In 1967, Mike Nichols was working on his new film, The Graduate. He had heard Simon & Garfunkel music and decided that Paul Simon would be a good person to write the music for the film. Columbia agreed as they saw it as another profit avenue for the guys. The plot of the movie seemed to be perfect for Paul and Art, as it dealt with a young man (Dustin Hoffman) and an older woman, Mrs. Robinson, (Anne Bancroft) who flirts with him throughout the movie. The only problem with working on the movie would be that Paul had to adhere to specific schedules and deliver his music on time. Paul was used to taking his time and was known as something of a perfectionist.

Unfortunately, Paul never really came through. He did manage to put together the start of a song, and he mentioned it one day to Nichols. Nichols about blew a gasket, as you can imagine. “You have a song about Mrs. Robinson?” he asked incredulously. Paul admitted that he did, but it wasn’t actually about Mrs. Robinson; it was about Mrs. Roosevelt and Joe DiMaggio and wasn’t done yet.

In actuality, he had one line, “And here’s to you Joe DiMaggio/A Nation turns its lonely eyes to you.” That was it. Paul and Art continued to work on the song and finally changed the name to “Mrs. Robinson,” and everyone was happy. Mike Nichols reworked much of the music in the soundtrack so that the music appeared to be coming from the viewpoint of Benjamin Braddock (played by a young, unknown Dustin Hoffman.)

Unfortunately, while Paul did eventually finish “Mrs. Robinson,” the version that appears on the soundtrack is very anemic. To hear the song in its full glory, you need to listen to the version that ended up on the Bookends album.

“Mrs. Robinson debuted on the pop charts on May 4, 1968 and spent three weeks at number one.

Here is “Mrs. Robinson” from The Concert in Central Park which was held on September 19, 1981. It was a reunion concert for the pair.