NOVEMBER 1972 (42 YEARS AGO) Carly Simon: Youre So Vain b/w His Friends Are More Than Fond Of Robin (Elektra EK-45824) 45 single is released in the US. Youre So Vain is a song written and performed by Carly Simon and released in November 1972. The song is a critical profile of a self-absorbed lover; Simon asserts Youre so vain, you probably think this song is about you. The subjects identity has long been the matter of speculation. The song is ranked at #72 on Billboards Greatest Songs of All-Time. Youre So Vain was voted #216 in RIAAs Songs of the Century. It remains Simons biggest hit and is considered her signature song. Before the song became a hit single in 1972 Simon told an interviewer that the song was about men not a specific man. In 1983, she told The Washington Post that it is not about Mick Jagger, who contributed uncredited backing vocals to the song. However, in a 1993 book Backstage Passes, Angela Bowie claimed to be the wife of a close friend mentioned in Youre So Vain, and that Jagger, for a time, had been obsessed with her. Simon made another comment about the subjects identity as a guest artist on Janet Jacksons 2001 single, Son of a Gun (I Betcha Think This Song Is About You), which sampled Youre So Vain. About the song, Simon said, The apricot scarf was worn by Nick (Nolte). Nothing in the words were referred to Mick. In a 1989 interview, Simon acknowledged that the song is a little bit about Warren Beatty but said the subject of the song is a composite of three men from her L.A. days. In a 2007 interview, Beatty said, Lets be honest. That song was about me. Simon has said that Beatty had called and thanked her for the song. Over the years, Simon has divulged letter clues, and has claimed that the subjects name contains the letters A, E, and R. Shortly before the writing of the song, Simon was married to James Taylor; she has said that he was definitely not the subject of the song. David Bowie, David Cassidy and Cat Stevens have all been cited by the press as speculative candidates. In August 2003, Simon agreed to reveal the name of the songs subject to the highest bidder of the Marthas Vineyard Possible Dreams charity auction. With the top bid of $50,000, Dick Ebersol, president of NBC Sports and a friend of Simon, won the right to know the name of the person Youre So Vain was written about. Ebersol was given a private performance of the song at Simons home and Simon whispered the name into his ear. A condition of the prize was that Ebersol would not reveal the person to anyone. Ebersol said that Simon allowed him to divulge a clue about the persons name: Carly told me that I could offer up to the entire world, a clue as to what shell tell me when we have this night in about two weeks. And the clue is: The letter E is in the persons name. Although Simon, at times, had suggested that the subject of the song was a composite of several people, the clue she allowed Ebersol to reveal was a letter in the persons name, implying the subject is one person. Several days after the identity of Watergate-era press source Deep Throat was revealed in May/June 2005, Simon joked to USA Today that the song was about Mark Felt, revealing himself as the source and referring to the 1999 film Dick depicting the scandal that used the song in the ending credits. On November 4, 2009, while being interviewed on WNYCs Soundcheck, Simon revealed that she had hidden the name of the subject in a certain version of the song. The next day, the programs crew revealed the name concealed in a back-played whisper: David. However, Simon has denied that the whisper was David, saying she has spoken Ovid both forwards and backwards, and that sounded like David. On June 19, 2008, Howard Stern claimed Simon privately revealed whom the song was written about to him after her interview on his popular radio show heard on Sirius Satellite Radio. Stern commented, There is an odd aspect to it ... hes not that vain. On March 17, 2009 on his Sirius Satellite Radio program, Stern, recalling that Simon had told him whom the song was written about, claimed that Simon said it was a composite of three people. In her 2008 book, Girls Like Us, author Sheila Weller includes a detailed account of Simons love affair with musician Dan Armstrong, and suggests that he was the inspiration for Youre So Vain. Simon dated Armstrong for about two years, the relationship ending around the time the song was released. Simon attempted to reconnect with him at different points and places over the years. Weller writes that Armstrong had a boastful personality, once claiming to be the first and only electric guitar specialist in the world. His name contains the three letters A, E and R, and Simons husband, Jim Hart, has been quoted as saying that the subject of the song was not someone famous. In February 2010, Simon told Uncut that the name of the subject was whispered backwards in a re-recording of Youre So Vain: Theres a little whisper -- and its the answer to the puzzle. A representative for Simon confirmed that the name whispered during the song is David. Multiple media outlets quickly reported that the subject was actually Simons former boss at Elektra, David Geffen, and that the song had been inspired by her jealousy of the attention Geffen had lavished on label-mate Joni Mitchell. The following day, Jim Hart, Simons ex-husband and close friend, denied that the song was about Geffen. Simons publicist confirmed that the song was not about Geffen, but that there was indeed a David who is connected to the song in some way, shape, or form, and Simon noted that when she first wrote the song in 1971, she hadnt even met David Geffen yet. Vanity Fair noted that in addition to David, Warren and an unintelligible name are whispered during the recording.After her performance of the song with Simon in July 2013, Taylor Swift revealed that Simon had revealed the identity of the songs subject to her in confidence. Carly Simon
Posted on: Mon, 17 Nov 2014 02:00:01 +0000
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