Wednesday Morning, 3 AM doesn't resemble any other
Simon & Garfunkel album, because the
Simon & Garfunkel sound here was different from that of the chart-topping duo that emerged a year later. Their first record together since their days as the teen duo of
Tom & Jerry, the album was cut in March 1964 and, in keeping with their own sincere interests at the time, it was a folk-revival album.
Paul Simon was just spreading his wings as a serious songwriter and shares space with other composers as well as a pair of traditional songs, including a beautifully harmonized rendition of "Peggy-O." The album opens with a spirited (if somewhat arch) rendition of Gibson and Camp's
gospel/
folk piece "You Can Tell the World." Also present is
Ian Campbell's "The Sun Is Burning," which
Simon heard on his first visit to England as an itinerant folksinger. 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 manifest on the oldest of the
Simon originals here, "He Was My Brother."
Simon's first serious, topical song, 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 as an inspiration and developed a unique songwriting voice of his own in the title track, a beautifully sung, half-lovely song. Wednesday Morning, 3 AM is surprisingly ambitious but also somewhat disjointed, mostly because the non-original material, apart from "Peggy-O" and "The Sun Is Burning," comes off so arch. The seeds of their future success were here, however, and took root when the version of "The Sounds of Silence" on this album started getting played on the radio. ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide
