Carly Simon’s 1972 hit single, “You’re So Vain,” is an invariable part of her musical legacy. But for a brief moment in the early 1970s, it was hardly a complete thought—a quick scribble hiding in the back of one of Simon’s notebooks that could have just as easily faded into obscurity or in the billowing clouds in her coffee.
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Of course, to save the idea from the back of a notebook wasn’t enough on its own. Simon also took inspiration from conversations she was having around the time…and, naturally, from relationships with certain someones while she was still quite naive.
The Chaos and Conversation That Led To “You’re So Vain”
During a conversation with Dan Rather for “The Big Interview,” the soft-rock icon Carly Simon talked about her creative process, which, in a word, is “chaos.” She said she always found greater inspiration and motivation to write when she was in loud, bustling environments, like waiting for a train at Grand Central Station in New York City. Whenever she tried to write in a quiet, calm environment at her desk, nothing would come to mind. Moreover, she preferred keeping scraps of ideas, no matter how disorganized, on the off-chance that she would encounter the idea again and be able to expand on it.
Such was the case for a scrawling note she wrote in the very back of a notebook in the early 1970s. “You’re so vain, you probably think this song is about you.” Speaking to Rather, Simon said, “I just had that for a long time. I even forgot that I had it, and I had no idea what it was going to go to or what it was going to relate to. Then, maybe six months later, my sister, Joanna, was giving a party, and there was somebody who walked into the party, and a friend of mine said to me, ‘Doesn’t he look like he’s just walking onto a yacht?’”
Simon knew that sentence had legs, so she quickly wrote it down to revisit later. This line would serve as the opening to “You’re So Vain,” which Simon released as the lead single to her third studio album, No Secrets. The soft-rock diss track was a hit, topping the charts in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. It also garnered Simon multiple Grammy nominations, including Song of the Year, Record of the Year, and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.
How A 1972 Song Prompted Decades Of Speculation
Part of the allure of Carly Simon’s 1972 hit, “You’re So Vain,” is that everybody knows somebody who the song describes. The person who makes you roll your eyes, even if only in your head, because of how much better they think they are than everyone around them. And naturally, since Simon rubbed elbows with some of the most famous musicians and actors in the world, everyone was dying to know who that person was to Simon. Some said it was about James Taylor. Others speculated it was about Mick Jagger.
Simon kept the inspiration for her biting song under wraps for decades, which only fueled the speculative flames further. Eventually, she admitted that the second verse was about her former boyfriend, Warren Beatty. You had me several years ago when I was still quite naive. 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.
The songwriter has yet to identify the inspirations behind the first and third verses, which are arguably just as cutting. Speaking to People in 2015, Simon said she wasn’t sure she would ever reveal who she wrote those verses about. “At least until they know it’s about them,” Simon said. As to whether she has imminent plans to tell those people? “I don’t know if I’ll do it.”
Thus, the mystery continues, much to Simon’s bafflement. “Why do they want to know?” Simon asked People. “It’s so crazy!”
Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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