Simon & Garfunkel’s ‘The Sound of Silence’ Reaches Top 10 of Two Charts Thanks to ‘Sad’ Ben Affleck
One of the hottest tunes in the country right now was recorded 52 years ago. Simon & Garfunkel's "The Sound of Silence" is currently riding high on a couple of charts on the strength of two viral videos, one of which has actor Ben Affleck.
Billboard reports that the track makes its debut at No. 6 on their Hot Rock Songs chart, as well as No. 2 on the Streaming Rock Songs chart thanks to 5,000 downloads -- a 46 percent increase from its usual number -- and 5.6 million streams -- a jump of an astonishing 582 percent -- last week. Approximately 5.1 million of those streams have come from YouTube, with the above video credited for a good portion of those numbers.
The 68-second clip, the latest in the "Sad Affleck" series, features Ben Affleck looking pensive as his Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Freedom co-star Henry Cavill discusses the negative reviews given to their new movie. Simon & Garfunkel's hit is superimposed over Cavill's answer. After the first verse, the original audio comes back up in time for Ben to respond with, simply, "I agree."
Another clip responsible for the song returning to the public eye was the performance of Disturbed's hit cover on Conan on March 28. Disturbed, whose cover moved up one spot to No. 3 on the Hot Rock Songs chart and 18 spots to No. 51 on the Hot 100, even received a word of praise from its composer. Paul Simon e-mailed lead singer David Draiman, saying, “Really powerful performance on Conan the other day. First time I’d seen you do it live. Nice," and it was embedded on Simon's Facebook page.
Earlier today (April 7), Simon showed that he's not content to rest on his extensive back catalog. He announced the arrival of his 13th solo album, Stranger to Stranger, on June 3. You can listen to the first single, "Wristband," here.
See Simon & Garfunkel and Other Rockers in the Top 100 Albums of the '60s