“Mrs. Robinson” by Simon and Garfunkel

"Mrs. Robinson" began as a scrap Paul Simon handed to director Mike Nichols for The Graduate, after Nichols had turned down 2 other songs, and the 1967 film only used fragments of it. Simon and Garfunkel finished the thing properly for Bookends, their fourth album, and Columbia put the full song out as a single in April 1968.

It's a jaunty, strummed folk-rock shuffle with a sly grin, Simon's guitar skipping along, Hal Blaine's drums nudging it forward and the two voices wrapped tight around each other. Simon, Garfunkel and Roy Halee produced it. Beneath the bounce sits a wistful nod to Joe DiMaggio. It became the duo's second chart-topper, and in 1969 it was the first rock song to take the Grammy for Record of the Year.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.