Carly Simon
Encyclopedia
Carly Elisabeth Simon is an American
singer-songwriter
, musician
, and children's author
. She rose to fame in the 1970s with a string of hit records, and has since been the recipient of two Grammy Award
s, an Academy Award, and a Golden Globe Award for her work. Throughout her career, she has amassed a total of 13 Top 40 Hits including "You're So Vain
", "Nobody Does It Better
" and "Coming Around Again".
She is the former wife of another notable singer-songwriter
, James Taylor
, with whom she has two children: Sarah "Sally" Maria Taylor and Ben Taylor
, who are also musicians.
Simon was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame
in 1994.
, New York
. Her father, of Jewish descent, was Richard L. Simon
(co-founder of Simon & Schuster
), a pianist who often played Chopin
and Beethoven
at home. Her mother was Andrea Louise Simon (née Heinemann)
, a civil rights
activist and singer, of Black
and German descent. In a 2004 interview with fashion designer Michael Kors
for the July issue of Interview Magazine
, Simon revealed her full ancestry as being Jewish, African
, Cuban and French
.
Carly Simon was raised in the Riverdale neighborhood of the Bronx
, New York City
and has two older sisters, Joanna (b. 1940) and Lucy
(b. 1943), and a younger brother, Peter (b. 1947). Simon, her sisters and brother Peter, were raised as nominal Catholic
s, according to a book of photography Peter published in the late 1990s. She attended Riverdale Country School
. She also briefly attended Sarah Lawrence College
and joined Alpha Gamma Delta
, before dropping out to pursue music.
as The Simon Sisters. They had a minor hit in 1964 called "Winkin', Blinkin', and Nod", and made three albums together before Lucy left to get married and start a family. Later, Carly Simon collaborated with eclectic New York rockers Elephant's Memory
for about six months. She also appeared in the 1971
Milos Forman
movie Taking Off
, playing an auditioning singer, and sang "Long Term Physical Effects", which was included in Taking Off, the 1971 soundtrack for the movie.
on Elektra Records
. The album contained her breakthrough top-ten hit "That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be
". It was followed quickly by a second album, Anticipation. The title song from that album, written about a romance between Simon and Yusef Islam (the Artist Formerly Known as Cat Stevens)
, was a significant hit, reaching #3 at Easy Listening radio and #13 on Billboard's Hot 100. The next single release - also reportedly written about Stevens, though perhaps about James Taylor, whom she had known since childhood - was "Legend In Your Own Time" which made a more modest impact on the charts, peaking at #50 on the Hot 100. After their brief liaison during 1970–1971 ended amicably, Stevens wrote his song "Sweet Scarlet" about Simon, who also had highly publicized relationships with Warren Beatty
, Mick Jagger
, Kris Kristofferson
and James Taylor
during this period.
". It hit #1 on the U.S. Pop and Adult Contemporary charts, and sold over a million copies in the United States alone. It was one of the decade's biggest hits and propelled Simon's breakthrough album No Secrets
to #1 on the U.S. album charts, where it stayed for six consecutive weeks. The album achieved Gold status that year, but by the album's 25th anniversary in 1997, the album had been certified Platinum. "You're So Vain" received Grammy Award
nominations for Record Of The Year, Song Of The Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female. Additionally, in 2008, it was listed at #72 on the Billboard Hot 100
's list of the top 100 songs from the chart's first 50 years, August 1958 through July 2008.
The subject of the song itself has become one of the biggest enigmas in popular music, as this track also carries one of the most famous lyrics: "You're so vain/I bet you think this song is about you." Simon has never publicly admitted who the song is about. She hinted that it could be a composite of several people, and for many people the most likely "suspects" have always been Beatty or Jagger, who sings backup vocals on this recording. Simon has given vague hints over the decades to a variety of talk shows and publications, saying that riddles wouldn't be interesting if everyone knew the answers to them. On August 5, 2003, she did finally auction off the information to the winner of a charity function for a grand total of US$50,000, with the condition that the winner (a television executive, Dick Ebersol
on NBC's Today Show) not reveal who it is.
Later in 1973, the follow-up single, "The Right Thing To Do", was another sizable hit, reaching #4 Adult Contemporary and #17 Pop. That same year Simon performed on Lee Clayton
's album Lee Clayton and co-sang on the song "New York Suite 409" and on Livingston Taylor
's album Over the Rainbow
and sang with both Livingston and his famous brother, James Taylor
(who was, by then, her husband) on the songs "Loving Be My New Horizon" and "Pretty Woman
".
In 1974, Simon followed the smash No Secrets album with Hotcakes
, which reached #3 on Billboard's Album Chart and was certified Gold, though it did not match the sales of No Secrets
. Hotcakes included two top ten singles, "Mockingbird", a duet with James Taylor that peaked at #5 on Billboard's Pop Singles chart, and "Haven't Got Time For the Pain", which hit #2 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart. The same year, Simon provided vocals on Tom Rush
's album Ladies Love Outlaws
and co-sang with Rush on "No Regrets" and as backup on "Claim On Me". In 1975, Elektra
released her first greatest-hits album, The Best of Carly Simon
, which became Simon's all time best selling disc and eventually reached Triple-Platinum status in the United States.
Simon's record sales declined considerably with 1975's Playing Possum and 1976's Another Passenger
. Playing Possum was a Top Ten album, with a Top 40 single "Attitude Dancing" and two other charting singles, but Another Passenger produced only one single, "It Keeps You Running", with the Doobie Brothers, as which barely scraped into the top 50. 1976 also saw Simon contributing backup vocals on the song "Peter" on Peter Ivers
's album Peter Ivers. She also made her only appearance on Saturday Night Live
. It was a pre-taped performance—a rare occurrence on that show—because Simon suffered terrible bouts of stage fright
. In the appearance, she sang two songs: "Half A Chance" and her signature song
, "You're So Vain".
In 1977, Simon had a surprise international hit with "Nobody Does It Better
", the theme to the James Bond
film The Spy Who Loved Me
. The million-selling Gold single held at #2 for several weeks, behind Debby Boone
's mega-hit "You Light Up My Life
" (which became the biggest hit of the entire decade). "Nobody Does It Better" remains Simon's second-biggest U.S. hit, after "You're So Vain". It was 1977's biggest Adult Contemporary hit, where it held at #1 for seven straight weeks. It also received Grammy nominations for Song Of The Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance Female.
Also in 1977, Simon co-produced
Libby Titus
's album Libby Titus and sang backup on two songs: "Can This Be Our Love Affair?" and "Darkness 'Til Dawn".
Simon's career took another upward swing in 1978 with the hit album Boys In The Trees
. The album produced another Top 10 Pop and Adult Contemporary hit with the jazzy and sensual "You Belong To Me". Boys In The Trees
was a major success, and returned Simon to Platinum album status in the U.S. It later earned Simon yet another Grammy nomination. She was featured on the front covers of People
and Rolling Stone
magazines that spring. Also in 1978, Simon and James Taylor sang backing vocals on two songs for Taylor's sister Kate
's album Kate Taylor
: "Happy Birthday Sweet Darling" and "Jason & Ida". Simon and Taylor also sang backup on three songs on John Hall's debut solo album John Hall, "The Fault", "Good Enough" and "Voyagers". Simon and Taylor would also sing backup on one song, "Power", from Hall's next album, which is also titled Power (1979).
On November 2, 1978, Simon guested on the song "I Live In The Woods" at a live, four-hour concert by Burt Bacharach
and the Houston Symphony Orchestra
at Jones Hall in Houston, Texas
. All the songs at that concert became Bacharach's album Woman
, which was released in 1979. That year, shortly after the Three Mile Island nuclear accident, from September 19 to September 22, a series of concerts were held at New York City's Madison Square Garden
and sponsored by Musicians United for Safe Energy
(MUSE), a group of musicians against nuclear power, co-founded by John Hall. Always politically active, Simon and James Taylor were part of the concerts which later became a documentary
and concert film
, No Nukes
(1980) as well as a live album of the same name
(1979).
Simon released her last album for Elektra
, Spy
, in 1979. It sold poorly, although a harder-edged single from the album, "Vengeance", was a modest hit and received airplay on U.S. album rock stations. "Vengeance" earned Simon a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Vocal Performance Female in early 1980 - the first year to feature the new category.
From 1972 to 1979, Simon sang backup vocals on the following James Taylor songs and albums (not counting compilations): "One Man Parade" from 1972's One Man Dog
, "Rock 'n' Roll Is Music Now", "Let It All Fall Down", "Me And My Guitar", "Daddy's Baby" and "Ain't No Song" from 1974's Walking Man
, "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)
" from 1975's Gorilla, "Shower the People
", "A Junkie's Lament", "Slow Burning Love" and "Family Man
" from 1976's In the Pocket, and "B.S.U.R." from 1979's Flag
. She also co-wrote with Taylor the song "Terra Nova" on his 1977 album JT
.
. During a show in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
, while she toured to promote her album, Come Upstairs
, Simon collapsed onstage of exhaustion. She subsequently performed considerably less throughout the 1980s. Simon scored another million-selling U.S. Gold single with the hit, "Jesse", from that album. Simon also contributed the song "Be With Me" to the 1980 album In Harmony: A Sesame Street Record, which was produced by her sister Lucy
and Lucy's husband, David Levine. Simon can also be heard on the song "In Harmony", along with other members of the Simon/Taylor families. Carly and Lucy contributed a "Simon Sisters" song — which was called "Maryanne" — to the 1982 follow-up album In Harmony 2, which was also produced by Lucy and her husband. Both albums won Grammy Award
s for Best Album for Children
.
