Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M.

Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. is the debut studio album by Simon and Garfunkel, released in October 1964 on Columbia Records. Produced by Tom Wilson and engineered by Roy Halee, it was recorded in March 1964 at Columbia's 7th Avenue studios in New York City. Columbia marketed it with the subtitle "exciting new sounds in the folk tradition."

The album blends original Paul Simon compositions with covers of traditional folk material and contemporary songs, including a Bob Dylan cover. Simon and Garfunkel brought Everly Brothers-style close harmonies to the folk idiom, occupying a stylistic middle ground between the rougher Village folk scene and mainstream pop. Among the originals is "The Sound of Silence," the song that would eventually make the duo famous, though it appeared here in its original, purely acoustic form.

The album failed commercially upon its initial release. The timing was disastrous: the Beatles had arrived in America in February 1964, and the British Invasion had pushed acoustic folk to the margins almost overnight. Sales numbered only a few thousand copies, and the duo went their separate ways, with Simon relocating to London and Garfunkel returning to Columbia University. The album was reissued in January 1966 to capitalize on the surprise chart success of the electrified "Sound of Silence" single, at which point it reached No. 30 on the Billboard album chart and eventually achieved platinum status.