [current] show … and while I was looking for it, there was a a Native American, he was just by himself and he was wearing a headdress, and he was playing ‘The Sound of Silence.’”
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Simon also discussed his chance encounter at a village near the Amazon River, where he met a young girl playing a guitar. She said she knew an American song and played him "The Sound of Silence."
According to a 2014 Rolling Stone Readers Poll, fans zoned in on 10 songs they believed were the greatest ever written by Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel. The tunes were written during a professional collaboration that lasted from 1964 through 1970.
These include "For Emily, Wherever I May Find Her," "I Am a Rock," "Scarborough Fair/Canticle," "The Only Living Boy in New York," "Mrs. Robinson," "Cecilia, "America," "Bridge Over Troubled Water," "The Boxer," and in the number one spot, "The Sound of Silence."
'The Sound of Silence' was enhanced with electric guitars and drums
"The Sound of Silence" from Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel's debut album, Wednesday Morning, 3 AM, was first released in October 1964. Simon said of writing the song in a 1984 interview with Playboy, "I used to go off in the bathroom, because the bathroom had tiles, so it was a slight echo chamber. I'd turn on the faucet so that water would run (I like that sound, it's very soothing to me), and I'd play. In the dark. 'Hello darkness, my old friend / I've come to talk with you again.'"
According to The Financial Review, the original song was enhanced to play into the folk-rock fusion dominating the charts with The Byrds and Bob Dylan. Columbia Records Southeast Region distributor Mark Weiner suggested the change, adding electric guitars and drums to the track.
Oddly, Weiner didn't get either Simon or Garfunkel's permission to change the arrangement. The revamped version was released in the Spring of 1965, and by January 1966, The Sound of Silence had sold more than a million copies.
Paul Simon recently completed his "Quiet Celebration" Tour. Art Garfunkel released a duets album, Father and Son, with his son, Art Garfunkel Jr., in the fall of 2024.
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