Simon and Garfunkel Wednesday Morning, 3A.M. (Vinyl LP)

As much as anything, Simon & Garfunkel's 1964 debut album, Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. stands as a distillation of the musical path Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel had traveled, along with so many of their generation: it's an unselfconscious pastiche of Everlys-schooled vocal/rhythmic interaction, folk-pop staples, esoterica, English lit-inspired metaphors, and poetic imagery, underlaid with a budding social consciousness. While Simon & Garfunkel's selection and treatment of the outside material was compelling, the five original tunes made it clear that the two youngsters shared an undeniable gift. Particularly striking was "The Sound of Silence" which, even in its spare acoustic form, came across with the force of a revelation. Simon had begun writing the soon-to-be generational anthem in November 1963, the month President Kennedy was assassinated.