The music video for Disturbed’s haunting cover of the Simon & Garfunkel classic “The Sound of Silence” has surpassed 1 billion views on YouTube.
Disturbed’s version of the song appeared on their 2015 album, Immortalized, and was bolstered by a stirring live rendition on TBS’ Conan in March 2016. In fact, the Conan performance has 146 million views itself on YouTube.
Paul Simon himself endorsed Disturbed’s potent take on the song, emailing his approval to singer David Draiman: “Really powerful performance on Conan the other day. First time I’d seen you do it live. Nice. Thanks.”
Draiman replied to Simon at the time, “Mr. Simon, I am honored beyond words. We only hoped to pay homage and honor to the brilliance of one of the greatest songwriters of all time. Your compliment means the world to me/us and we are eternally grateful.”
Disturbed’s “The Sound of Silence” video joins other recent entries into the 1 billion club on YouTube, including Radiohead’s “Creep” and Hoobastank’s “The Reason” (which also just topped 1 billion Spotify streams). Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger” also just hit the 1 billion mark, while Evanescence’s “My Immortal” is closing in on the milestone with 984 million views as of this posting.
After touring extensively in support of their 2022 album Divisive, Disturbed only have three fall festival dates on their upcoming schedule: Rocklahoma, Louder Than Life, and Aftershock. Guitarist Dan Donegan recently revealed that the band is considering a 25th anniversary tour in 2025 for their multiplatinum debut album, The Sickness.
Revisit Disturbed’s “The Sound of Silence” music video below.