"Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M." is the debut studio album by the American folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel. After their earlier work as the rock 'n' roll duo Tom and Jerry, the pair signed with Columbia Records in late 1963. The album was produced by Tom Wilson and engineered by Roy Halee, with the cover and label featuring the subtitle "exciting new sounds in the folk tradition." Recorded in March 1964, it was released on October 19.
Initially, the album was unsuccessful, prompting Paul Simon to move to London, where he released his first solo album, The Paul Simon Songbook. Meanwhile, Art Garfunkel continued his studies at Columbia University in New York City before reuniting with Simon in late 1965. The album saw a re-release in January 1966, coinciding with their newfound radio success due to the overdubbing of "The Sound of Silence" in June 1965. This version added electric guitars, bass, and drums under the direction of Tom Wilson, without the duo's knowledge, and the album reached No. 30 on the Billboard 200. It was belatedly released in the UK two years later in both mono and stereo formats.
The song "He Was My Brother" was dedicated to their friend Andrew Goodman, a classmate of Simon at Queens College, who was murdered during Freedom Summer in 1964 alongside Chaney and Schwerner.
The album is included in full in the Simon & Garfunkel box sets Collected Works and The Columbia Studio Recordings (1964–1970).
The album was produced by Tom Wilson and engineered by Roy Halee from March 10 to 31, 1964. "Benedictus" was arranged from Orlando di Lasso's Missa Octavi toni, a Renaissance mass setting, with Latin text meaning "Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord." The song features two voices with cello and sparse guitar accompaniment.
The album's cover photo was taken at the Fifth Avenue / 53rd Street subway station in New York City. Art Garfunkel noted in concerts that many photos from the session were unusable due to an inappropriate message on the wall in the background, which inspired Paul Simon to write "A Poem on the Underground Wall" for their later album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme.
