Carly Simon | Biography, Songs, You’re So Vain, Mockingbird, & Facts (2024)

FAQs

Who is the song you're so vain written about? ›

discussed in biography. “You're So Vain,” like the album No Secrets, reached number one on the Billboard chart in 1973. She eventually revealed the subject of the song to be actor Warren Beatty. She had a major hit with her album Hotcakes (1974), which included “Haven't Got Time…

Bob Dylan once “re-wrote” a song for her.

The song in question was “Baby, Let Me Follow You Down,” and Simon attempted to record it with Albert Grossman and an unnamed producer whose identity could probably be worked out with a bit of effort.

It's “I had some dreams, they were clouds in my coffee.” In other words, they were just dreams - illusory, not real, they disappeared. It's a metaphor, like saying “pie in the sky.” It means the dreams are not achieved.

Her father, Richard L. Simon, was the co-founder of Simon & Schuster and a classical pianist who often played Chopin and Beethoven at home. Her mother, Andrea (née Heinemann), was a civil rights activist and singer. Her father was from a German-Jewish family, while her mother was Catholic.

In 1972, Simon told an interviewer that the song was about "men", not a specific man. In 1983, she said it was not about Mick Jagger, who contributed uncredited backing vocals to the song.

Carly Simon's song "You're So Vain" includes the lyric "You had one eye in the mirror as you watched yourself gavotte". In this context it means "moving in a pretentious manner".

One of the myths the book debunks about Carly Simon is that she was born rich and as a result success arrived easily, with no more effort than it took to ring the maid's bell. After all, her father, Richard Simon, was one of the founders of the publishing powerhouse, Simon and Schuster.

While most of her early songs were written by Simon but several were co-written such as the 1974 song “Haven't Got Time for the Pain” co-written with writer Jacob Brackman.

In March 1963, Cherokee folk singer Karen Dalton made a collection of home recordings. Following her death in 1993 they were released posthumously by Delmore Recording Society on the 2008 album Green Rocky Road. In his autobiography, Chronicles, Bob Dylan wrote "My favorite singer...was Karen Dalton.

The two singer-songwriters married in 1972, a year after their relationship began, and welcomed two children. They divorced in 1983 and no longer speak.

Is You're So Vain a breakup song? ›

While the song is a tell-off, the strength of "You're So Vain" lies in its female-centered narrative which, at the time, was novel for the way it contended with the shame and anger of a breakup.

Mick Jagger sang the instantly identifiable backing vocal. Throughout the years Simon has refused to say publicly who exactly “You're So Vain” was written about and has sometimes said that it was a composite of several different men.

She and Simon have been friends since the age of eight, and this likely accounts for Simon being able to approach a girl in such a different social circle. Generally, Carli is quite shallow and has little romantic interest in Simon but uses his obvious infatuation to her own advantage.

James Taylor and Carly Simon were married from 1972 to 1983. They were married for 11 years before they divorced in 1983. The couple, both successful musicians, had two children together during their marriage: Sarah Maria Taylor and Benjamin Simon Taylor.

Simon grew up in New York, where her father was a founder of the publishing house Simon & Schuster. “People think I'm an heiress,” she said, pointing out that she had inherited just $60,000 of the million dollars her father received for his stake in the company.

After a 15-year absence, he returned to the big screen with Rules Don't Apply (2016), about the relationship between an aspiring actress and her driver, both of whom work for Howard Hughes. In addition to starring as the eccentric millionaire, Beatty also wrote and directed the romance.

James's daughter Sally Taylor has spent the past 2 years curating the work of 130 artists from every discipline across the world. The CONSENSES project aims to demystify elitism in art, help artists build audiences, inspire creativity, support community and promote peace & equality across cultures.

After Carly Simon, James Taylor married actress Kathryn Walker in late 1985. Walker helped him fight his heroin addiction, but they ultimately divorced in 1996. In 1995, James began dating Caroline 'Kim' Smedvig, the director of public relations and marketing for the Boston Symphony Orchestra.