A Hazy Shade of Winter by Simon and Garfunkel—Murfin Winter Holidays Music Festival 2025-26

                                                                    Simon and Garfunkel's A Hazy Shade of Winter. 

It’s a mystery. Why do some non-holiday Winter songs get included in Christmas music play lists and others don’t?  Is it because they aren’t perky with a catchy hook, full of romance, or a clever novelty tune?  Take, for example, Simon and Garfunkel’s A Hazy Shade of Winter. 

The 1966 single sleeve for A Hazy Shade of Winter.

Despite being the second biggest hit off the duo’s landmark 1968 album Bookends peaking at # 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 after Mrs. Robinson which reached #1, you won’t find the song on Yule radio.  Maybe it’s because it is a rather gloomy take on the season—dull overcast urban sky, only patchy snow among long-dead leaves on the ground.  And it even mentions a synagogue down by the river instead of a pristine chapel by a Currier & Ives lane.  That can’t help.  But any fair assessment of all the moods of the season should be included like Christina Rossetti’s In the Bleak Midwinter.  

The Bangles had an even bigger hit with the song in the '80s.

This classic was also a #3 hit for The Bangles in the 1980’s. 

A Hazy Shade of Winter by Simon and Garfunkel—The Murfin Winter Holidays Music Festival 2022-‘23

 

                                                        Simon and Garfunkel's A Hazy Shade of Winter.

It’s a mystery. Why do some non-holiday winter songs get included in Christmas music playlists and others don’t?  Is it because they aren’t perky with a catchy hook, full of romance, or a clever novelty tune?  Take, for example, Simon and Garfunkel’s A Hazy Shade of Winter.

The 1966 single sleeve for A Hazy Shade of Winter.

Despite being the second biggest hit off the duo’s landmark 1968 album Bookends peaking at # 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 after Mrs. Robinson which reached #1, you won’t find the song on Yule radio.  Maybe it’s because it is a rather gloomy take on the season—dull overcast urban sky, only patchy snow among long-dead leaves on the ground.  And it even mentions a synagogue down by the river instead of a pristine chapel by a Courier & Ives lane.  That can’t help.

The Bangles had an even bigger hit with the song in the '80s.

But any fair assessment of all of the moods of the season should include this classic which was also a #3 hit for The Bangles in the 1980’s.

 

April, Come She Will—Murfin Home Confinement Music Festival 2020

April, Come She Will by Simon and Garfunkel.

It’s the most beautiful day yet here in McHenry County—mostly sunny with temperatures north of 70° with a light zephyr.  Warm enough to go out in my shirtsleeves for my daily walk and even to raise a mild sweat.  I could have broken out my straw cowboy hat, but I know I will be back in my old felt Stetson later in the week.  Outside the daffodils are finally out in full force and lawns are so green that mowers are getting pulled out and readied for work.  At home all of the windows are open and I even have my table fan cooling me at my desk as I pound this out.

Shortly before the release American release of the Sounds of Silence album Simon included April, Come She Will  on his British solo album The Paul Simon Songbook.  It was not available in the US until 1981 when it was included in a box set,  Paul Simon: Collected Works.

All of which begs the question—is it too early to trot out a second Simon and Garfunkel song for the Murfin Home Confinement Music Festival?  April, Come She Will is a Paul Simon tune off the duo’s second album Sounds of Silence in 1965.  As a single it was released as the B side of Scarborough Fair.  The song was also released as a solo that year on the British album The Paul Simon Songbook.  It got even more notice when it was included along with Mrs. Robinson and The Sounds of Silence on the soundtrack from The Graduate. 

The version we are sharing today comes from Simon And Garfunkel’s famed 1980 free Concert in Central Park before an audience of more than 500,000.  A double record live album of the concert on Columbia Records went triple platinum in sales.  The song featured Garfunkel’s soft tenor voice and Simon’s meticulous guitar work.