Saturday, October 10, 2009

Did the Beatles Cover "Mrs. Robinson"?

No - not even during the Get Back/Let It Be sessions, where the Beatles performed several off-the-cuff versions of contemporary songs (e.g. The Lovin' Spoonful's "Daydream"). This question likely stems from people mistaking "Mrs. Robinson" for a Beatles song, when in fact it was written by Paul Simon and recorded by the duo Simon & Garfunkel. The only major connection of the Beatles to "Mrs. Robinson" is the fact that they lost two 1968 Grammy Awards to the song (they were nominated for "Hey Jude"). John Lennon appeared to have a less-than-flattering opinion of the group -- according to a studio engineer, when Simon visited Lennon in the studio for a jam session in 1974, Lennon stopped Simon from playing his guitar, saying he would signal for him to join in at the right moment. When this moment didn't come, Simon simply started playing, only to be stopped by Lennon. Annoyed after repetitions of this, Simon left the session. On his 1979 diary tape, Lennon refers to Simon as "the singing dwarf." The other Beatles treated Simon & Garfunkel more favorably. George Harrison played a duet with Simon on Saturday Night Live in 1976, and Paul McCartney has played a series of gigs with Simon over the past decade, including the Adopt-a-Minefield benefit in 2001.





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