Torch
(1981) was an album of melancholy jazz standard
s, but suffered from disappointing sales. The Nile Rodgers
& Bernard Edwards
produced single "Why
", from the soundtrack to the 1982 film Soup For One
, was a top-ten hit single in the U.K. but stalled at #74 in the U.S. She had another minor U.K. success with the single "Kissing With Confidence
", a song off the 1983 album Dancing For Mental Health by Will Powers
(a pseudonym
for photographer Lynn Goldsmith
). Simon was the uncredited singer of the song co-written and mixed by Todd Rundgren
. Simon's singles were generally less successful in the 1980s, although most of them did quite well on Adult Contemporary radio formats. In 1983, she made her last album for Warner, Hello Big Man
, but this also suffered from disappointing sales. That same year, Simon performed on two albums, The Perfect Stranger by Jesse Colin Young
(singing on the track "Fight For It" with Young) and Wonderland by Nils Lofgren
(singing on the track "Lonesome Ranger" with Lofgren). By this time, her contract with Warner Bros ended. In 1985, she signed with Epic Records
and made one album for them, Spoiled Girl
. This too was commercially unsuccessful and her contract with Epic was cancelled.
In 1986, Simon signed with Arista Records
and soon rebounded from her career slump. Her first album for Arista, Coming Around Again
(1987), gave Simon another international hit with the title track (which was featured in the film Heartburn
), returning her to the Billboard Pop Top 20 and the U.K. Top 10 (It also garnered her a Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance). The album also featured the Top 10 Adult Contemporary hits "Give Me All Night", "The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of", "All I Want Is You" and a cover of "As Time Goes By" (featuring Stevie Wonder
on harmonica). The album itself was her first Gold release in nine years, and went Platinum in 1988. These and older songs were featured in a picturesque HBO concert special which was filmed at Martha's Vineyard
, where Simon and her band performed live on a pier. Most of these songs were compiled for her 1988 album, Greatest Hits Live
. The album continued her mounting comeback, quickly going Gold, and was later certified Platinum by the RIAA in 1996. From "Live" a recording of Simon's evergreen "You're So Vain" was released as a single in the UK.
Throughout the 1980s, Simon successfully contributed to several film and television scores, including the songs:
She is the first artist to win all three awards (Oscar, Golden Globe and Grammy) for a song that is composed and written, as well as performed, entirely by a single artist (the only other such artist being Bruce Springsteen for his "Streets of Philadelphia" 1993: Oscar, 1994: Golden Globe & two Grammys).
The Working Girl soundtrack
album came out in early 1989, and featured more music from Simon, and as a tribute to Christa McAuliffe
, who was slated to be the first teacher in space and who died in the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster
for whom Simon also wrote a song "You're Where I Go". McAuliffe was a Simon fan and had taken a cassette of her music on board the shuttle.
In 1987, Simon also sang the theme for the 1988 Democratic National Convention
, "The Turn of The Tide", for a Marlo Thomas
television special Free to Be...A Family. The song was later included on the 1988 soundtrack album of the same name on A&M Records
.
album, My Romance
, and an album of original material Have You Seen Me Lately
. The latter featured a major (#4) Adult Contemporary chart hit with "Better Not Tell Her" - Simon's biggest hit of the 1990s. Her second children's book, "The Boy of the Bells" was also published in 1990 and she wrote the score for the 1990 film Postcards from the Edge
. In 1991, Simon wrote her third children's book, "The Fisherman's Song", which was based on the song of the same name from her 1990 album Have You Seen Me Lately. The same year, she performed a duet with Plácido Domingo
on the song "The Last Night Of The World" (from the Miss Saigon
musical) on Domingo's album The Broadway I Love. A year later, Simon wrote the music for the Nora Ephron
film This Is My Life
, which included the song "Love Of My Life". In 1993, she contributed the song "In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning
" for the film Sleepless In Seattle
and recorded the same song in combo with "Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out to Dry
" with Frank Sinatra
for his album Duets
.
1993 also saw Simon recording a contemporary opera called Romulus Hunt
(having been commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera Association and the Kennedy Center). She also published her fourth children's book, The Nighttime Chauffeur. She also contributed to Andreas Vollenweider
's album Eolian Minstrel. Simon co-wrote the song "Private Fires" with Vollenweider and was featured vocalist on the song.
In 1994, she covered the song "Take Me Out To The Ball Game
" for Ken Burns
' film Baseball, as well as a recording of "I've Got a Crush On You" for Larry Adler
's covers album The Glory of Gershwin
. That same year, Simon recorded another album of original songs, Letters Never Sent
, and contributed a Christmas song, "The Night Before Christmas", to the soundtrack for the film Mixed Nuts
. In April 1995, Simon surprised thousands of commuters at New York's Grand Central Terminal
with an unannounced performance which was filmed for a Lifetime Television Special
. It was also released on home video in December of that year. Also in 1995, she put aside years of stage fright long enough to perform on an American concert tour in conjunction with Hall & Oates
. On August 30, 1995, she also made a rare joint appearance with her ex-husband, James Taylor, for a concert on Martha's Vineyard
. Dubbed "Livestock '95", it was a benefit for the Martha's Vineyard Agricultural Society, with over 10,000 people in attendance. She performed a duet with Mindy Jostyn on the song "Time, Be On My Side", featured on Jostyn's 1995 album Five Miles From Hope about her recent battle with colon cancer. Ten years later, Jostyn would pass away from the disease at the age of 43. 1995 also saw the release of Clouds In My Coffee
, a boxed set of highlights from her 30 year career from 1965 to 1995.
Simon continued to write and record music for films and wrote the theme songs to several more movies including "Two Little Sisters" from the 1996 movie Marvin's Room and "In Two Straight Lines" from the 1998 movie Madeline
. 1997 saw the release of Simon's third standards album, Film Noir, which was recorded in collaboration with Jimmy Webb and for which she was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Vocal Performance. She also released her fifth children's book, "Midnight Farm". Simon was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1997, and underwent surgery that year and again in 1998. In 1999 The Very Best Of Carly Simon: Nobody Does It Better
, a UK-only greatest hits album, was released. Also that year, Simon worked again with the Swiss musician Andreas Vollenweider, and was the featured vocalist for the song "Your Silver Key" on Vollenweider's album Cosmopoly.
During the 1990s, the American press reported an incident between Simon and the Pretenders
' vocalist Chrissie Hynde
, at a Joni Mitchell
concert at New York's Fez Club. Some reports stated that a drunk and disorderly Hynde grabbed Simon around the neck and punched her, although Simon attempted to put these rumors to rest on her official website in 2002. Numerous witnesses, however, claim that Simon was, indeed, assaulted by Hynde.
. Largely written and recorded at home in her bedroom (hence the title) while she was recuperating from her health problems of the previous couple of years, it was her first album of original songs in almost six years. Despite this, the album did not sell well, though one of the album's tracks, "Our Affair", was remixed and featured in the Gwyneth Paltrow
/Ben Affleck
film "Bounce". In 2001, Simon performed on "Son of a Gun (I Betcha Think This Song Is About You)
" with Janet Jackson
on Jackson's album All for You. She also contributed back-up vocals on two songs, "Don't Turn Away" and "East Of Eden", for Mindy Jostyn's 2001 album Blue Stories. In November 2001, Simon's Oscar-winning song "Let the River Run" was used in a public service ad for the United States Postal Service
. Entitled "Pride", it was produced to boost public confidence and postal worker morale in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks
and the 2001 Anthrax attacks
.
In 2002, Simon recorded a Christmas album, Christmas Is Almost Here
, for Rhino Records, while she was in Los Angeles to lend support to her son Ben Taylor
and his band. That same year, Simon personally chose all of the songs for a new two-disc anthology album, simply titled Anthology
, for Rhino Records. 2003 saw a re-release of her 2002 Christmas album with two extra tracks and now called Christmas Is Almost Here Again
on Rhino Records. The two extra tracks, "White Christmas" and "Forgive", were also released as a single. Simon also performed several concerts during the 2004 holiday season at Harlem's Apollo Theater
, along with BeBe Winans, son Ben and daughter Sally, Rob Thomas, Livingston Taylor, Mindy Jostyn and Kate Taylor, along with other members of the Taylor and Simon family.
Among Simon's recent work, there were songs for the Disney
Winnie the Pooh films Piglet's Big Movie
in 2003 and Pooh's Heffalump Movie
in 2005. Several of her songs were also featured in the 2004 movie Little Black Book
that starred Brittany Murphy
and Holly Hunter
. Simon appears in a cameo role as herself at the end of the movie. 2004 also saw the release of her fourth greatest hits album, Reflections: Carly Simon's Greatest Hits
, which peaked at #22 on the Billboard charts that year (#25 in the UK). The album became Simon's first Gold-certified disc since the late 1980s.
In 2005, she released her fourth album of standards, titled Moonlight Serenade. A surprise hit, it reached #7 on the Billboard Album charts, her highest-charting album in nearly 30 years. She was also nominated for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album. To promote Moonlight Serenade, Simon performed two concerts onboard the Queen Mary 2 which were recorded and released on DVD in 2005. She also performed a concert tour in the United States - her first tour in 10 years. Simon also sang a duet, "Angel Of The Darkest Night", with Mindy Jostyn on Jostyn's 2005 album Coming Home. The album was released several months after Jostyn's death on March 10, 2005. As one of Simon's closest friends, Jostyn was married to Jacob Brackman
, Simon's long-time friend and musical collaborator. In 2005, she became involved in the legal defense of musician and family friend John Forté
with his struggle against a federal incarceration.
Simon again teamed up with the Swiss musician Andreas Vollenweider
for his 2006 holiday album, Midnight Clear. She performed vocals on the tracks "Midnight Clear", "Suspended Note", "Hymn to the Secret Heart" and "Forgive" (which was a song Simon wrote for her own 2002 holiday album Christmas Is Almost Here). Also in 2006, Simon performed with Livingston Taylor
on his album There You Are Again
, singing on the opening track "We're The Best Of Friends".
