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 In 1968, director Mike Nichols decided to make a movie of a novel called The Graduate, about a 1960s college student confused and alienated by the cultural and economic world around him. Accordingly, he approached the literate pop duo Simon & Garfunkel about
writing a score. Nichols showed parts of the film to the songwriter, but at first Simon was hard pressed to come up with the kind of material the director was looking for. "Overs" and "Punky's Dilemma," two songs Simon wrote specifically for the film, were rejected. The soundtrack eventually made use of earlier Simon & Garfunkel material-"The Sound Of Silence," "The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine," April Come She Will" and "Scarborough Fair."
"While I was writing a whole score for the film, Mike was using some of our existing material to fill in the places where the score was supposed to be," explained Simon. "And the more he lived with it, the more he decided that the material was absolutely appropriate. So the only new song that made it into there was 'Mrs. Robinson.'"
Remarkably, Simon had been working on what would become "Mrs. Robinson"-but not for The Graduate. He hadn't come up with a satisfactory title for what was intended to be a new Simon & Garfunkel single, so the two just filled in with three-syllable names that popped into their heads. And because of the character in the film, they began using the name Mrs. Robinson."One day we were sitting around with Mike talking about ideas for another song," recalled Garfunkel. "I said to Paul, 'What about "Mrs. Robinson"?' Mike shot to his feet: 'You have a song called "Mrs. Robinson" and you haven't even shown it to me?' So we explained the working
title and sang it for him. And then Mike froze it for the picture as 'Mrs. Robinson'."
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