While Carly Simon originally recorded her 1972 hit “You’re So Vain” for her album No Secrets, Harry Nilsson was on board, singing backing vocals before he passed it on to Mick Jagger.
“He [Nilsson] knew the chemistry was between me and Mick; in terms of the singing,” recalled Simon in 1995. “So he sort of bowed out and said, ‘The two of you have a real blend. You should do it yourselves.’”
Jagger was invited to sing on the track, and his vocals are more prominent during the chorus of “You’re So Vain.”
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Soon after its release, the rumour started that “You’re So Vain” was written about Jagger and their brief affair, though she denied the song was ever about him in a 1983 interview with the Washington Post.
“No,” Simon simply said when asked if the song was about Jagger. “Mick is that genius of an artist who thrives on the dark and the daring,” said Simon, adding that the time spent their evenings at the studio where he was recording and other nights at the Portobello Hotel, which she called “dangerous and conspicuous.” She added, “And you could say that the love affair between us that appeared to be brewing contained both of those things.”
Simon later revealed that the song wasn’t about one specific man, in particular, but several “men” whom she encountered. Some also believed that “You’re So Vain” was about the young man, “Jamie,” whom Simon first met while growing up in Martha’s Vineyard, and who would become her future husband, James Taylor, but she also denied it was about him.
Could it have been other dalliances in Simon’s life—Kris Kristofferson, Jack Nicholson, David Geffen, and so on? Were they the other “Vain” in Simon’s classic?
[RELATED: The Song Kris Kristofferson Wrote for Carly Simon During Their Brief Romance]
“E,” “A,” “R,” and Warren Beatty
Warren Beatty, with whom Simon had a brief affair during the early 1970s, was also one of the rumored subjects of the song, which Simon denied at first in ’83. “It certainly sounds like it was about Warren Beatty,” said Simon at the time. “He certainly thought it was about him. He called me and said, ‘Thanks for the song.’”
Simon first met Beatty while she was on tour with Cat Stevens in 1971 and was instantly seduced by the actor. “As he saw there was no one else around, he closed the door,” wrote Simon. “He got very close to me, looked into my face, and looked down at my breasts, braless and curved bravely in an insinuating shape under my chamois shirt. He said: ‘Can I see you?’ ”
She continued, “What a glorious specimen of man. He put them all to shame, if looks and charm were what you were after. He homed in like a tracking dog.”
In August 2003, Simon started revealing some clues about one of her other inspirations in the song, revealing only the letter “E” at first as part of he person’s name. She also revealed the person or persons in the song to NBC Sports president Dick Ebersol, after he made a $50,000 donation during the Martha’s Vineyard Possible Dreams charity auction. Ebersol agreed to never reveal the name, or names.
A year later, Simon also revealed that along with the letter “E,” the one name also included an “A” and an “R,” which would have eliminated other rumored “Vain” subjects, including David Bowie and David Cassidy, among others.
While promoting her 2015 memoir Boys in the Trees, and 43 years after the release of “You’re So Vain,” Simon finally admitted that the second verse was about Beatty.
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, clouds in my coffee, and
You’re so vain
“Warren thinks the whole thing is about him,” Simon told People in 2015.
Simon’s cryptic lyrics only helped turn No Secrets into a success, topping the Billboard 200 chart with “You’re So Vain,” giving Simon her first No. 1 hit.
Today, more than five decades since its release, there are still few clues about the other two self-absorbed individuals in Simon’s classic, including the apricot-scarf wearing, gavote-ing one that entered a room like he was walking onto a yacht, or the other who went up to Saratoga, had a winning horse, and flew their lear jet to Nova Scotia.
When asked if she would ever reveal the two, Simon added, “I don’t think so, at least until they know it’s about them.”
Citing her opening line, and the first subject of “You’re So Vain”—You walked into the party like you were walking onto a yacht—Simon added, “Probably, if we were sitting over at dinner and I said, ‘Remember that time you walked into the party and…. I don’t know if I’ll do it. I never thought I would admit that it was more than one person.”
Photo: Jack Robinson/Condé Nast via Getty Images
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