In 2007, Simon released her fifth album of covers, a collection of "soothing songs and lullabies" called Into White
for Columbia Records
. The collection featured covers
of songs by Cat Stevens
, the title track, recordings by Judy Garland
, The Beatles
and the Everly Brothers, as well as two new original songs. It also featured vocal collaborations with her children, Ben Taylor
and Sally Taylor. The album continued Simon's recently rejuvenated high chart profile and became Billboard
′s Hot Shot Debut, entering the chart at number #13.
In March 2008, it was announced that Simon had signed to the Starbucks
label, Hear Music
. She released a new album entitled This Kind of Love
with them in the spring of 2008. The album was her first collection of original songs since 2000's The Bedroom Tapes
. However, in October 2009, it was reported that Simon was suing Starbucks, saying they did not adequately promote the album — despite that it made the US Top 20 (#15) and sold nearly 150,000 copies. Simon's lawsuit stated that Starbucks publicly announced it was backing out of participation in Hear Music just days before the album came out — a decision that she claimed doomed the record before it was even released.
On June 19, 2008, Simon and her son Ben performed "You're So Vain" together on The Howard Stern Show on Sirius Satellite radio.
In October 2009, Simon released Never Been Gone
, an album of acoustic reworkings of some of her classic songs. The album was released via Iris Records. On November 26, 2009, Simon appeared on the Care Bears
float of the 83rd Annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
, where she sang "Let The River Run".
On 2 March 2010, Radio 2 - An Evening With Carly Simon was broadcast. Simon performed live for the first time in the UK to a small audience of approximately 100 people with her son Ben. This co-incided with the UK release of the Never Been Gone album, which was released for the Mother's Day
season and peaked at #45 (Simon's first studio album to reach the UK Top 100 since 1987's Coming Around Again). Simon also appeared on various UK television shows to promote the album, including The One Show
and BBC Breakfast
.
, and an uncredited appearance in the 2004 film Little Black Book
. On television, she appeared (also as herself) in a 1989 episode of Thirtysomething and voiced a 1995 episode of Frasier
entitled "Roz in the Doghouse".
on November 3, 1972. Simon and Taylor had two children, Sarah "Sally" Maria Taylor (born January 7, 1974) and Benjamin "Ben" Simon Taylor
(born January 22, 1977), both of whom are musicians and political activists. Simon and Taylor divorced in 1983. In the June 20, 2004, issue of Askmen.com, Simon said that she no longer speaks to her ex-husband, James Taylor. "I would say our relationship is non-existent. It's not the way I want it." On October 4, 2007, Simon became a grandmother, when her daughter Sally gave birth to a son, Bodhi Taylor Bragonier.
Prior to her marriage to Taylor, Simon was briefly engaged to William Donaldson
in the 1960s (who jilted fiancée Sarah Miles
for her). Donaldson described her as "the answer to any sane man's prayers; funny, quick, erotic, extravagantly talented." She also was engaged to musician Russ Kunkel
, from 1985 to 1986.
Simon married James Hart, a writer, poet, and businessman, on December 23, 1987. The couple divorced in 2007.
Simon underwent a mastectomy
, chemotherapy
, and reconstructive surgery for breast cancer
during 1997 and 1998. There had been a lump in her breast for several years before then, but her doctors had advised her against surgery. Simon later recounted: "Then one doctor said, 'You know what, I'd rather see it in a jar than in your breast.'" She also said that she felt "a little angry with myself" over the fact that she did not insist on taking it out sooner. Simon's surgery came at the same time as the death of her long-time friend Linda McCartney
, who had also struggled with breast cancer. Simon described McCartney's death as having emotionally "crushed" her.
Simon resides on Martha's Vineyard
and is associated with a store in Vineyard Haven
named Midnight Farm, the title of one of her series of children's books from the late 1980s and 1990s.
In an interview published on May 1, 2008, with the Bay Area Reporter
, an LGBT
news service, Simon was asked about the possibility of a performance in the True Colors Tour
. She responded, "The part that I could be involved in is the gay
and lesbian
part. The part that would be hard for me is to commit to a tour, because I'm not very comfortable being onstage. But the part that would be easiest for me would be singing on behalf of all of us. I don't consider myself to be not gay... I've enlarged all of my possibilities. I have a lot of extremely personal stories to tell about that, but we won't go into that right now. Let's just say that it just depends upon who I'm with."
Simon addressed the rumors about her sexuality created by the interview on The Howard Stern Show which aired June 18, 2008. Since July 2006 she has been dating a surgeon, Richard H. Koehler, a Gulf War
veteran.
Simon has been close friends with James Taylor's younger brother Livingston Taylor
for over forty years. Livingston has said, "I love Carly and Carly loves me. She's a ferocious advocate and supporter of my music." They have worked as a musical duo for some songs such as "Best of Friends", released in Livingston's 2006 album There You Are Again, and others earlier in their careers.
In May 2010 Simon revealed she had been one of the several celebrities who fell victims to financial advisor Kenneth I. Starr
, now a prison inmate, whose Ponzi scheme
lured her into 'investing' millions of dollars with him, which she lost.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
, musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
, and children's author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
. She rose to fame in the 1970s with a string of hit records, and has since been the recipient of two Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
s, an Academy Award, and a Golden Globe Award for her work. Throughout her career, she has amassed a total of 13 Top 40 Hits including "You're So Vain
You're So Vain
"You're So Vain" is a song written and performed by Carly Simon and released in December 1972. The song is a critical profile of a self-absorbed lover; Simon asserts "You're so vain, you probably think this song is about you." The subject's identity has been the matter of speculation, fueled by...
", "Nobody Does It Better
Nobody Does It Better
"Nobody Does It Better" is a power ballad composed by Marvin Hamlisch with lyrics by Carole Bayer Sager. It was recorded by Carly Simon as the theme song for the 1977 James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me. It was the first Bond theme song to be titled differently from the name of the film, although...
" and "Coming Around Again".
She is the former wife of another notable singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
, James Taylor
James Taylor
James Vernon Taylor is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A five-time Grammy Award winner, Taylor was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2000....
, with whom she has two children: Sarah "Sally" Maria Taylor and Ben Taylor
Ben Taylor (musician)
Benjamin Taylor is a musician and actor. He is the son of folk rock artists James Taylor and Carly Simon. His sister, Sally Taylor, is also a musician. Ben Taylor bears a striking resemblance to his famous father and has a singing voice akin to him as well...
, who are also musicians.
Simon was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame
Songwriters Hall of Fame
The Songwriters Hall of Fame is an arm of the National Academy of Popular Music. It was founded in 1969 by songwriter Johnny Mercer and music publishers Abe Olman and Howie Richmond. The goal is to create a museum but as of April, 2008, the means do not yet exist and so instead it is an online...
in 1994.
Early life
Simon was born in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. Her father, of Jewish descent, was Richard L. Simon
Richard L. Simon
Richard Leo Simon was an American businessman, Columbia University graduate, and co-founder of the publishing house Simon & Schuster. Born in New York City, his brother was music critic and author George T...
(co-founder of Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster, Inc., a division of CBS Corporation, is a publisher founded in New York City in 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. It is one of the four largest English-language publishers, alongside Random House, Penguin and HarperCollins...
), a pianist who often played Chopin
Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....
and Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
at home. Her mother was Andrea Louise Simon (née Heinemann)
Andrea Heinemann Simon
Andrea Heinemann Simon was a community leader and mother of award-winning singer, Carly Simon.-Biography:Born Andrea Louise Heinemann as the second child of Frederick and Elma Heinemann, she was raised in Philadelphia...
, a civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
activist and singer, of Black
Black people
The term black people is used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups.Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class, socio-economic status also plays a...
and German descent. In a 2004 interview with fashion designer Michael Kors
Michael Kors
Michael Kors is an American fashion designer. He is best known for designing classic American sportswear for women.-Personal life:...
for the July issue of Interview Magazine
Interview (magazine)
Interview is an American magazine which has the nickname The Crystal Ball Of Pop. It was founded in late 1969 by artist Andy Warhol. The magazine features intimate conversations between some of the world's biggest celebrities, artists, musicians, and creative thinkers...
, Simon revealed her full ancestry as being Jewish, African
African people
African people refers to natives, inhabitants, or citizen of Africa and to people of African descent.-Etymology:Many etymological hypotheses that have been postulated for the ancient name "Africa":...
, Cuban and French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
.
Carly Simon was raised in the Riverdale neighborhood of the Bronx
The Bronx
The Bronx is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City. It is also known as Bronx County, the last of the 62 counties of New York State to be incorporated...
, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and has two older sisters, Joanna (b. 1940) and Lucy
Lucy Simon
Lucy Simon is an American composer for the theatre and popular songs. She is known for the musical, The Secret Garden.-Biography:...
(b. 1943), and a younger brother, Peter (b. 1947). Simon, her sisters and brother Peter, were raised as nominal Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
s, according to a book of photography Peter published in the late 1990s. She attended Riverdale Country School
Riverdale Country School
Riverdale Country School is a co-educational, independent, college-preparatory day school in New York City. One of the most competitive private schools in the nation, it is located on two campuses covering more than in the Riverdale section of The Bronx, New York.-History:Founded in 1907 by Dr...
. She also briefly attended Sarah Lawrence College
Sarah Lawrence College
Sarah Lawrence College is a private liberal arts college in the United States, and a leader in progressive education since its founding in 1926. Located just 30 minutes north of Midtown Manhattan in southern Westchester County, New York, in the city of Yonkers, this coeducational college offers...
and joined Alpha Gamma Delta
Alpha Gamma Delta
Alpha Gamma Delta is an international women's fraternity, who are mainly sluts, founded in 1904 at Syracuse University. The Fraternity promotes academic excellence, philanthropic giving, ongoing leadership and personal development, and a spirit of loving sisterhood. Also known as "Alpha Gam" and...
