Track Listing

1. Sound Of Silence
2. Singleman Party Foxtrot
3. Mrs Robinson
4. Sunporch Cha Cha Cha
5. Scarborough Fair/Canticle
6. On The Strip
7. April Come She Will
8. Folks
9. Scarborough Fair/Canticle (2)
10. Great Effect
11. Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine
12. Whew

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #30061 in Music
• Released on: 1994-01-31
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Soundtrack

Amazon.co.uk Review
Pop-folk duo Simon and Garfunkel were two years away from making one of the best-selling albums ever, 1970's Bridge Over Troubled Water, when they contributed to the songs to The Graduate, and so kick-started the rise of the song-based soundtrack and soundtrack album. Previously, there had been musicals, title songs and then more contemporary pop musicals (such as The Beatles's Help) but The Graduate used Paul Simon's songs to comment on the action of a contemporary dramatic comedy. "The Sound Of Silence" and "Mrs Robinson" remain two of the best pop songs ever written, while "Scarborough Fair Canticle" has a madrigal-like beauty. The album also features the instrumental score by Dave Grusin. His witty, strongly crafted music is largely inspired by such 20's and 30's dances as the foxtrot and cha-cha, used in the film to comment ironically on the generation-gap theme. Although Grusin has since had great success with his jazz piano based score for The Firm, and Paul Simon later scored his own film, One Trick Pony, The Graduate remains Simon, Garfunkel and Grusin's classic contribution to cinema history, and the album one of the most important soundtracks ever issued. --Gary S. Dalkin

CD Description
The soundtrack to Mike Nichols' 1967 masterpiece, THE GRADUATE, alternates between Paul Simon's songs and pieces of Dave Grusin's deliberately naff Swingin' Sixties score. All of the former, with the exception of "Mrs. Robinson" and a negligible solo acoustic guitar rendition of "Scarborough Fair/Canticle", are available on Simon and Garfunkel's earlier albums.
Similar to Nelson Riddle's self-parodic work on Stanley Kubrick's LOLITA, Grusin's instrumentals have a satiric edge that comments on the film's action. On their own, especially to one unfamiliar with the film, they sound like deadpan parodies of the worst excesses of pseudo-hip Hollywood, especially the hilariously out-of-it "On the Strip", the background for the scene where Benjamin and Elaine make the Sunset Strip freak scene. It sounds so much like the theme to one of Chuck Barris's game shows that the disconnect has to beintentional.

Customer Reviews

The sound of silence
The Graduate is one of my favourite films and I think one of the things that makes this film so good is the soundtrack.

This is a combined soundtrack between three artists, the main songs coming from Simon and Garfunkel, with additional material from a great jazz composer, David Grusin.

Simon and Garfunkel are one of my favourite groups. Their voices compliment each other perfectly and I think that Paul Simon is one of the greatest songwriters of our age. He has an ear for melody and certainly has his finger on the pulse when it comes to making music.

On this album are the classic songs 'The Sound of Silence', 'Scarborough fair', 'April come she will' as well two short versions of 'Mrs Robinson', the full track of the song was recorded at a later date.

David Grusin's part in the soundtrack was to make all the incidental music, such as music for the party and other 'background' music. This soundtrack really shows off his talent for writing songs in different styles, from the fluidity of 'Singleman Party Foxtrot' to the 60's funked-up jazzof 'on the strip'.

All in all this is one of the best soundtracks ever recorded, it takes you to another time, to a time of flower power, freedom and sexual revolution. A classic book, a classic film and a classic album.

Hey, SONY-you need to Remaster THE GRADUATE, too...
this album exists on its own terms in reference to the film, and as such deserves the full respect of all the other S&G titles.
It captures and conveys quite well the hopeful, bittersweet mood of the day, as the peace movement was burgeoning, and though the films avoids openly showing the contemporary actions of the era, the mood and energy just reeks thru the narrative;
The 'extended' version of SCARBOROUGH FAIR/CANTICLE is a gem in and of itself, because of the emotional connection it has to the film. Likewise, we have 2 versions of SOUNDS OF SILENCE, and APRIL COME SHE WILL.
There is a stillborn version of MRS ROBINSON, not a song I enjoy, but it is at its correct length for its purpose; A longer version came out later;
All in all, to complete the LEGACY series, SONY needs to put this out, with any collectable bits that might be lying about;

a mixed CD
I must admit to being disapointed by this CD, when I bought it I was under the impression that it was a Simon and Garfunkle album, unfortunatly it's not. About half of the CD is S&G whilst the other half is incidental music from the film. Whilst I have no objection to that sort of music I find that the lternation of fok and foxtrot slightly grating at times.

However where this album is good it is grate. Sound O Silence, Canticle and April comes she will rank in my oppinion amongst Simon and Garfunkle's best, and whilst I found the two incomplete versions of Mrs Robinson anoying at first I am very much warming to them the more I listen to this record.

So overall I find this record to be good value and a good listen, but it is deffinatly slightly flawed.