Wednesday Morning, 3 AM is the 1964 debut release of Queens folk/pop duo Simon and Garfunkel. The album is perhaps most notable for sounding almost nothing like the rest of their work, with the exception of a little song called The Sound of Silence, named 18th most performed song of the 20th century in 1999 by BMI and 156th greatest rock song of all time by Rolling Stone in 2004. The album flopped on the original release, owing perhaps to the uninteresting tracklist: gospel (including, unbelievably, "Go Tell It on the Mountain"), folk standards ("Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream," "Peggy-O," "He Was My Brother," etc.), and a dreadfully dull cover of "The Times They Are A-Changin'." Simon and Garfunkel split up shortly afterwards, Paul Simon to pursue the beginnings of a successful solo career, Art Garfunkel to fade into obscurity.
Then, something strange happened.™
Sound of Silence started to pick up radio play on the east coast. S&G's producer at Columbia quickly turned out a dubbed-over single (without the consent of S or G), which entered the charts in 1965 and started climbing fast. The duo re-formed in 1966 and released the album Sounds of Silence shortly afterwards.
Wednesday Morning, 3 AM still sounds pretty good, and it has been treated to a remastered version along with the rest of Simon and Garfunkel's albums. It is worth owning for the album art alone, a James Dean-esque exercise in attempted cool. The original version of the cover art prompted the song A Poem on the Underground Wall, a story that Paul Simon relates on Live From New York City, 1967.
Track list