No I didn't buy this when it came out as a single but we listened to the album avidly when it broke over here. . . . . this is in a list of classic pop songs of all time for sure, check the production values and structure of this truly wonderful song. Anything that becomes so classic it is cliché must have done something right. It is so ingrained as to be in the public domain somehow. Ask anyone from these generations and they would know it . . . 

On this day in music history: January 1, 1966 - “The Sounds Of Silence” by Simon & Garfunkel hits #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for 2 weeks (non-consecutive). Written by Paul Simon, it is the first chart topping single for the Queens, NY folk/rock duo. Simon writes the song in early 1964, and is originally released on Simon & Garfunkel’s debut album “Wednesday Morning, 3 AM”. The acoustic based ballad, along with the album attracts little attention upon its initial release. Sometime later, a Boston area DJ begins playing “The Sound Of Silence” off the album and receives a positive reaction. Word of this gets back to executives at Columbia Records, who think the spare acoustic song could become a hit, if the song had more instrumentation on it. While in the studio recording Bob Dylan’s classic “Like A Rolling Stone” (on June 15, 1965), producer Tom Wilson asks some of Dylan’s musicians to stay behind and record one more track. Wilson overdubs electric guitar, bass and drums on to Simon & Garfunkel’s original multi-track of “Silence”. Released as a single in September of 1965, “Silence” begins making in roads on US radio. Entering the Hot 100 at #80 on November 20, 1965, it quickly climbs to the top of the chart six weeks later. After one week at number one, it is pushed back to number two for two weeks by The Beatles “We Can Work It Out”, then regaining the top spot for one more week on January 22, 1966. The song is also prominently featured in Mike Nichols film “The Graduate” in 1967, along with several other Simon & Garfunkel songs. The single is inducted into the Grammy Hall Of Fame in 2004. In 1980, the band Rush make a sly reference to “Sounds” in their song “The Spirit Of Radio” with the lyric, “For the words of the profits were written on the studio wall, concert hall, and echoes with the sounds of salesmen”. “The Sounds Of Silence” is certified Gold in the US by the RIAA.

thanks to Jeff Harris' wonderful blog