Bookends is the fourth
studio album by American music duo
Simon & Garfunkel.
Produced by
Paul Simon,
Roy Halee and
Art Garfunkel, the album was released on April 3, 1968 in the United States by
Columbia Records. The duo had risen to fame two years prior with hit albums such as
Sounds of Silence and
Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, radio singles, and touring colleges. In 1967, Simon was approached by director
Mike Nichols to write songs for his next film,
The Graduate. Released several weeks prior to
Bookends,
the soundtrack album propelled the band further into stardom.