"April Come She Will" is a song by American music duo

Simon & Garfunkel Simon & Garfunkel were an American folk rock duo comprising the singer-songwriter Paul Simon and the singer Art Garfunkel. They were one of the best-selling music acts of the 1960s. Their most famous recordings include three US number-one sing ...

from their second

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

, '' Sounds of Silence'' (1966). It originally appeared on the solo album ''

The Paul Simon Songbook ''The Paul Simon Songbook'' is the debut solo studio album by Paul Simon. It was released in the UK in 1965. It was made available in the US as part of the LP box set ''Paul Simon: Collected Works'' (1981). The album was produced by Reginald War ...

''. It is the B-side to the hit single " Scarborough Fair/Canticle". It is included on ''The Graduate'' soundtrack album and was additionally released on the "Mrs. Robinson" EP in 1968, together with three other songs from ''

The Graduate ''The Graduate'' is a 1967 American independent romantic comedy-drama film directed by Mike Nichols and written by Buck Henry and Calder Willingham, based on the 1963 novella by Charles Webb. It stars Dustin Hoffman as Benjamin Braddoc ...

'' film: " Mrs. Robinson", " Scarborough Fair/Canticle", and " The Sound of Silence".

Background and composition

The song was written in 1964 while

Paul Simon Paul Frederic Simon (born October 13, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter known for his solo work and his collaborations with Art Garfunkel. He and Garfunkel, whom he met in elementary school in 1953, came to prominence in the 1960s as Sim ...

was in England. Its lyrics use the changing nature of the seasons as a metaphor for a girl's changing moods. The inspiration for the song was a girl that Simon met and the nursery rhyme she used to recite, "Cuckoo". James Hardy lists regional variations to this folk rhyme about the Cuckoo - and the one closest to the lyrics is from

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

In April, come I will
In May, I prepare to stay
In June, I change my tune the call changes in June">Common cuckoo#Voice and courting">the call changes in Junebr>In July, I prepare to fly
In August, go I must uckoos migrate to Africa/blockquote>It is the shortest song on the album. The song is composed in the key of
G major G major is a major scale based on G (musical note), G, with the pitches G, A (musical note), A, B (musical note), B, C (musical note), C, D (musical note), D, E (musical note), E, and F♯ (musical note), F. Its key signature has one sharp (music ...
, sounding as A major with the capo on the 2nd fret, with Art Garfunkel's vocal range spanning from D₃ to D₄.

Release and reception
In the February 1968 release of the
soundtrack A soundtrack is a recorded audio signal accompanying and synchronised to the images of a book, drama, motion picture, radio program, television show, television program, or video game; colloquially, a commercially released soundtrack album of m ...
for the movie ''
The Graduate ''The Graduate'' is a 1967 American independent romantic comedy-drama film directed by Mike Nichols and written by Buck Henry and Calder Willingham, based on the 1963 novella by Charles Webb. It stars Dustin Hoffman as Benjamin Braddoc ...
'', the song appeared (in a different version) as the seventh track. It is featured in a pool scene in the movie and was used as a rhythmic guide for the editing of the film. Reviews for the song were generally positive. Matthew Greenwald of
Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...
wrote: "The sense of yearning in this song would later be beautifully echoed in one of the Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme masterpieces, " For Emily, Wherever I May Find Her." Like that song, it is very brief, yet the shortness of the song adds to the effectiveness and economy of both the lyric and melody."

In popular culture
Excerpts feature throughout the Korean drama Angel Eyes (TV series). It is the favorite song of the female lead Yoon Soo-wan ( Koo Hye-sun) and is the ringtone for the phone of the male lead Park Dong-joo ( Lee Sang-yoon) on his return to
South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...
. Part of the song was featured in Season 23, Episode 18 of
The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening, James L. Brooks and Sam Simon for the Fox Broadcasting Company. It is a Satire (film and television), satirical depiction of American life ...
, Beware My Cheating Bart. Conversely, the musical segment featured a visual gag referencing the poster of the 1967 film,
The Graduate ''The Graduate'' is a 1967 American independent romantic comedy-drama film directed by Mike Nichols and written by Buck Henry and Calder Willingham, based on the 1963 novella by Charles Webb. It stars Dustin Hoffman as Benjamin Braddoc ...
, for which Simon & Garfunkel provided the soundtrack. In the 2000s, the song was also featured in an episode of Parks and Recreation and one of The Mindy Project.

References

Bibliography
*

External links

April Come She Will , The Paul Simon Official Site
{{authority control 1966 songs Songs written by Paul Simon Simon & Garfunkel songs