Simon & Garfunkel - Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. [Vinyl]
Subscribe to our newsletter
Sign up for exclusive offers.
Barcode: 190758749518
Reissue producer: Bob Irwin.
Recorded on March 10-31, 1964.
Originally released on Columbia Records (9049).
Includes liner notes by Art Garfunkel & Bud Scoppa.
Wednesday Morning, 3 AM doesn't resemble any other Simon & Garfunkel album, mostly because their sound here was fundamentally different from that of the chart-topping duo that emerged a year later. Their first record together since their days as the teen harmony duo Tom & Jerry, the album was cut in March 1964, at a time when both Simon and Garfunkel were under the spell of folk music. As it had in 1957 with "Hey, Schoolgirl," their harmonizing here came out of the Everly Brothers' playbook, but some new wrinkles had developed -- Paul Simon was just spreading his wings as a serious songwriter and shares space with other contemporary composers. The album opens with a spirited (if somewhat arch) rendition of Gibson and Camp's gospel/folk piece "You Can Tell the World," on which the duo's joyous harmonizing overcomes the intrinsic awkwardness of two Jewish guys from Queens, New York doing this repertory. Also present is Ian Campbell's "The Sun Is Burning," a topical song about nuclear annihilation that Simon heard on his first visit to England as an itinerant folksinger the year before. But the dominant outside personality on the album is that of Bob Dylan -- his "Times They Are A-Changing" is covered, but his influence is obvious on the oldest of the Simon originals here, "He Was My Brother." Simon's first serious, topical song, dealing with the death of a freedom rider -- and dedicated to Simon's slain Queens College classmate Andrew Jacobs -- it was what first interested Columbia Records producer Tom Wilson in Simon & Garfunkel. By the time the album was recorded, however, Simon had evolved beyond Dylan's orbit and developed a unique songwriting voice of his own, though he still had some distance to go. His other originals betray the artifice of an English major at work, sometimes for better, as on "Sparrow" and the original, all-acoustic release of "The Sound of Silence," and at times for worse, on the half-beautiful but too-precious title song (which he would re-write more successfully as "Somewhere They Can't Find Me"). There are also a pair of traditional songs, a beautifully harmonized rendition of "Peggy-O" -- which they probably picked up in Greenwich Village, or from recordings by Dylan or Joan Baez -- and "Go Tell It On the Mountain," both of which fit well into the zeitgeist of the folk revival. The record didn't sell on its original release, however, appearing too late in the folk revival to attract much attention -- Bob Dylan was already taking that audience to new places by adding electric instruments to his sound. But the seeds of the duo's future success were planted when, months after the album had been given up for dead -- and the duo had split up -- the all-acoustic rendition of "The Sound of Silence" started getting radio play on its own in some key markets, which possessed to producer Wilson to try and adapt it to the new sound, overdubbing an electric band. ~ Bruce Eder
- Format: Vinyl
- Genre: Rock
Frequently Asked Questions
Handling Time
How long does it take to process my order?
How long does it take to process my order?
- Media items (vinyl, CDs, cassettes) typically ship within 1-2 business days, but some may take 3-4 business days .
All lead times are noted on product pages and vary per item.
Will I be notified when my order ships?
Will I be notified when my order ships?
Yes! You’ll receive a shipping confirmation email with tracking info as soon as your order is on its way.
Shipping
How much does shipping cost?
How much does shipping cost?
We offer flat-rate shipping for in-stock media items:
- $6.49 for any quantity of in-stock vinyl, CDs, or cassettes.
- If your order includes apparel or pre-orders, they will ship separately with their own flat-rate charge.
Do you ship in-stock and pre-order items separately?
Do you ship in-stock and pre-order items separately?
Yes. In-stock items ship immediately, while pre-orders ship separately just before or on their release date. You won’t have to wait for your entire order to be available before receiving your in-stock items.
How long will it take to receive my order?
How long will it take to receive my order?
Standard shipping normally takes 3-5 days. Next day shipping is available on all domestic orders (for an additional charge). International shipping times depend on the products and destination (estimated at checkout).