, before dropping out to pursue music.
Early career
Simon's career began with a short-lived music group with her sister LucyLucy Simon
Lucy Simon is an American composer for the theatre and popular songs. She is known for the musical, The Secret Garden.-Biography:...
as The Simon Sisters. They had a minor hit in 1964 called "Winkin', Blinkin', and Nod", and made three albums together before Lucy left to get married and start a family. Later, Carly Simon collaborated with eclectic New York rockers Elephant's Memory
Elephant's Memory
Elephant's Memory was a New York band, most notable for backing John Lennon and Yoko Ono during 1972 on a pair of albums, and a handful of TV and live appearances, including the John Lennon "One To One Concert", with two performances the 30th of August 1972 to benefit the Willowbrook School for...
for about six months. She also appeared in the 1971
1971 in film
The year 1971 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*February 8 - Bob Dylan's hour long documentary film, Eat the Document, premieres at New York's Academy of Music...
Milos Forman
Miloš Forman
Jan Tomáš Forman , better known as Miloš Forman , is a Czech-American director, screenwriter, professor, and an emigrant from Czechoslovakia. Two of his films, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Amadeus, are among the most celebrated in the history of film, both gaining him the Academy Award for...
movie Taking Off
Taking Off (film)
Taking Off is a 1971 film comedy. It was Czech director Milos Forman's first American film. It tells the story of a group of parents whose children have run away from home...
, playing an auditioning singer, and sang "Long Term Physical Effects", which was included in Taking Off, the 1971 soundtrack for the movie.
Going solo
Her solo music career began in 1971, with the self-titled Carly SimonCarly Simon (album)
-Track listing:All tracks composed by Carly Simon; except where indicated# "That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be" – 4:15# "Alone" – 3:36# "One More Time" – 3:32# "The Best Thing" – 4:14...
on Elektra Records
Elektra Records
Elektra Records is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group. In 2004, it was consolidated into WMG's Atlantic Records Group. After five years of dormancy, the label was revived by Atlantic in 2009....
. The album contained her breakthrough top-ten hit "That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be
That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be
"That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be" is a 1971 single written by Carly Simon and Jacob Brackman and performed by Simon, released from her self-titled debut album...
". It was followed quickly by a second album, Anticipation. The title song from that album, written about a romance between Simon and Yusef Islam (the Artist Formerly Known as Cat Stevens)
Cat Stevens
Yusuf Islam , commonly known by his former stage name Cat Stevens, is an English singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, educator, philanthropist, and prominent convert to Islam....
, was a significant hit, reaching #3 at Easy Listening radio and #13 on Billboard's Hot 100. The next single release - also reportedly written about Stevens, though perhaps about James Taylor, whom she had known since childhood - was "Legend In Your Own Time" which made a more modest impact on the charts, peaking at #50 on the Hot 100. After their brief liaison during 1970–1971 ended amicably, Stevens wrote his song "Sweet Scarlet" about Simon, who also had highly publicized relationships with Warren Beatty
Warren Beatty
Warren Beatty born March 30, 1937) is an American actor, producer, screenwriter and director. He has received a total of fourteen Academy Award nominations, winning one for Best Director in 1982. He has also won four Golden Globe Awards including the Cecil B. DeMille Award.-Early life and...
, Mick Jagger
Mick Jagger
Sir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger is an English musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist and a founding member of The Rolling Stones....
, Kris Kristofferson
Kris Kristofferson
Kristoffer "Kris" Kristofferson is an American musician, actor, and writer. He is known for hits such as "Me and Bobby McGee", "For the Good Times", "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down", and "Help Me Make It Through the Night"...
and James Taylor
James Taylor
James Vernon Taylor is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A five-time Grammy Award winner, Taylor was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2000....
during this period.
Success
In 1973 Simon scored the biggest success of her career with the classic global smash "You're So VainYou're So Vain
"You're So Vain" is a song written and performed by Carly Simon and released in December 1972. The song is a critical profile of a self-absorbed lover; Simon asserts "You're so vain, you probably think this song is about you." The subject's identity has been the matter of speculation, fueled by...
". It hit #1 on the U.S. Pop and Adult Contemporary charts, and sold over a million copies in the United States alone. It was one of the decade's biggest hits and propelled Simon's breakthrough album No Secrets
No Secrets (Carly Simon album)
Reviews for No Secrets were mixed. Robert Christgau, writing in Creem, rated the album a B-, which signifies "a competent or mildly interesting record that will usually feature at least three worthwhile cuts." He stated that "if a horse could sing in a monotone, the horse would sound like Carly...
to #1 on the U.S. album charts, where it stayed for six consecutive weeks. The album achieved Gold status that year, but by the album's 25th anniversary in 1997, the album had been certified Platinum. "You're So Vain" received Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
nominations for Record Of The Year, Song Of The Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female. Additionally, in 2008, it was listed at #72 on the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
's list of the top 100 songs from the chart's first 50 years, August 1958 through July 2008.
The subject of the song itself has become one of the biggest enigmas in popular music, as this track also carries one of the most famous lyrics: "You're so vain/I bet you think this song is about you." Simon has never publicly admitted who the song is about. She hinted that it could be a composite of several people, and for many people the most likely "suspects" have always been Beatty or Jagger, who sings backup vocals on this recording. Simon has given vague hints over the decades to a variety of talk shows and publications, saying that riddles wouldn't be interesting if everyone knew the answers to them. On August 5, 2003, she did finally auction off the information to the winner of a charity function for a grand total of US$50,000, with the condition that the winner (a television executive, Dick Ebersol
Dick Ebersol
Duncan "Dick" Ebersol is an American television executive and a senior adviser for . He had previously been the chairman of NBC Sports, producing large scale television events such as the Olympic Games and National Football League broadcasts....
on NBC's Today Show) not reveal who it is.
Later in 1973, the follow-up single, "The Right Thing To Do", was another sizable hit, reaching #4 Adult Contemporary and #17 Pop. That same year Simon performed on Lee Clayton
Lee Clayton
Lee Clayton is a country musician and composer.-Biography:His style has been described as in between rock and country. Clayton grew up in Oak Ridge, Tennessee and began to play harmonica and guitar at the age of 7...
's album Lee Clayton and co-sang on the song "New York Suite 409" and on Livingston Taylor
Livingston Taylor
Livingston Taylor is an American singer-songwriter, born in Boston, Massachusetts and raised in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He attended the Westtown School in Pennsylvania...
's album Over the Rainbow
Over the Rainbow (Livingston Taylor album)
Over the Rainbow is singer-songwriter Livingston Taylor's third album, released in 1973. Its eleven tracks include nine of Taylor's own compositions, as well as two cover versions: "Over the Rainbow", from The Wizard of Oz, and George Harrison's "If I Needed Someone".-Track listing:All tracks...
and sang with both Livingston and his famous brother, James Taylor
James Taylor
James Vernon Taylor is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A five-time Grammy Award winner, Taylor was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2000....
(who was, by then, her husband) on the songs "Loving Be My New Horizon" and "Pretty Woman
Pretty Woman
Pretty Woman is a 1990 romantic comedy film set in Los Angeles, California. Written by J.F. Lawton and directed by Garry Marshall, this motion picture features Richard Gere and Julia Roberts, and also Hector Elizondo, Ralph Bellamy, and Jason Alexander in supporting roles. Roberts played the only...
".
In 1974, Simon followed the smash No Secrets album with Hotcakes
Hotcakes (Carly Simon)
Hotcakes is singer-songwriter Carly Simon's fourth studio album, released in 1974.Hotcakes became one of Simon's biggest selling albums...
, which reached #3 on Billboard's Album Chart and was certified Gold, though it did not match the sales of No Secrets
No Secrets (Carly Simon album)
Reviews for No Secrets were mixed. Robert Christgau, writing in Creem, rated the album a B-, which signifies "a competent or mildly interesting record that will usually feature at least three worthwhile cuts." He stated that "if a horse could sing in a monotone, the horse would sound like Carly...
. Hotcakes included two top ten singles, "Mockingbird", a duet with James Taylor that peaked at #5 on Billboard's Pop Singles chart, and "Haven't Got Time For the Pain", which hit #2 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart. The same year, Simon provided vocals on Tom Rush
Tom Rush
Tom Rush is an American folk and blues singer, songwriter, musician and recording artist.- Life and career :Rush was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. His father was a teacher at St. Paul's School, in Concord, New Hampshire. Tom began performing in 1961 while studying at Harvard University after...
's album Ladies Love Outlaws
Ladies Love Outlaws (Tom Rush album)
Ladies Love Outlaws is the 1974 Country rock album from pioneer Folk rock musician Tom Rush. The standout tracks are "Hobo's Mandolin", "Indian Woman from Wichita", "Black Magic Gun" and "One Day I Walk".-Track listing:...
and co-sang with Rush on "No Regrets" and as backup on "Claim On Me". In 1975, Elektra
Elektra Records
Elektra Records is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group. In 2004, it was consolidated into WMG's Atlantic Records Group. After five years of dormancy, the label was revived by Atlantic in 2009....
released her first greatest-hits album, The Best of Carly Simon
The Best of Carly Simon
The Best of Carly Simon is singer-songwriter Carly Simon's sixth album, and her first greatest-hits compilation of previously released songs...
, which became Simon's all time best selling disc and eventually reached Triple-Platinum status in the United States.
Simon's record sales declined considerably with 1975's Playing Possum and 1976's Another Passenger
Another Passenger
Another Passenger is singer-songwriter Carly Simon's seventh album, and sixth studio album, released in 1976.For this album, Simon enlisted a new producer, Ted Templeman, as well as his clients, The Doobie Brothers, to provide backing vocals....
