Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. is the debut album by folk

Folk music

Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

 duo Simon & Garfunkel, released October 19, 1964. It was produced by Tom Wilson and engineered by Roy Halee

Roy Halee

Roy Halee is an American record producer and engineer, best known for working with Simon and Garfunkel.Halee grew up on Long Island, New York. His father, also named Roy Halee, provided the singing voice for Mighty Mouse in late 1940s Terrytoons cartoons, as well as the voices of Heckle and Jeckle...

. On its cover sleeve the album bears the subtitle: "Exciting new sounds in the folk tradition".

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

The Beatles

The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...

' 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

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

 in New York City.

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 Sounds of Silence, and so the album reached #30 on the Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

 pop charts. It is perhaps best known for the acoustic version of "The Sound of Silence

The Sound of Silence

"The Sound of Silence" is the song that propelled the 1960s folk music duo Simon & Garfunkel to popularity. It was written in February 1964 by Paul Simon in the aftermath of the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy. An initial version preferred by the band was remixed and sweetened, and has become...

".

In several concerts, Art Garfunkel

Art Garfunkel

Arthur Ira "Art" Garfunkel is an American singer-songwriter, poet, and actor, best known as being a member of the folk duo Simon & Garfunkel...

 related that during the photo sessions for the album cover, several hundred pictures were taken that were unusable due to the "all-familiar suggestion" on the wall in the background, which inspired the song "A Poem on the Underground Wall".

The album cover photo was shot at the Fifth Avenue and 53rd Street Subway Station in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

.

Side one

1. "You Can Tell the World" (Bob Gibson
   Bob Gibson (musician)
   Samuel Robert Gibson was a folk singer who led a folk music revival in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He was known for playing both the banjo and the 12-string guitar. He introduced a then largely unknown Joan Baez at the Newport Folk Festival of 1959. He produced a number of LPs in the decade...
   
   /Bob Camp
   Hamilton Camp
   Hamilton Camp was an English-American singer, songwriter, actor and voice actor.-Early life:Camp was born in London, England, and was evacuated during World War II to the United States as a child with his mother and sister. He became a child actor in films and onstage...
   
   ) – 2:47
   ^{Recorded: March 31, 1964}
2. "Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream" (Ed McCurdy
   Ed McCurdy
   Ed McCurdy was an American folk singer, songwriter, and television actor. His anti-war classic, "Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream" , inspired and gave hope to those in the peace movement.-Career:...
   
   ) – 2:11
   ^{Recorded: March 17, 1964}
3. "Bleecker Street" (Simon) – 2:44
   ^{Recorded: March 10, 1964}
4. "Sparrow" (Simon) – 2:49
   ^{Recorded: March 31, 1964}
5. "Benedictus
   Benedictus (song)
   "Benedictus" is a song from Simon and Garfunkel's debut album, Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. It was arranged and adapted from two-part a capella motet by Orlande de Lassus. The text, in Latin, is benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini...
   
   " (traditional, arranged and adapted by Simon and Garfunkel) – 2:38
   ^{Recorded: March 31, 1964}
6. "The Sound of Silence
   The Sound of Silence
   "The Sound of Silence" is the song that propelled the 1960s folk music duo Simon & Garfunkel to popularity. It was written in February 1964 by Paul Simon in the aftermath of the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy. An initial version preferred by the band was remixed and sweetened, and has become...
   
   " (Simon) – 3:08
   ^{Recorded: March 10, 1964}

Side two

1. "He Was My Brother" (Paul Kane*) – 2:48
   ^{Recorded: March 17, 1964}
2. "Peggy-O" (traditional) – 2:26
   ^{Recorded: March 31, 1964}
3. "Go Tell It on the Mountain
   Go Tell It on the Mountain (song)
   "Go Tell It on the Mountain" is an African-American spiritual song, compiled by John Wesley Work, Jr., dating back to at least 1865, that has been sung and recorded by many gospel and secular performers...
   
   " (traditional) – 2:06
   ^{Recorded: March 31, 1964}
4. "The Sun Is Burning" (Ian Campbell
   Ian Campbell Folk Group
   The Ian Campbell Folk Group were one of the most popular and respected folk groups of the British folk revival of the 1960s. The group made many appearances on radio, television, and at national and international venues and festivals. They performed a mixture of British traditional folk music and...
   
   ) – 2:49
   ^{Recorded: March 17, 1964}
5. "The Times They Are a-Changin'
   The Times They Are a-Changin' (song)
   "The Times They Are a-Changin" is a song written by Bob Dylan and released as the title track of his 1964 album, The Times They Are a-Changin. The song was ranked #59 on Rolling Stones 2004 list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time....
   
   " (Bob Dylan
   Bob Dylan
   Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
   
   ) – 2:52
   ^{Recorded: March 10, 1964}
6. "Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M." (Simon) – 2:13
   ^{Recorded: March 17, 1964}

Bonus tracks (2001 CD reissue)

1. "Bleecker Street" (demo) (Simon) – 2:46
   ^{Recorded: March 10, 1964}
2. "He Was My Brother" (alternate take 1) (Paul Kane) – 2:52
   ^{Recorded: March 17, 1964}
3. "The Sun Is Burning" (alternate take 12) (Ian Campbell) – 2:47
   ^{Recorded: March 17, 1964}

* Paul Kane is one of the aliases

Pseudonym

A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...

 used by Paul Simon.

Released as part of the box set, Simon & Garfunkel Collected Works, on both LP and CD — Columbia Records LP CL-9049 (mono), CS-9049 (stereo), CD CK 9049. Also as CBS LP 63370 (CL 2249) (UK).

Charts

Chart (1964)	Peak position
UK Album Charts	24
US Album Charts Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...	30

Personnel

• Paul Simon
  Paul Simon
  Paul Frederic Simon is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist.Simon is best known for his success, beginning in 1965, as part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, with musical partner Art Garfunkel. Simon wrote most of the pair's songs, including three that reached number one on the US singles...
  
  : Acoustic guitar, vocals.
• Art Garfunkel
  Art Garfunkel
  Arthur Ira "Art" Garfunkel is an American singer-songwriter, poet, and actor, best known as being a member of the folk duo Simon & Garfunkel...
  
  : Vocals.
• Barry Kornfeld: Acoustic Guitar.
• Bill Lee
  Bill Lee (musician)
  William James Edwards "Bill" Lee III is an American musician. He has played the bass for many artists including Cat Stevens, Harry Belafonte, Chad Mitchell Trio, Gordon Lightfoot, Aretha Franklin, Odetta, Simon and Garfunkel, and Bob Dylan...
  
  : Stand-up bass
• Uncredited musician: Banjo on "Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream" (Chris Charlesworth says that this is "probably [Paul] Simon").