fits and starts from late 1966 to early 1968. Although the album had long been planned, work did not begin in earnest until late 1967. The duo were signed under an older contract that specified the label pay for sessions, and Simon & Garfunkel took advantage of this, hiring viola and brass players and percussionists. The record's brevity reflects its concise and perfectionist production; the team spent over 50 hours recording "Punky's Dilemma", for example, and rerecorded vocal parts, sometimes note by note, until they were satisfied. Garfunkel's songs and voice took a lead role on some of the songs, and the harmonies for which the duo was known gradually disappeared. For Simon, Bookends represented the end of the collaboration and became an early indicator of his intentions to go solo. Prior to release, the band helped put together and performed at the Monterey Pop Festival, which signaled the beginning of the Summer of Love on the West Coast. "Fakin' It" was issued as a single that summer and found only modest success on AM radio; the duo were much more focused on the rising FM format, which played album tracks and treated their music with respect. In January 1968, the duo appeared on a Kraft Music Hall special, Three for Tonight, performing ten songs, largely taken from their previous album. Bookends was released by Columbia Records in April 1968, 24 hours before the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., which spurred nationwide outrage and riots. The album debuted on the Billboard Top LPs in the issue dated April 27, 1968, climbing to number one and staying at that position for seven non-consecutive weeks; it remained on the chart as a whole for 66 weeks. Bookends received such heavy orders weeks in advance of its release that Columbia was able to apply for award certification before copies left the warehouse, a fact it touted in magazine ads. The album became the duo's bestselling to date, helped by the attention for the Graduate soundtrack ten weeks earlier, creating an initial combined sales figure of over five million units. Davis had predicted this, and suggested raising the list price of Bookends by one dollar to $5.79, above the then standard retail price, to compensate for a large poster included in vinyl copies. Simon scoffed and viewed it as charging a premium on "what was sure to be that year's best-selling Columbia album".