. Playing Possum was a Top Ten album, with a Top 40 single "Attitude Dancing" and two other charting singles, but Another Passenger produced only one single, "It Keeps You Running", with the Doobie Brothers, as which barely scraped into the top 50. 1976 also saw Simon contributing backup vocals on the song "Peter" on Peter Ivers
Peter Ivers
Peter Scott Ivers was an American musician, best known as the host of New Wave Theatre.Ivers was born in Illinois, but raised in Brookline, a suburb of Boston, Massachusetts. He attended the Roxbury Latin School and then Harvard University, majoring in classical languages, but chose a career in...
's album Peter Ivers. She also made her only appearance on Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
. It was a pre-taped performance—a rare occurrence on that show—because Simon suffered terrible bouts of stage fright
Stage fright
Stage fright or performance anxiety is the anxiety, fear, or persistent phobia which may be aroused in an individual by the requirement to perform in front of an audience, whether actually or potentially . In the context of public speaking, this fear is termed glossophobia, one of the most common...
. In the appearance, she sang two songs: "Half A Chance" and her signature song
Signature song
A signature song is the one song that a popular and well-established singer or band is most closely identified with or best known for, even if they have had success with a variety of songs...
, "You're So Vain".
In 1977, Simon had a surprise international hit with "Nobody Does It Better
Nobody Does It Better
"Nobody Does It Better" is a power ballad composed by Marvin Hamlisch with lyrics by Carole Bayer Sager. It was recorded by Carly Simon as the theme song for the 1977 James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me. It was the first Bond theme song to be titled differently from the name of the film, although...
", the theme to the James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
film The Spy Who Loved Me
The Spy Who Loved Me (film)
The Spy Who Loved Me is a spy film, the tenth film in the James Bond series, and the third to star Roger Moore as the fictional secret agent James Bond. It was directed by Lewis Gilbert and the screenplay was written by Christopher Wood and Richard Maibaum...
. The million-selling Gold single held at #2 for several weeks, behind Debby Boone
Debby Boone
Deborah Anne Boone is an American singer and stage actress. She is best known for her 1977 hit, "You Light Up My Life," which spent a then record ten weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and led to her winning the Grammy Award for Best New Artist the following year...
's mega-hit "You Light Up My Life
You Light Up My Life (song)
Many artists have covered "You Light Up My Life" since 1977. The following year, Johnny Mathis recorded and named his album after the song. LeAnn Rimes released her version as a single in 1997, 20 years after Boone's version was released and on the same record label . Her version fared modestly...
" (which became the biggest hit of the entire decade). "Nobody Does It Better" remains Simon's second-biggest U.S. hit, after "You're So Vain". It was 1977's biggest Adult Contemporary hit, where it held at #1 for seven straight weeks. It also received Grammy nominations for Song Of The Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance Female.
Also in 1977, Simon co-produced
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
Libby Titus
Libby Titus
Libby Titus is a singer, songwriter, actress and concert producer. Although she released several solo albums in the 1970s and '80s, she is best known as the co-writer, with Eric Kaz, of "Love Has No Pride", a song recorded by many artists including Linda Ronstadt, Bonnie Raitt and Jane Monheit.She...
's album Libby Titus and sang backup on two songs: "Can This Be Our Love Affair?" and "Darkness 'Til Dawn".
Simon's career took another upward swing in 1978 with the hit album Boys In The Trees
Boys in the Trees
Boys in the Trees is the seventh studio album by American singer-songwriter Carly Simon, released in 1978.Boys in the Trees included "You Belong to Me", which reached number six on the Pop Singles chart and became Simon's fifth top ten pop hit...
. The album produced another Top 10 Pop and Adult Contemporary hit with the jazzy and sensual "You Belong To Me". Boys In The Trees
Boys in the Trees
Boys in the Trees is the seventh studio album by American singer-songwriter Carly Simon, released in 1978.Boys in the Trees included "You Belong to Me", which reached number six on the Pop Singles chart and became Simon's fifth top ten pop hit...
was a major success, and returned Simon to Platinum album status in the U.S. It later earned Simon yet another Grammy nomination. She was featured on the front covers of People
People (magazine)
In 1998, the magazine introduced a version targeted at teens called Teen People. However, on July 27, 2006, the company announced it would shut down publication of Teen People immediately. The last issue to be released was scheduled for September 2006. Subscribers to this magazine received...
and Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazines that spring. Also in 1978, Simon and James Taylor sang backing vocals on two songs for Taylor's sister Kate
Kate Taylor
Kate Taylor is an American folk singer, originally from Boston, Massachusetts.-Biography:Kate was born in Boston and grew up with her four brothers in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where her father was Dean of the medical school at the University of North Carolina...
's album Kate Taylor
Kate Taylor (album)
Kate Taylor is singer Kate Taylor's second album, released in 1978.The album provided Taylor with her best-selling single: a version of "It's in His Kiss ", which peaked at 49 on the Billboard charts.-Track listing:...
: "Happy Birthday Sweet Darling" and "Jason & Ida". Simon and Taylor also sang backup on three songs on John Hall's debut solo album John Hall, "The Fault", "Good Enough" and "Voyagers". Simon and Taylor would also sing backup on one song, "Power", from Hall's next album, which is also titled Power (1979).
On November 2, 1978, Simon guested on the song "I Live In The Woods" at a live, four-hour concert by Burt Bacharach
Burt Bacharach
Burt F. Bacharach is an American pianist, composer and music producer. He is known for his popular hit songs and compositions from the mid-1950s through the 1980s, with lyrics written by Hal David. Many of their hits were produced specifically for, and performed by, Dionne Warwick...
and the Houston Symphony Orchestra
Houston Symphony Orchestra
The Houston Symphony is an American orchestra based in Houston, Texas. Since 1966, it has performed at the Jesse H. Jones Hall for the Performing Arts in downtown Houston....
at Jones Hall in Houston, Texas
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
. All the songs at that concert became Bacharach's album Woman
Woman (Burt Bacharach album)
Woman is an album by Burt Bacharach in collaboration with the Houston Symphony Orchestra that was released in 1979 on A&M Records. It is a recording of a live, four hour recording session that took place on November 2, 1978 at Jones Hall in Houston, Texas. The project was originally conceived by...
, which was released in 1979. That year, shortly after the Three Mile Island nuclear accident, from September 19 to September 22, a series of concerts were held at New York City's Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan and located at 8th Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station.Opened on February 11, 1968, it is the...
and sponsored by Musicians United for Safe Energy
Musicians United for Safe Energy
Musicians United for Safe Energy, or MUSE, is an activist group founded in 1979 by Jackson Browne, Graham Nash, Bonnie Raitt, and John Hall. The group advocates against the use of nuclear energy, forming shortly after the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in March 1979...
(MUSE), a group of musicians against nuclear power, co-founded by John Hall. Always politically active, Simon and James Taylor were part of the concerts which later became a documentary
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
and concert film
Concert film
A concert movie, or concert film, is a type of documentary film, the subject of which is an extended live performance or concert by a musician ....
, No Nukes
No Nukes (film)
No Nukes is a 1980 documentary and concert film that contained selections from the September 1979 Madison Square Garden concerts by the Musicians United for Safe Energy collective, with Jackson Browne, Graham Nash, Bonnie Raitt, and John Hall being the key organizers of the event and guiding forces...
(1980) as well as a live album of the same name
No Nukes (album)
No Nukes: The Muse Concerts For a Non-Nuclear Future was a 1979 triple live album that contained selections from the September 1979 Madison Square Garden concerts by the Musicians United for Safe Energy collective, with Jackson Browne, Graham Nash, Bonnie Raitt, and John Hall being the key...
(1979).
Simon released her last album for Elektra
Elektra Records
Elektra Records is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group. In 2004, it was consolidated into WMG's Atlantic Records Group. After five years of dormancy, the label was revived by Atlantic in 2009....
, Spy
Spy (Carly Simon)
Spy is singer-songwriter Carly Simon's ninth album, and eighth studio album, released in 1979. It is also her last album for Elektra Records...
, in 1979. It sold poorly, although a harder-edged single from the album, "Vengeance", was a modest hit and received airplay on U.S. album rock stations. "Vengeance" earned Simon a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Vocal Performance Female in early 1980 - the first year to feature the new category.
From 1972 to 1979, Simon sang backup vocals on the following James Taylor songs and albums (not counting compilations): "One Man Parade" from 1972's One Man Dog
One Man Dog
-Track listing:All songs by James Taylor unless otherwise noted.#"One Man Parade" – 3:10#"Nobody But You" – 2:57#"Chili Dog" – 1:35#"Fool for You" – 1:42#"Instrumental I" – 0:55#"New Tune" – 1:35#"Back on the Street Again" – 3:00...
, "Rock 'n' Roll Is Music Now", "Let It All Fall Down", "Me And My Guitar", "Daddy's Baby" and "Ain't No Song" from 1974's Walking Man
Walking Man
Walking Man is singer-songwriter James Taylor's fifth album. Released on June 1, 1974, it was not as successful as his previous efforts, only reaching #13 on the Billboard Album Chart. It is also his only studio album not certified gold by the RIAA...
, "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)
How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)
"How Sweet It Is " is a 1964 hit song written and produced by the Motown songwriting team of Holland–Dozier–Holland. It was originally recorded by American soul singer Marvin Gaye and became one of his most popular songs...
" from 1975's Gorilla, "Shower the People
Shower the People
"Shower the People" is the opening track on James Taylor's 1976 album In the Pocket. The song reached #22 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the U.S. that fall, remaining in the Top 40 for eight weeks...
", "A Junkie's Lament", "Slow Burning Love" and "Family Man
Family Man
Family Man is an album released by the American hardcore punk band Black Flag in 1984. It is unique in that one side features spoken-word tracks by vocalist Henry Rollins and the other side mainly features instrumental tracks...
