“Silence Is Golden” – Single by The Tremeloes
B-side “Let Your Hair Hang Down”
Released 21 April 1967
Label CBS (UK) / Epic (US and Canada)
Songwriters Bob Crewe, Bob Gaudio
Producer Mike Smith
Charted No.11 in US; No.1 in UK; No.4 in Sweden; No.1 in Ireland; No.2 in Denmark
“Silence Is Golden” is a song initially recorded by the American rock band the Four Seasons. Written by Bob Crewe and Bob Gaudio, Philips Records released it in 1964 as the B-side of the U.S. number 1 single “Rag Doll”, which was also written by Crewe and Gaudio.
The phrase “silence is golden” is an encouragement to silence, which comes from a Swiss inscription written in German and best known in the English translation by Thomas Carlyle: “Sprechen ist silbern, Schweigen ist golden” (speech is silver, silence is golden).
In 1967 British band The Tremeloes recorded their sound-alike version, using the same arrangement as the original. It reached the top position on the UK chart on 18 May 1967, where it stayed for three weeks. Band member Len “Chip” Hawkes remembered getting up in the middle of the night, going to London with the rest of the band, and walking down The Strand, on the night the song reached number one. Guitarist Rick Westwood sang lead vocal on “Silence Is Golden”. In the U.S., Epic Records released the single, which reached number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and was one of the top 100 songs of 1967. The record sold one million copies globally, earning gold disc status.
