The Graduate soundtrack

The Graduate soundtrack was released on January 21, 1968 on Columbia Masterworks, produced by Teo Macero, pairing five Simon & Garfunkel recordings with instrumental cues composed and performed by Dave Grusin^[1]. The album reached number one on the Billboard 200^[1].

Director Mike Nichols assembled the soundtrack almost by accident. He had been listening to Simon & Garfunkel's records every morning in the shower while preparing the film, and realized partway through that their music matched the alienation of his story about a drifting young college graduate^[2]. When he asked for an original, upbeat song for a driving scene late in the film, Paul Simon offered an unfinished rhythmic sketch that would become "Mrs. Robinson," completed with only its chorus ready by the time the movie needed it^[2]. The soundtrack's two versions of the song are both different from the fully finished recording that later appeared on Simon & Garfunkel's own album, Bookends^[1].

The project paid off for everyone involved. Simon and Grusin shared the 1969 Grammy Award for Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture, while "Mrs. Robinson" separately won Record of the Year, becoming the first rock and roll recording to take that prize^[1].