" from 1976's In the Pocket, and "B.S.U.R." from 1979's Flag
Flag (James Taylor album)
Flag is singer-songwriter James Taylor's ninth album. Released in 1979, it included songs from Taylor's music score to Studs Terkel and Stephen Schwartz's Broadway musical, Working ....
. She also co-wrote with Taylor the song "Terra Nova" on his 1977 album JT
JT (album)
JT is singer-songwriter James Taylor's eighth album, and his first album for Columbia Records. Released in 1977, it contains hit singles in "Handy Man" and "Your Smiling Face" and was Taylor's highest charting album since Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon.This album also contains several Taylor...
.
1980s
In 1980, Simon signed with Elektra's sibling label Warner Bros. RecordsWarner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies...
. During a show in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
, while she toured to promote her album, Come Upstairs
Come Upstairs
Come Upstairs is singer-songwriter Carly Simon's 10th album, and ninth studio album, released in 1980. It was the first of her three albums for Warner Bros. Records and it featured a harder, rock-oriented sound than her previous albums...
, Simon collapsed onstage of exhaustion. She subsequently performed considerably less throughout the 1980s. Simon scored another million-selling U.S. Gold single with the hit, "Jesse", from that album. Simon also contributed the song "Be With Me" to the 1980 album In Harmony: A Sesame Street Record, which was produced by her sister Lucy
Lucy Simon
Lucy Simon is an American composer for the theatre and popular songs. She is known for the musical, The Secret Garden.-Biography:...
and Lucy's husband, David Levine. Simon can also be heard on the song "In Harmony", along with other members of the Simon/Taylor families. Carly and Lucy contributed a "Simon Sisters" song — which was called "Maryanne" — to the 1982 follow-up album In Harmony 2, which was also produced by Lucy and her husband. Both albums won Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
s for Best Album for Children
Grammy Award for Best Album for Children
The Grammy Award for Best Album for Children has been awarded since 1959. Prior to 1992, the award was known as Best Recording for Children and was therefore open to any audio recording, whether it was an album, a single song, a recording of a book, or the audio from a television show or movie...
.
Torch
Torch (Carly Simon)
Torch is singer-songwriter Carly Simon's 11th album, her 10th studio album, and her first album devoted to standards, mostly old torch songs, relating unrequited love or rejection. The album was released in 1981...
(1981) was an album of melancholy jazz standard
Jazz standard
Jazz standards are musical compositions which are an important part of the musical repertoire of jazz musicians, in that they are widely known, performed, and recorded by jazz musicians, and widely known by listeners. There is no definitive list of jazz standards, and the list of songs deemed to be...
s, but suffered from disappointing sales. The Nile Rodgers
Nile Rodgers
Nile Gregory Rodgers is an American musician, producer, composer, arranger, and guitarist.-Biography:...
& Bernard Edwards
Bernard Edwards
Bernard Edwards born in Greenville, North Carolina, was a bass player and record producer, both as a member of the Funk/Disco band Chic and on his own. He died of pneumonia while touring in Japan.-History:...
produced single "Why
Why (Carly Simon song)
"Why", by Carly Simon, was one of a string of film-inspired singles from a less successful period in her career . Following her much publicized break-down on stage in 1980, it was recorded for the movie Soup For One in 1982. The movie flopped but the soundtrack was a success.The song, like all of...
", from the soundtrack to the 1982 film Soup For One
Soup For One (film)
Soup For One is a 1982 sexually-themed romantic comedy that was directed and written by Jonathan Kaufer and produced by Marvin Worth. The R-rated film was released by Warner Bros. Pictures...
, was a top-ten hit single in the U.K. but stalled at #74 in the U.S. She had another minor U.K. success with the single "Kissing With Confidence
Kissing With Confidence
"Kissing with Confidence" is a song by Will Powers from her 1983 album Dancing for Mental Health. It was written by Goldsmith, Jacob Brackman, Nile Rodgers, Todd Rundgren, and Steve Winwood.Mixed by Rundgren, it was released as a single in the UK, peaking at number seventeen on the UK Singles Chart...
", a song off the 1983 album Dancing For Mental Health by Will Powers
Will Powers
Will Powers was the stage name used by celebrity photographer, Lynn Goldsmith, when she created a self help comedy music album. The 1983 album, entitled Dancing for Mental Health, used affirmations set to music to poke fun at the self help entrepreneurs who "build the listener's inner self and...
(a pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
for photographer Lynn Goldsmith
Lynn Goldsmith
Lynn Goldsmith is an American recording artist, a film director and a celebrity portrait photographer. Her work has appeared on the covers and in publications in many countries for the past 35 years. She has done over 100 album covers...
). Simon was the uncredited singer of the song co-written and mixed by Todd Rundgren
Todd Rundgren
Todd Harry Rundgren is an American multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and record producer. Hailed in the early stage of his career as a new pop-wunderkind, supported by the certified gold solo double LP Something/Anything? in 1972, Todd Rundgren's career has produced a diverse range of recordings...
. Simon's singles were generally less successful in the 1980s, although most of them did quite well on Adult Contemporary radio formats. In 1983, she made her last album for Warner, Hello Big Man
Hello Big Man
Hello Big Man is singer-songwriter Carly Simon's 12th album, and 11th studio album, released in 1983. It is also her last album for Warner Bros. Records , as it was a failure commercially despite some reasonable critical reviews...
, but this also suffered from disappointing sales. That same year, Simon performed on two albums, The Perfect Stranger by Jesse Colin Young
Jesse Colin Young
Jesse Colin Young is an American singer / songwriter / folksinger and a founding member of the group The Youngbloods.-Early life:...
(singing on the track "Fight For It" with Young) and Wonderland by Nils Lofgren
Nils Lofgren
Nils Hilmer Lofgren is an American rock music recording artist, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist...
(singing on the track "Lonesome Ranger" with Lofgren). By this time, her contract with Warner Bros ended. In 1985, she signed with Epic Records
Epic Records
Epic Records is an American record label, owned by Sony Music Entertainment. Though it was originally conceived as a jazz imprint, it has since expanded to represent various genres. L.A...
and made one album for them, Spoiled Girl
Spoiled Girl
Spoiled Girl is the 12th studio album by the American singer-songwriter Carly Simon, released in 1985.The album was recorded with a variety of producers in New York. It was Simon's only album for Epic Records, and peaked at #88 on the U.S...
. This too was commercially unsuccessful and her contract with Epic was cancelled.
In 1986, Simon signed with Arista Records
Arista Records
Arista was an American record label. It was a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment and operated under the RCA Music Group. The label was founded in 1974 by Clive Davis, who formerly worked for CBS Records...
and soon rebounded from her career slump. Her first album for Arista, Coming Around Again
Coming Around Again (Carly Simon)
Coming Around Again is singer-songwriter Carly Simon's 14th album, and 13th studio album, released in 1987. It is her first of many albums for Arista Records. The title track and "Itsy Bitsy Spider" were both written for and featured in the 1986 film Heartburn.The title song peaked at #18 on the...
(1987), gave Simon another international hit with the title track (which was featured in the film Heartburn
Heartburn (film)
Heartburn is a 1986 American drama film directed by Mike Nichols. The screenplay by Nora Ephron is based on her semi-autobiographical novel of the same name, which was inspired by her tempestuous second marriage to Carl Bernstein and his affair with Margaret Jay. Rachel is a food writer at a New...
), returning her to the Billboard Pop Top 20 and the U.K. Top 10 (It also garnered her a Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance). The album also featured the Top 10 Adult Contemporary hits "Give Me All Night", "The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of", "All I Want Is You" and a cover of "As Time Goes By" (featuring Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...
on harmonica). The album itself was her first Gold release in nine years, and went Platinum in 1988. These and older songs were featured in a picturesque HBO concert special which was filmed at Martha's Vineyard
Martha's Vineyard
Martha's Vineyard is an island located south of Cape Cod in Massachusetts, known for being an affluent summer colony....
, where Simon and her band performed live on a pier. Most of these songs were compiled for her 1988 album, Greatest Hits Live
Greatest Hits Live (Carly Simon)
Greatest Hits Live is singer-songwriter Carly Simon's 15th album, second greatest-hits album and first live album, released in 1988.All the songs are live versions from a 1987 HBO special taped on Martha's Vineyard called Live From Martha's Vineyard, which was released in 1987 on VHS and in 2004 on...
. The album continued her mounting comeback, quickly going Gold, and was later certified Platinum by the RIAA in 1996. From "Live" a recording of Simon's evergreen "You're So Vain" was released as a single in the UK.
Throughout the 1980s, Simon successfully contributed to several film and television scores, including the songs:
- "WhySoup for One (soundtrack)Soup For One is a soundtrack album to the movie Soup For One by American R&B band Chic et al., released on the label WEA in 1982, the first Chic album not to be issued on Atlantic Records...
" for the film Soup For OneSoup For One (film)Soup For One is a 1982 sexually-themed romantic comedy that was directed and written by Jonathan Kaufer and produced by Marvin Worth. The R-rated film was released by Warner Bros. Pictures...
(1982) - "Something More" for the film Love ChildLove Child (film)Love Child is a 1982 biopic based on the life of Terry Jean Moore. The film stars Amy Madigan, Beau Bridges, and Mackenzie Phillips.-Plot summary:...
(1982) - "Someone Waits for You" for the film Swing ShiftSwing Shift (film)Swing Shift is a 1984 feature film directed by Jonathan Demme and produced by and starring Goldie Hawn with Kurt Russell. It also starred Christine Lahti, Fred Ward and Ed Harris...
