"Mrs. Robinson" is a song by American folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel from their fourth studio album, Bookends (1968).

Simon & Garfunkel reached national fame in the United States in 1965–66, touring colleges and releasing a string of hit singles and albums.

[2][3] After two weeks of this obsession, he met with Columbia Records chairman Clive Davis to ask for permission to license Simon & Garfunkel music for his film.

[4] Simon was not as immediately receptive, viewing movies as akin to "selling out", but he agreed to write at least one or two new songs for the film after being impressed by Nichols' wit and the script.

[4] Leonard Hirshan, a powerful agent at William Morris, negotiated a deal that paid Simon $25,000 to submit three songs to Nichols and producer Lawrence Turman.

[5] Nichols asked if the duo had any more songs to offer, and after a break from the meeting, they returned with an early version of "Mrs. Robinson".

A louder and punchier bass drum is present on the promo mix, which was done to accommodate for the limited dynamic range produced by AM radio.

[14] In a New York Times op-ed in March 1999, shortly after DiMaggio's death, Simon discussed this meeting and explained that the line was meant as a sincere tribute to DiMaggio's unpretentious and modest 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".

[14] Simon subsequently performed "Mrs. Robinson" at Yankee Stadium in DiMaggio's honor (leaving out the second verse).

Instead, they shot a video for the show set to the music that consisted of them "romping around Yankee Stadium", a reference to the song's lyrics concerning DiMaggio.

[12] Since "Mrs. Robinson" was not written specifically for The Graduate, it was deemed ineligible for the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

[45] American alternative rock band the Lemonheads recorded a punk-inflected cover version of this song in 1992 that made it to No.

In Ireland and the United Kingdom, where the song also reached the top 20, "Mrs. Robinson" was released as a double A-side with "Being Around".

[49] The band's frontman, Evan Dando, later told American Songwriter that he "hated" the song as well as its author and that its recording was only to promote a 25th anniversary home video release of The Graduate.

It plays as an homage to The Graduate, in a scene in which Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) spots the much younger Pussycat (Margaret Qualley).