''Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M.'' is the debut studio album by American

folk rock Folk rock is a hybrid music genre that combines the elements of folk music, folk and rock music, rock music, which arose in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom in the mid-1960s. In the U.S., folk rock emerged from the American fo ...

duo

Simon & Garfunkel Simon & Garfunkel were an American folk rock duo consisting of the singer-songwriter Paul Simon and the singer Art Garfunkel. They were one of the best-selling music groups of the 1960s, and their biggest hits—including the electric remix of ...

. Following their early gig as "Tom and Jerry",

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

signed the two in late 1963. It was produced by Tom Wilson and engineered by

Roy Halee Roy Decker Halee (born 1934) is an American record producer and engineer, best known for working with Simon & Garfunkel, both as a group and for their solo projects. Early life He grew up on Long Island, New York. His father, also named Roy H ...

. The cover and the label include the subtitle ''exciting new sounds in the folk tradition''. Recorded in March 1964, the album was released on October 19. The album was initially unsuccessful, so Paul Simon moved to London, England and finished his first solo album ''

The Paul Simon Songbook ''The Paul Simon Songbook'' is the debut solo studio album by Paul Simon. It was released in the UK in 1965. It was made available in the US as part of the LP box set ''Paul Simon: Collected Works'' (1981). The album was produced by Reginald Warbu ...

''.

Art Garfunkel Arthur Ira Garfunkel (born November 5, 1941) is an American singer, poet, and actor. He is best known for his partnership with Paul Simon in the folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel. Highlights of Garfunkel's solo music career include one top-10 ...

continued his studies at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manha ...

in his native New York City, before reuniting with Simon in late 1965. ''Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M.'' was re-released in January 1966 (to capitalize on their newly found radio success because of the overdubbing of the song " The Sound of Silence" in June 1965, adding electric guitars, bass guitar and a drum kit), and reached 30 on the

Billboard 200 The ''Billboard'' 200 is a record chart ranking the 200 most popular music albums and EPs in the United States. It is published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine and is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artist ...

. It was belatedly released in the UK two years later (in 1968) in both mono and stereo formats. The song "He Was My Brother" was dedicated to Andrew Goodman, who was their friend and a classmate of Simon at

Queens College Queens College (QC) is a public college in the Queens borough of New York City. It is part of the City University of New York system. Its 80-acre campus is primarily located in Flushing, Queens. It has a student body representing more than 170 ...

. Andrew Goodman volunteered in

Freedom Summer Freedom Summer, also known as the Freedom Summer Project or the Mississippi Summer Project, was a volunteer campaign in the United States launched in June 1964 to attempt to register as many African-American voters as possible in Mississip ...

during 1964 and was abducted and killed in the

murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner The murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner, also known as the Freedom Summer murders, the Mississippi civil rights workers' murders, or the Mississippi Burning murders, refers to events in which three activists were abducted and murdered in ...

. The album is included in its entirety as part of the Simon & Garfunkel

box set A box set or (its original name) boxed set is a set of items (for example, a compilation of books, musical recordings, films or television programs) traditionally packaged in a box and offered for sale as a single unit. Music Artists and bands ...

s '' Collected Works'' and ''

The Columbia Studio Recordings (1964–1970) ''The Columbia Studio Recordings (1964–1970)'' is the third box set of Simon & Garfunkel recordings, released in 2001 by Columbia Records. This 5-CD set contains all of their studio albums from 1964 to 1970. The CDs are packaged in miniature re ...

''.

Production

The album was produced by Tom Wilson and engineered by

between March 10–31, 1964. “Benedictus" was arranged and adapted from

Orlando di Lasso Orlande de Lassus ( various other names; probably – 14 June 1594) was a composer of the late Renaissance. The chief representative of the mature polyphonic style in the Franco-Flemish school, Lassus stands with Giovanni Pierluigi da Palest ...

's ''Missa Octavi toni'', a

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass id ...

setting of the ordinary of the mass. The text, in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...

, is '' benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini'' (

KJV The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version, is an English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and published in 1611, by sponsorship of K ...

: ''Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord'' ). The song is arranged for two voices with cello and sparse guitar accompaniment.

Artwork

The album's cover photo was shot at the Fifth Avenue / 53rd Street subway station in New York City. In several concerts, Art Garfunkel related that during the photo session, several hundred pictures were taken that were unusable due to the "old familiar suggestion" on the wall in the background, which inspired Paul Simon to write the song "A Poem on the Underground Wall" for the duo's later ''

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme ''Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme'' is the third studio album by American music duo Simon & Garfunkel. Produced by Bob Johnston, the album was released on October 24, 1966, in the United States by Columbia Records. Following the success of the ...

'' album.

Reception

The album was initially unsuccessful, having been released in the shadow of the

British Invasion The British Invasion was a cultural phenomenon of the mid-1960s, when rock and pop music acts from the United Kingdom and other aspects of British culture became popular in the United States and significant to the rising "counterculture" on ...

. This resulted in Paul Simon moving to England and

continuing his studies at

in New York City, Cf. pp.94–97. However it reached 24 on the

UK Album Charts The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...

. Following the success of "The Sound of Silence," the album peaked at 30 on the ''Billboard'' album chart in 1966.

Track listing

Personnel

* Paul Simon – acoustic guitar, banjo on "Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream", vocals *

– vocals * Barry Kornfeld – acoustic guitar * Bill Lee – double bass

Charts

References

{{Authority control 1964 debut albums Simon & Garfunkel albums Columbia Records albums Albums produced by Tom Wilson (record producer)