Mrs. Robinson

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"Mrs. Robinson"
"Mrs. Robinson" cover
Single by Simon and Garfunkel
from the album Bookends
Released April, 1968
Format 7" single
Recorded 1968
Genre Folk Rock
Length 3:50
Label Columbia Records
Writer(s) Paul Simon
Producer(s) Roy Halee, Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel
Chart positions
Simon and Garfunkel singles chronology
"Scarborough Fair/Canticle"
(1967)
"Mrs. Robinson"
(1968)
"The Boxer"
(1969)

"Mrs. Robinson" is a song written by Paul Simon and first performed by Simon and Garfunkel. When released as a single, it hit number one in the U.S., their second hit after The Sound of Silence. An early version of the song appears in the motion picture The Graduate (1967) and its subsequent soundtrack, while the complete song debuts on their album Bookends (1968).

"And here's to you, Mrs. Robinson,
Jesus loves you more than you will know"

In the film, listless recent college graduate Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) has an affair with an older married woman, Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft). The song was not completed for the film; only snippets are heard as incidental music. When the film and the music became popular, Paul Simon put the snippets together into a complete song.

According to a Variety article by Peter Bart in the May 15th, 2005 issue, The Graduate director Mike Nichols had become obsessed with Simon & Garfunkel's music while shooting the film. Larry Turman, his producer, made a deal for Simon to write three new songs for the movie. By the time they were nearly finished editing the film, Simon had only written one new song. Nichols begged him for more but Simon, who was touring constantly, told him he didn't have the time. He did play him a few notes of a new song he had been working on; "It's not for the movie... it's a song about times past — about Mrs. Roosevelt and Joe DiMaggio and stuff." Nichols advised Simon, "It's now about Mrs. Robinson, not Mrs. Roosevelt."

Audio sample: "Mrs. Robinson" (23 seconds)

The lines:

"Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?
Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you"

are perhaps the most memorable. Paul Simon, a fan of Mickey Mantle, was asked on The Dick Cavett Show by Mantle why he wasn’t mentioned in the song instead of DiMaggio. Simon replied, "It's about syllables, Mick. It's about how many beats there are."

For himself, DiMaggio initially complained that he hadn't gone anywhere, but soon dropped his complaints when he realized that he gained new fame with baby boomers because of the song.

In a New York Times editorial in March 1999, shortly after DiMaggio's death, Simon explained that the line was meant as a sincere tribute to DiMaggio's unpretentious heroic stature, in a time when popular culture magnifies and distorts how we perceive our heroes. He further reflected: "In these days of Presidential transgressions and apologies and prime-time interviews about private sexual matters, we grieve for Joe DiMaggio and mourn the loss of his grace and dignity, his fierce sense of privacy, his fidelity to the memory of his wife and the power of his silence." Simon subsequently performed a live version of Mrs. Robinson at Yankee Stadium in DiMaggio's honor in April of the same year.

The song was used in the 1999 film American Pie, in a scene with similar younger man/older woman overtones to the original scenes in The Graduate.

The song is also used briefly in the movie "Rumor Has It..." (2005), which is loosely a sequel to The Graduate.

[edit] Cover versions

  • Frank Sinatra covered a tongue-in-cheek version of this song for his 1969 album My Way. This version changes a number of lines, including replacing "Jesus" with "Jilly" (Sinatra's close bartender friend) and including a new verse directly referring to Mrs. Robinson's activities in The Graduate:
The PTA, Mrs. Robinson,
Won't okay the way you do your thing
Ding ding ding.
And you'll get yours, Mrs. Robinson,
Foolin' with that young stuff like you do
Boo hoo hoo, woo woo woo.
  • A notable cover version of this song was recorded and charted by the '90s musical group Lemonheads. This version can be heard in a scene in American Pie 2, featuring two characters similar to those in the original movie; it is also used in Wayne's World 2 in scenes spoofing Wayne's rush to the church. some small parts from the Simon & Garfunkel version also appear in the movie.
  • Soul band Booker T & the MG's also made a cover version of the song, but was never released as a single. Their version of the song is without vocals.
  • Stadium rockers Bon Jovi recorded the song on one of their live performances. The song was included on the limited edition bonusdisc of their 1995 These Days album.
  • The film Forest Gump uses the song to transport the listener to the '50's.
Preceded by
"Tighten Up" by Archie Bell & the Drells
Billboard Hot 100 number one single
June 1, 1968
Succeeded by
"This Guy's in Love with You" by Herb Alpert

[edit] External links

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