The Lemonheads - Mrs. Robinson

What this video is

Released in 1992 during the peak of alternative rock's mainstream crossover, The Lemonheads' cover of Simon & Garfunkel's 1968 classic 'Mrs. Robinson' was originally recorded to promote a 25th-anniversary home video release of The Graduate. The single became one of the band's most commercially successful releases, charting in the US, UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand, and was later added to the expanded…

Why it matters

A landmark artifact of early-90s alternative rock's mainstream moment, this video exemplifies the genre's capacity to reclaim and reframe canonical pop-cultural material. The Lemonheads' loose, high-energy arrangement strips away the original's orchestral sophistication while the video's Graduate…

The director

Jesse Peretz (born May 19, 1968, Cambridge, MA) is a co-founder and original bassist of The Lemonheads (1986–1989) who transitioned to music video and feature film directing. He directed all six videos from It's a Shame About Ray (1992). Later credits…