The Tom & Jerry period

As follow up to the previous message about Big Records # 613 I was wondering if anyone ever has seen a copy of Big Records # 621 with the famous 'Baby Talk' song?
I guess not. The single probably never was released at all. Big Records was probably allready down in 1959, when this is said to have been released. Was it an origional Tom & Jerry recording? Yes, but a demo. Tom and most of all Jerry did a lot of demo-ing for publishers and songwriters. With the result a publisher tried to sell the song to other, more famous, artist like Jan & Dean. 'Baby Talk' was most likely one of the demos that survived. Later Sid Prosen, owner of Big Records, also tried to gain in on the success of Simon & Garfunkel in 1966. He offered the Tom & Jerry recordings he still owned to Pickwick International for an album with early Simon & Garfunkel material. An album which we all know now as ' Simon & Garfunkel ' on Allegro 836, Pickwick PC 3059 (mono and stereo) and Sears 435 (mono and stereo).

And 'Baby Talk'? It was released on Bell Records # 120:

BIG Records 613

Paul & Art's first single was released on Big Records. Owned by Sid Prosen, who had written Teresa Brewer's hit ''Till we waltz again'. When they signed a contract with Big Records, the only wated it if a single was released within 60 days (did they already have hade an earlier contract?), he did. November 1957 became very important for Paul & Art. The single sold some 100.000 copies and entered BillBoard's Hot 100. They were on Dick Clark's American Bandstand (November 22nd, 1957) and the single was in the charts until early 1958.

There are 3 releases of #613:
- 78 RPM (schelak)
- 45 rpm (with credits to Tommy Graph & Jerry Landis)
- 45 rpm (with credits to A. Garfunkel & P. Simon)

Is the last one a so-called bootleg-release? I am still hoping to see the matrix-numbers of that soon and be able to check them to the other one.

Here are some pictures that will give you an idea! Besides the so-called stock-copy labels, I also was lucky to get pictures of the Demo-disc labels.

Big Records promoted Tom & Jerry's release in Billboard of December 9th 1957:

and who are Tom & Jerry:

The labels of the Acetates:


The 78rpm release, with credits to A.Garfunkel & P.Simon:

With credits to Tommy Graph & Jerry Landis


With credits to A. Garfunkel & P. Simon

This one is signed by Paul Simon in 1957, as sold on eBay recently.

The Sound of Silence in Billboard Hot 100

How did the first hitsingle of Simon & Garfunkel 'behave' in the Billboard Hot 100? It entered the Hot 100 on the 21st of November on position 80 and moved upwards until January 1st of 1966 when it reached Nr. 1. But just for one week!
Then it went back to position 2 for the next two weeks. On January 21st it reached Nr. 1 once more. From then on it was 'down hill'........

BillBoard HOT 100
The Sound of Silence
Date Chart#
19651121 pos. 80
19651126 pos. 65
19651204 pos. 34
19651211 pos. 26
19651218 pos. 16
19651225 pos. 5
19660101 pos. 1
19660108 pos. 2
19660115 pos. 2
19660122 pos. 1
19660129 pos. 12
19660205 pos. 20

1965 Advertisements

I was able to find two Columbia ads to promote 'The sound of silence'. Also see that the title still has a 's' too much in 'sounds':


Published in Billboard of November 13th 1965


Published in Billboard of December 18th 1965

Wednesday Morning 3 A.M

Late 1963 Simon & Garfunkel did some demo-recording at Columbia Studios in NYC. The engineer was Roy Halee. In March 1964 the he recording sessions for Simon & Garfunkel's first album for Columbia Records started. With Tom Wilson as producer. One of the sessions musicians was Jim (later: Roger of The Byrds. The album was called 'Wednesday Morning 3 AM'. Released in October the same year.

Here's an advertisement for Columbia's releases in Novemer 1964 in Billboard:

Advertisement of 1963

In 1963 AMY Records put an advertisment to promote Paul Simon's aka Jerry Landis 'The lone teen ranger'
This one was published in Billboard of March 13th 1963.

Art Garfunkel Second Avenue

During his solo-recording career it often happened that singles were released that became a hit in various countries but not included on an album. In 1977 CBS/Columbia released '(What a)Wonderful world' with James Taylor & Paul Simon, in 1979 'Bright eyes' became a hit. Both songs were rapidly included on later pressings of both 'Watermark' and 'Fate for breakfast'. Which also meant that songs were taken off of the album:
- 'Fingerpaint' was included on the initial Dutch release of the lp Watermark, but this one was quickly withdrawn and replaced by one with '(What a) Wonderful world'.

But another one that became a hit was 'Second Avenue'. Was it a 'left-over' from the wonderful Angel Clare-album? It is a very nice song. Maybe someone can tell more about this recording?

Here a view of the covers of the single CBS 2672:



Portugal

Sweden

Spain

USA Radio Station Copy