(1984) - "All the Love in the World" for the television film Torchlight (1985)
- "It's Hard To Be Tender" for the television miniseriesMiniseriesA miniseries , in a serial storytelling medium, is a television show production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. The exact number is open to interpretation; however, they are usually limited to fewer than a whole season. The term "miniseries" is generally a North American term...
Sins (1986) - "If It Wasn't Love" for the film Nothing In CommonNothing in CommonNothing in Common is a 1986 comedy-drama film, directed by Garry Marshall. It stars Tom Hanks and, in his last movie role, Jackie Gleason. The film proved to be Gleason's final film role, as he was suffering from colon cancer, liver cancer, and thrombosed hemorrhoids during production.The film,...
(1986) - "Two Looking at One" for the film The Karate Kid, Part IIThe Karate Kid, Part IIThe Karate Kid, Part II is a 1986 American martial arts film and is a sequel to 1984's The Karate Kid. Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita reprise their roles as Daniel LaRusso and Mr. Miyagi, respectively. The original music score was composed by Bill Conti...
(1986) - "Coming Around Again"/"Itsy Bitsy SpiderItsy Bitsy Spider"Itsy Bitsy Spider" is a popular nursery rhyme that describes the adventures of a spider as it ascends, descends and reascends the downspout or "waterspout" of a gutter system...
" for the film HeartburnHeartburn (film)Heartburn is a 1986 American drama film directed by Mike Nichols. The screenplay by Nora Ephron is based on her semi-autobiographical novel of the same name, which was inspired by her tempestuous second marriage to Carl Bernstein and his affair with Margaret Jay. Rachel is a food writer at a New...
(1986) - "Let the River RunLet the River Run"Let the River Run" is a song first featured in the 1988 film Working Girl, with music and lyrics by Carly Simon. The song won the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 61st Academy Awards in 1989...
" for the film Working GirlWorking GirlWorking Girl is a 1988 romantic comedy film written by Kevin Wade and directed by Mike Nichols. It tells the inspiring story of a Staten Island-raised secretary, Tess McGill , working in the mergers and acquisitions department of a Wall Street investment bank...
(1988) (for which she won the Academy Award for Best Song (1988); the Golden Globe Award for Best Song (1988); and the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual MediaGrammy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual MediaThe Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media has been awarded since 1988 and is awarded to songs written for films, television, video games or other visual media...
(1990))
She is the first artist to win all three awards (Oscar, Golden Globe and Grammy) for a song that is composed and written, as well as performed, entirely by a single artist (the only other such artist being Bruce Springsteen for his "Streets of Philadelphia" 1993: Oscar, 1994: Golden Globe & two Grammys).
The Working Girl soundtrack
Working Girl (soundtrack)
Working Girl is the soundtrack to the 1988 movie Working Girl directed by Mike Nichols and starring Harrison Ford, Sigourney Weaver and Melanie Griffith. Music by Carly Simon, scored by Rob Mounsey. The soundtrack features several songs and instrumental compositions by Simon and others. It...
album came out in early 1989, and featured more music from Simon, and as a tribute to Christa McAuliffe
Christa McAuliffe
Christa McAuliffe was an American teacher from Concord, New Hampshire, and was one of the seven crew members killed in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster....
, who was slated to be the first teacher in space and who died in the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster
Space Shuttle Challenger disaster
The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster occurred on January 28, 1986, when Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, leading to the deaths of its seven crew members. The spacecraft disintegrated over the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of central Florida at 11:38 am EST...
for whom Simon also wrote a song "You're Where I Go". McAuliffe was a Simon fan and had taken a cassette of her music on board the shuttle.
In 1987, Simon also sang the theme for the 1988 Democratic National Convention
1988 Democratic National Convention
The 1988 National Convention of the U.S. Democratic Party was held at The Omni in Atlanta, Georgia from July 18–July 21, 1988 to select a candidate for the 1988 United States presidential election. At the convention Gov. Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts was nominated for President and...
, "The Turn of The Tide", for a Marlo Thomas
Marlo Thomas
Margaret Julia “Marlo” Thomas is an American actress, producer, and social activist known for her starring role on the TV series That Girl . She also serves as National Outreach Director for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital...
television special Free to Be...A Family. The song was later included on the 1988 soundtrack album of the same name on A&M Records
A&M Records
A&M Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group that operates under the mantle of its Interscope-Geffen-A&M division.-Beginnings:...
.
1990s
In 1990, Simon released two albums: her second standardsStandard (music)
In music, a standard is a tune or song of established popularity.-See also:* Blues standard* Jazz standard* Pop standard* Great American Songbook-Further reading:* Greatest Rock Standards, published by Hal Leonard ISBN 0793588391...
album, My Romance
My Romance (album)
My Romance is an album by the U.S. singer-songwriter Carly Simon, released in 1990. It is her fourteenth studio album, and her sixteenth album overall, as well as being her second album devoted to standards.-Track listing:...
, and an album of original material Have You Seen Me Lately
Have You Seen Me Lately
Have You Seen Me Lately is singer-songwriter Carly Simon's 17th album, and 15th studio album, released in 1990.-Track listing:All tracks composed by Carly Simon; except where indicated# "Better Not Tell Her" — 5:21# "Didn't I?" — 2:51...
. The latter featured a major (#4) Adult Contemporary chart hit with "Better Not Tell Her" - Simon's biggest hit of the 1990s. Her second children's book, "The Boy of the Bells" was also published in 1990 and she wrote the score for the 1990 film Postcards from the Edge
Postcards from the Edge (film)
Postcards from the Edge is a 1990 American comedy-drama film directed by Mike Nichols. The screenplay by Carrie Fisher is based on her 1987 semi-autobiographical novel of the same title.-Plot:...
. In 1991, Simon wrote her third children's book, "The Fisherman's Song", which was based on the song of the same name from her 1990 album Have You Seen Me Lately. The same year, she performed a duet with Plácido Domingo
Plácido Domingo
Plácido Domingo KBE , born José Plácido Domingo Embil, is a Spanish tenor and conductor known for his versatile and strong voice, possessing a ringing and dramatic tone throughout its range...
on the song "The Last Night Of The World" (from the Miss Saigon
Miss Saigon
Miss Saigon is a musical by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil, with lyrics by Boublil and Richard Maltby, Jr.. It is based on Giacomo Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly, and similarly tells the tragic tale of a doomed romance involving an Asian woman abandoned by her American lover...
musical) on Domingo's album The Broadway I Love. A year later, Simon wrote the music for the Nora Ephron
Nora Ephron
Nora Ephron is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, novelist, playwright, journalist, author, and blogger.She is best known for her romantic comedies and is a triple nominee for the Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay; for Silkwood, When Harry Met Sally... and Sleepless in...
film This Is My Life
This is My Life (film)
This Is My Life is a 1992 film that marked the directorial debut of screenwriter Nora Ephron. The screenplay, written by Ephron and her sister, Delia Ephron, is based on the book, This Is Your Life, by Meg Wolitzer. The film tells the story of Dottie Ingels , who works at a cosmetics counter but...
, which included the song "Love Of My Life". In 1993, she contributed the song "In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning
In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning
"In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning" is a 1955 popular song composed by David Mann, with lyrics by Bob Hilliard. It was introduced as the title track of Frank Sinatra's 1955 album In the Wee Small Hours....
" for the film Sleepless In Seattle
Sleepless in Seattle
The film was originally to have been scored by John Barry, but when he was given a list of 20 songs he had to put in the film, he quit.#As Time Goes By - Jimmy Durante #A Kiss to Build a Dream on - Louis Armstrong #Stardust - Nat King Cole...
and recorded the same song in combo with "Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out to Dry
Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out to Dry
"Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out to Dry" is a 1945 song, with music by Jule Styne and lyrics by Sammy Cahn. It was introduced on stage by film star Jane Withers in the 1944 flop, Glad to See You, which closed in Philadelphia and never made it to Broadway...
" with Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
for his album Duets
Duets (Frank Sinatra album)
Duets is an album by American singer Frank Sinatra, released in 1993.Recorded near the end of Sinatra's career, it consists of duets between Sinatra and other guest star singers from various genres; Sinatra personally chose the performers...
.
1993 also saw Simon recording a contemporary opera called Romulus Hunt
Romulus Hunt: A Family Opera
Romulus Hunt: A Family Opera is singer-songwriter Carly Simon's 19th album, and 17th studio album, released in 1993. The singing on this album however is done by a cast of five...
(having been commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera Association and the Kennedy Center). She also published her fourth children's book, The Nighttime Chauffeur. She also contributed to Andreas Vollenweider
Andreas Vollenweider
Andreas Vollenweider is a Swiss musician. His music has been categorized as World Music, Jazz, New Age and even Classical; two of his albums were number 1 on the Billboard charts simultaneously in the categories Classical, Jazz, Pop and Crossover for more than 11 weeks. His music could be...
's album Eolian Minstrel. Simon co-wrote the song "Private Fires" with Vollenweider and was featured vocalist on the song.
In 1994, she covered the song "Take Me Out To The Ball Game
Take Me Out to the Ball Game
"Take Me Out to the Ball Game" is a 1908 Tin Pan Alley song by Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilzer which has become the unofficial anthem of baseball, although neither of its authors had attended a game prior to writing the song. The song is traditionally sung during the seventh-inning stretch of...
" for Ken Burns
Ken Burns
Kenneth Lauren "Ken" Burns is an American director and producer of documentary films, known for his style of using archival footage and photographs...
' film Baseball, as well as a recording of "I've Got a Crush On You" for Larry Adler
Larry Adler
Lawrence "Larry" Cecil Adler was an American musician, widely acknowledged as one of the world's most skilled harmonica players. Composers such as Ralph Vaughan Williams, Malcolm Arnold, Darius Milhaud and Arthur Benjamin composed works for him...
