In March 1971, she released her self-titled debut album, "Carly Simon." This album contained her breakthrough top-ten hit, "That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be." The song peaked at No. Simon became a solo artist and was signed to Elektra Records in 1970. They made one more album together in 1969, "The Simon Sisters Sing the Lobster Quadrille and Other Songs for Children" before Lucy left the group to get married and start a family. They were signed to Kapp Records in 1964 and released two albums that year, starting with "Meet The Simon Sisters." They had a minor hit with the lead single "Winkin', Blinkin', and Nod." Their second album "Cuddlebug" quickly followed. Simon began her career with a short-lived music group, the Simon Sisters, with her sister Lucy. Simon suffered from a severe stutter when she was eight years old and she turned to singing and songwriting.Īfter graduating from Riverdale Country School, she briefly attended Sarah Lawrence College before dropping out to pursue her music career. Carly and her two elder sisters and younger brother grew up in the Riverdale neighborhood of the Bronx. Her mother, Andrea Heinemann Simon, was a civil rights activist and singer. Her father was Richard Simon, co-founder of Simon & Schuster. Dick Ebersol, president of NBC Sports, placed the highest bid, becoming Simon’s lucky confidant.Carly Simon was born in the Bronx borough of New York City on June 25, 1945. The only caveat was the winner would keep the revelation to themselves. At the Martha’s Vineyard Possible Dreams charity auction in 2003, Simon promised to reveal the identity of the subject-or subjects-to the highest bidder.
But remaining on brand, she told People, “Warren thinks the whole thing is about him!”Īccording to the artist and her slow-burning response to the age-old question, there are two other men who served as muses for the two remaining verses of the hit song.
In addition to that clarity, Simon also revealed that Beatty isn’t the only sorry subject of the song. After staying over with the award-winning actor, Simon told her therapist about the evening to which the therapist responded “All I’ll say is, you’re not the only patient of mine who spent the night last night with Warren Beatty.” In her 2015 memoir, Boys in the Trees, Simon shares an intimate anecdote to illustrate Beatty for her readers. Guesses ranged from Warren Beatty, Mick Jagger, Kris Kristofferson, Jack Nicholson, and Cat Stevens-all previous flings.įinally, after 43 years, Simon admitted to People Magazine in 2015 that “the second verse is Warren.” Their fleeting New York City romance is summed up in the following lines: You had me several years ago when I was still quite naive / Well you said that we made such a pretty pair/ And that you would never leave / But you gave away the things you loved and one of them was me / I had some dreams, they were clouds in my coffee. In 1972, a blossoming singer-songwriter, Carly Simon, began a decades-long guessing game with her hit single, “You’re So Vain.” The critical, but cryptic retrospect of a self-absorbed past lover ironically comes from her third studio album, No Secrets.įor years, fans and media pressed the artist about the infamous hook: You’re so vain / You probably think this song is about you.