The Silent Sun

1968 single by Genesis

"The Silent Sun"

2006 reissue sleeve

Single by Genesis

from the album From Genesis to Revelation

B-side

"That's Me"

Released

2 February 1968 (1968-02-02)
July 2006 (2006-07) (reissue)

Recorded

December 1967

Genre

Baroque pop

Length

2:13

Label

Decca (UK)
Parrot (US)

Songwriter(s)

Tony Banks
Peter Gabriel
Anthony Phillips
Mike Rutherford

Producer(s)

Jonathan King

Genesis singles chronology

"The Silent Sun"
(1968)

"A Winter's Tale"
(1968)

"Carpet Crawlers 1999"
(1999)

"The Silent Sun 2006"
(2006)

"The Silent Sun" (album title "Silent Sun") is a song by English rock band Genesis. It was written when the band's producer, Jonathan King, first discovered them, before he decided to produce an entire album, a heavy investment. Knowing that King was a fan of the Bee Gees, they wrote the song specifically to capture his attention.^[1] The song was released as a single on 2 February 1968.^[2] A different recording of it appears on their debut album, From Genesis to Revelation.

"The Silent Sun" is a fusion of folk rock and pop rock with orchestral strings and romantic lyrics. On both the album and single releases it was credited as written by the entire group (which then consisted of Tony Banks, Peter Gabriel, Anthony Phillips, Mike Rutherford, and John Silver), but BMI records (see BMI work #29909132) does not credit Silver, and in fact the single version of the song was recorded before Silver joined Genesis, when Chris Stewart was the drummer. Moreover, in interviews the band has said that "The Silent Sun" was written solely by Gabriel and Banks.^[3]

It was reissued in very limited quantities in July 2006 as a CD-single under the title "The Silent Sun 2006", with "When the Sour Turns to Sweet 2006" as its B-side, and credited to "Peter Gabriel and Genesis". The versions on this CD-single are remix/remaster versions with overdubbed drums,^[4] also available on the 2006 reissue of the band's 1969 debut album. Since this is the last official single release by Genesis, this makes "The Silent Sun" both the debut and the final single released by Genesis.

Personnel

Tony Banks – piano, backing vocals
Peter Gabriel – lead vocals
Anthony Phillips – acoustic guitar, backing vocals
Mike Rutherford – bass, backing vocals
Chris Stewart – drums

Additional personnel

Arthur Greenslade – orchestral arrangements

References

^ Genesis: A History (1990).
^ "Deutscher Genesis Fanclub it / Genesis / Genesis: Vor 45 Jahren erschien "The Silent Sun"". Genesis-fanclub.de. 22 February 2013. Retrieved 14 December 2017. See also here.
^ Giammetti, Mario (2020). Genesis 1967 to 1975 - The Peter Gabriel Years. Kingmaker. p. 19. ISBN 978-1-913218-62-1.
^ Giammetti, Mario (2020). Genesis 1967 to 1975 - The Peter Gabriel Years. Kingmaker. p. 18. ISBN 978-1-913218-62-1.