Carly Simon was one of the most popular of the confessional
singer/songwriters who emerged in the early '70s. The youngest child in an
upper-class New York family (her
father,
Richard Simon, co-founded the Simon and Schuster publishing company),
Carly Simon got her start in music as part of a duo with her sister
Lucy (who later wrote the music for the Broadway show The Secret Garden).
The Simon Sisters had a chart single with "Winkin' Blinkin' and Nod" in
April 1964. But
Carly Simon's solo debut did not come until the release of her self-titled first
album in February 1971. It contained her first solo hit, "That's the Way I've
Always Heard It Should Be," an anti-marriage song co-written with
Jacob Brackman that reached the Top Ten.
Carly Simon's second album, Anticipation (November 1971) (which went gold in two
years), contained a Top 40 follow-up in the title song, and she won the 1971
Grammy Award for Best New Artist. Her third album, the gold number-one No
Secrets (November 1972), was produced by
Richard Perry and contained the gold number-one hit "You're So Vain," which
aroused speculation about its subject.
Mick Jagger, one of those suggested, sang backup on the recording. "The
Right Thing to Do," a second single from the album, made the Top 40.
Carly Simon married fellow singer/songwriter
James Taylor in November 1972. (They divorced in 1983.) Her fourth album,
the Top Ten Hotcakes (January 1974), contained a gold Top Ten remake of the
Inez and Charlie Foxx hit "Mockingbird" sung with
Taylor and the Top Ten hit "Haven't Got Time for the Pain"; it became her
third consecutive gold LP. Playing Possum (April 1975), containing the Top 40
hit "Attitude Dancing," was another Top Ten LP.
Carly Simon's sixth album, Another Passenger (June 1976), was a relative
commercial disappointment. But in 1977, she sang "Nobody Does It Better," the
theme song for the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me, resulting in a gold Top
Ten hit. Her seventh album, Boys in the Trees (April 1978), was a
million-selling success, buoyed by the Top Ten hit "You Belong to Me" and a Top
40 duet cover of "Devoted to You" with
Taylor.
Carly Simon's eighth and ninth albums, Spy (June 1979) and Come Upstairs (June
1980), were less successful, though the latter contained the gold Top 40 hit
"Jesse."
In October 1980,
Carly Simon collapsed of exhaustion on-stage, after which her concert appearances
became rare. Her next album, Torch (September 1981), was given over to pre- and
non-rock covers. In 1982,
Carly Simon scored a Top Ten U.K. hit with "Why," a song produced by the disco
group
Chic from the movie Soup for One. In 1983, she returned to the U.K. Top 40
as the uncredited singer on the Will Powers (Lynn
Goldsmith) satire "Kissing With Confidence."
Carly Simon's career in the U.S. was in decline, however, as the albums Hello Big
Man (September 1983) and Spoiled Girl (July 1985) were poor sellers. She
returned to the Top 40 in 1986 with another movie theme, "Coming Around Again,"
from Heartburn (the Coming Around Again LP [March 1987] went platinum) and had
yet another movie-related hit with the Grammy- and Oscar-winning "Let the River
Run" from the film Working Girl in 1988. In 1990,
Carly Simon released both My Romance (March), another album of pop covers, and
Have You Seen Me Lately? (September), an album of original songs. She scored the
film This Is My Life in 1992. In 1993,
Carly Simon's "family opera," Romulus Hunt, premiered and was released on record.
1994 brought the release of a new album, Letters Never Sent (November), and a
three-CD/cassette box set retrospective, Clouds in My Coffee 1965-1995, appeared
in November 1995. Film Noir followed two years later, and in the spring of 2000
Carly Simon returned with her first record of original material in six years, The
Bedroom Tapes. In 2002 she released Christmas Is Almost Here, a collection of
holiday-themed material, followed by another collection of new material,
Moonlight Serenade, in 2005. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
Contact Grabow for more information or to book
Carly Simon for your next corporate or private event.
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