"Mrs. Robinson" is a song written by Paul Simon and first performed by Simon and Garfunkel. When released as a single in 1968, it hit number one on the Hot 100 chart in the US, for their second chart-topping hit after "The Sounds of Silence". An early version of the song appeared in the motion picture The Graduate(1967) and its subsequent soundtrack, while the complete song debuted on their album Bookends(1968). The song earned the duo a Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 1969. Top session drummer Hal Blaine played on this. He considers it one of his favorites.

In the film The Graduate, listless recent college graduate Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) has an affair with an older married woman, Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft). The song as it appears in the film is different from the familiar hit single version, as only the chorus of the song appears multiple times throughout the second half of the film. It was only later on that Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel re-recorded the song by employing additional lyrics to form the hit single.

According to a Varietyarticle by Peter Bart in the May 15, 2005 issue , 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."

The film Rumor Has It...is based on the assumption that The Graduateis based on real events which become uncovered. The song "Mrs. Robinson" is featured in this film as well. Much of the last 20 minutes of Wayne's World 2parodies the final sequence of The Graduate, and the version of "Mrs. Robinson" from the film is heard multiple times in a similar scene in which Wayne rushes to get to a wedding. One line from the film version is also heard near the end of the film American Piewhen Stifler's mother seduces the young character Finch. The song also is used in the films Forrest Gump, My Mom's New Boyfriend, The Holidayand The Other Sister.

In early January 2010, after news of Iris Robinson (wife of Northern Ireland First Minister Peter Robinson) having an extramarital affair with the adult child of a family friend became public, a group was set up on Facebook attempting to get the song "Mrs. Robinson" to No.1 in the Official UK Singles Chart for that week via download sales. It received coverage in The Telegraphand other British media. It also received coverage in gay-related publications because of the anti-gay stand of Peter Robinson.

These lines in the last verse about Joe DiMaggio

– are perhaps the most discussed. Paul Simon, a fan of Mickey Mantle, was asked during an intermission on The Dick Cavett Showwhy Mantle wasn’t mentioned in the song instead of DiMaggio. Simon replied, "It's about syllables, Dick. It's about how many beats there are." For himself, DiMaggio initially complained that he had not gone anywhere, but soon dropped his complaints after a cordial meeting with Paul Simon when he explained what the lines meant. In a New York Timesop-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 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 "Mrs. Robinson" at Yankee Stadium in DiMaggio's honor in April of the same year.

"Nel blu dipinto di blu (Volare)" · "Mack the Knife" · "Theme from A Summer Place" · "Moon River" · "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" · "Days of Wine and Roses" · "The Girl from Ipanema" · "A Taste of Honey" · "Strangers in the Night" · "Up, Up and Away" · " Mrs. Robinson "

"Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" · "Bridge over Troubled Water" · "It's Too Late" · "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" · "Killing Me Softly with His Song" · "I Honestly Love You" · "Love Will Keep Us Together" · "This Masquerade" · "Hotel California" · "Just the Way You Are"

"What a Fool Believes" · "Sailing" · "Bette Davis Eyes" · "Rosanna" · "Beat It" · "What's Love Got to Do with It" · "We Are the World" · "Higher Love" · "Graceland" · "Don't Worry, Be Happy"

"Wind Beneath My Wings" · "Another Day in Paradise" · "Unforgettable" · "Tears in Heaven" · "I Will Always Love You" · "All I Wanna Do" · "Kiss from a Rose" · "Change the World" · "Sunny Came Home" · "My Heart Will Go On"

"Smooth" · "Beautiful Day" · "Walk On" · "Don't Know Why" · "Clocks" · "Here We Go Again" · "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" · "Not Ready to Make Nice" · "Rehab" · "Please Read the Letter"

"Use Somebody"