Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M.

Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M.
Studio album by Simon & Garfunkel
Released October 19, 1964
Recorded March 10–31, 1964
Genre Folk[1][2]
Length 31:38
Label Columbia
Producer Tom Wilson
Simon & Garfunkel chronology
Wednesday Morning, 3 AM
(1964)
Sounds of Silence
(1966)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic [3]

Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. is the debut studio album by the American folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel, released on October 19, 1964. It was produced by Tom Wilson and engineered by Roy Halee. The cover and the label include the subtitle exciting new sounds in the folk tradition.

The album was initially unsuccessful, having been released in the shadow of the Beatles' arrival on the scene. This resulted in Paul Simon's move to England and Art Garfunkel's resumption of his university studies at Columbia University in New York City.[4]

Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. was re-released in January 1966 (to capitalize on their newly found radio success with a later re-mixed electric/acoustic version of the song "The Sound of Silence"), reaching number 30 on the Billboard album chart. It was belatedly released in the UK in 1968 in both mono and stereo formats.

The album is also included in its entirety as part of the Simon & Garfunkel box sets Collected Works and The Columbia Studio Recordings (1964–1970).

Track listing

Side one
No. TitleWriter(s)Recorded Length
1. "You Can Tell the World"  Bob Gibson/Bob CampMarch 31, 1964 2:47
2. "Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream"  Ed McCurdyMarch 17, 1964 2:11
3. "Bleecker Street"  Paul SimonMarch 10, 1964 2:44
4. "Sparrow"  Paul SimonMarch 31, 1964 2:49
5. "Benedictus"  Traditional arr. Paul Simon, Art GarfunkelMarch 31, 1964 2:38
6. "The Sound of Silence"  Paul SimonMarch 10, 1964 3:08
Side two
No. TitleWriter(s)Recorded Length
7. "He Was My Brother"  Paul KaneMarch 17, 1964 2:48
8. "Peggy-O"  Traditional arr by. Paul SimonMarch 31, 1964 2:26
9. "Go Tell It on the Mountain"  Traditional arr by. Paul SimonMarch 31, 1964 2:06
10. "The Sun Is Burning"  Ian CampbellMarch 17, 1964 2:49
11. "The Times They Are a-Changin'"  Bob DylanMarch 10, 1964 2:52
12. "Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M."  Paul SimonMarch 17, 1964 2:13
Total length:
31:38

Notes

Cover

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 album.[5]

Charts

Chart (1964) Peak
position
UK Albums Chart 24
US Album Charts 30

Songs

"He Was My Brother", was dedicated to Andrew Goodman, who was their friend and a classmate of Simon at Queens College. Andrew Goodman was one of the three civil rights workers murdered in the Mississippi civil rights workers' murders.

Personnel

References

  1. Willis, Ellen (2011). Out of the Vinyl Deeps: Ellen Willis on Rock Music. University of Minnesota Press. p. 103. ISBN 978-0816672837.
  2. DeBolt, Abbe Allen (2011). Encyclopedia of the Sixties: A Decade of Culture and Counterculture. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 604. ISBN 978-0313329449.
  3. Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. at AllMusic
  4. Simons, David (2004). Studio Stories - How the Great New York Records Were Made. San Francisco: Backbeat Books. Cf. pp.94-97.
  5. "A Poem On The Underground Wall (4:45)", Simon and Garfunkel Lyrics Archive, 1 April 2003
  6. Chris Charlesworth, The Complete Guide to the Music of Paul Simon and Simon & Garfunkel, Omnibus Press 1996
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