's covers album The Glory of Gershwin
The Glory of Gershwin
The Glory Of Gershwin is the title of a 1994 tribute album by various singers in celebration of Larry Adler's 80th birthday. All songs are written by George & Ira Gershwin, Adler's lifelong friends.-Track listing:# Peter Gabriel - Summertime [3:50]...
. That same year, Simon recorded another album of original songs, Letters Never Sent
Letters Never Sent
Letters Never Sent is singer-songwriter Carly Simon's 20th album, and 18th studio album, released in 1994. Carly wrote "Like A River" in honour of her mother, Andrea Simon, and "Touched By The Sun" for her dear friend, Jackie Onassis, both of whom died in 1994...
, and contributed a Christmas song, "The Night Before Christmas", to the soundtrack for the film Mixed Nuts
Mixed Nuts
Mixed Nuts is a motion picture comedy directed by Nora Ephron, based on the French comedy film, Le Père Noël est une ordure . Its cast includes Steve Martin, Madeline Kahn, Rita Wilson, Anthony LaPaglia, Garry Shandling, Juliette Lewis and Adam Sandler...
. In April 1995, Simon surprised thousands of commuters at New York's Grand Central Terminal
Grand Central Terminal
Grand Central Terminal —often incorrectly called Grand Central Station, or shortened to simply Grand Central—is a terminal station at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States...
with an unannounced performance which was filmed for a Lifetime Television Special
Lifetime Television
Lifetime Television, often referred to as Lifetime TV, or most commonly, Lifetime, is an American cable television specialty channel devoted to movies, sitcoms and dramas, all of which are either geared toward women or feature women in lead roles. The cable network is owned by A&E Television Networks...
. It was also released on home video in December of that year. Also in 1995, she put aside years of stage fright long enough to perform on an American concert tour in conjunction with Hall & Oates
Hall & Oates
Hall & Oates are an American musical duo composed of Daryl Hall and John Oates. They achieved their greatest fame in the late 1970s and early to mid-1980s. Both sing and play instruments. They specialized in a fusion of rock and roll and rhythm and blues styles, which they dubbed "rock and soul."...
. On August 30, 1995, she also made a rare joint appearance with her ex-husband, James Taylor, for a concert on Martha's Vineyard
Martha's Vineyard
Martha's Vineyard is an island located south of Cape Cod in Massachusetts, known for being an affluent summer colony....
. Dubbed "Livestock '95", it was a benefit for the Martha's Vineyard Agricultural Society, with over 10,000 people in attendance. She performed a duet with Mindy Jostyn on the song "Time, Be On My Side", featured on Jostyn's 1995 album Five Miles From Hope about her recent battle with colon cancer. Ten years later, Jostyn would pass away from the disease at the age of 43. 1995 also saw the release of Clouds In My Coffee
Clouds in My Coffee
Clouds In My Coffee is singer-songwriter Carly Simon's 21st album released in 1995. It is a three-disc, 58 song career retrospective box set that spans Carly's career from 1965 to 1995...
, a boxed set of highlights from her 30 year career from 1965 to 1995.
Simon continued to write and record music for films and wrote the theme songs to several more movies including "Two Little Sisters" from the 1996 movie Marvin's Room and "In Two Straight Lines" from the 1998 movie Madeline
Madeline
Madeline is a children's book series written by Ludwig Bemelmans, an Austrian author. The books have been adapted into numerous formats, spawning telefilms, television series and a live action feature film...
. 1997 saw the release of Simon's third standards album, Film Noir, which was recorded in collaboration with Jimmy Webb and for which she was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Vocal Performance. She also released her fifth children's book, "Midnight Farm". Simon was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1997, and underwent surgery that year and again in 1998. In 1999 The Very Best Of Carly Simon: Nobody Does It Better
The Very Best Of Carly Simon: Nobody Does It Better
The Very Best of Carly Simon: Nobody Does It Better is singer-songwriter Carly Simon's 23rd album, and third greatest-hits album, released in 1999, originally in the United Kingdom.-Track listing:All tracks composed by Carly Simon; except where indicted...
, a UK-only greatest hits album, was released. Also that year, Simon worked again with the Swiss musician Andreas Vollenweider, and was the featured vocalist for the song "Your Silver Key" on Vollenweider's album Cosmopoly.
During the 1990s, the American press reported an incident between Simon and the Pretenders
The Pretenders
The Pretenders are an English rock band formed in Hereford, England in March 1978. The original band consisted of initiator and main songwriter Chrissie Hynde , James Honeyman-Scott , Pete Farndon , and Martin Chambers...
' vocalist Chrissie Hynde
Chrissie Hynde
Christine Ellen "Chrissie" Hynde is an US musician best known as the leader of the rock/new wave band the Pretenders. She is a singer, songwriter, and guitarist, and has been the only constant member of the band throughout its history.-Early life and career:Hynde is the daughter of a part-time...
, at a Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...
concert at New York's Fez Club. Some reports stated that a drunk and disorderly Hynde grabbed Simon around the neck and punched her, although Simon attempted to put these rumors to rest on her official website in 2002. Numerous witnesses, however, claim that Simon was, indeed, assaulted by Hynde.
2000s
In 2000, Simon released a new album, The Bedroom TapesThe Bedroom Tapes
The Bedroom Tapes is singer-songwriter Carly Simon's 24th album, and 20th studio album, released in 2000. In 2002, Simon released autographed limited editions of The Bedroom Tapes with two bonus tracks at the end of the album.-Track listing:...
. Largely written and recorded at home in her bedroom (hence the title) while she was recuperating from her health problems of the previous couple of years, it was her first album of original songs in almost six years. Despite this, the album did not sell well, though one of the album's tracks, "Our Affair", was remixed and featured in the Gwyneth Paltrow
Gwyneth Paltrow
Gwyneth Kate Paltrow is an American actress and singer. She made her acting debut on stage in 1990 and started appearing in films in 1991. After appearing in several films throughout the decade, Paltrow gained early notice for her work in films such as Se7en and Emma...
/Ben Affleck
Ben Affleck
Benjamin Géza Affleck-Boldt , better known as Ben Affleck, is an American actor, film director, writer, and producer. He became known with his performances in Kevin Smith's films such as Mallrats and Chasing Amy...
film "Bounce". In 2001, Simon performed on "Son of a Gun (I Betcha Think This Song Is About You)
Son of a Gun (I Betcha Think This Song Is About You)
"Son of a Gun " is a song by American singer Janet Jackson, featuring Carly Simon and American rapper Missy Elliott...
" with Janet Jackson
Janet Jackson
Janet Damita Jo Jackson is an American recording artist and actress. Known for a series of sonically innovative, socially conscious and sexually provocative records, as well as elaborate stage shows, television and film roles, she has been a prominent figure in popular culture for over 25 years...
on Jackson's album All for You. She also contributed back-up vocals on two songs, "Don't Turn Away" and "East Of Eden", for Mindy Jostyn's 2001 album Blue Stories. In November 2001, Simon's Oscar-winning song "Let the River Run" was used in a public service ad for the United States Postal Service
United States Postal Service
The United States Postal Service is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States...
. Entitled "Pride", it was produced to boost public confidence and postal worker morale in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...
and the 2001 Anthrax attacks
2001 anthrax attacks
The 2001 anthrax attacks in the United States, also known as Amerithrax from its Federal Bureau of Investigation case name, occurred over the course of several weeks beginning on Tuesday, September 18, 2001, one week after the September 11 attacks. Letters containing anthrax spores were mailed to...
.
In 2002, Simon recorded a Christmas album, Christmas Is Almost Here
Christmas Is Almost Here
Christmas Is Almost Here, released on October 22, 2002, is singer-songwriter Carly Simon's 25th album, 21st studio album, and first Christmas album.-Track listing:# "Christmas Is Almost Here" – 4:00...
, for Rhino Records, while she was in Los Angeles to lend support to her son Ben Taylor
Ben Taylor (musician)
Benjamin Taylor is a musician and actor. He is the son of folk rock artists James Taylor and Carly Simon. His sister, Sally Taylor, is also a musician. Ben Taylor bears a striking resemblance to his famous father and has a singing voice akin to him as well...
and his band. That same year, Simon personally chose all of the songs for a new two-disc anthology album, simply titled Anthology
Anthology (Carly Simon)
Anthology is singer-songwriter Carly Simon's 26th album, and first anthology album, released in November 2002. It is a two-disc set with all the songs personally picked by Simon...
, for Rhino Records. 2003 saw a re-release of her 2002 Christmas album with two extra tracks and now called Christmas Is Almost Here Again
Christmas Is Almost Here Again
Christmas Is Almost Here Again is singer-songwriter Carly Simon's 27th album, and second Christmas album, released in October of 2003. It is essentially a re-release of her 2002 Christmas album, Christmas Is Almost Here, with two additional tracks....
on Rhino Records. The two extra tracks, "White Christmas" and "Forgive", were also released as a single. Simon also performed several concerts during the 2004 holiday season at Harlem's Apollo Theater
Apollo Theater
The Apollo Theater in New York City is one of the most famous, and older, music halls in the United States, and the most famous club associated almost exclusively with Black performers...
, along with BeBe Winans, son Ben and daughter Sally, Rob Thomas, Livingston Taylor, Mindy Jostyn and Kate Taylor, along with other members of the Taylor and Simon family.
Among Simon's recent work, there were songs for the Disney
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...
Winnie the Pooh films Piglet's Big Movie
Piglet's Big Movie
Piglet's Big Movie is a 2003 American animated film produced by DisneyToon Studios, and released by Walt Disney Pictures on March 21, 2003. It is based upon the characters in the Winnie-the-Pooh books written by A. A. Milne...
in 2003 and Pooh's Heffalump Movie
Pooh's Heffalump Movie
Pooh's Heffalump Movie is a 2005 Winnie-the-Pooh film, released by Walt Disney Pictures. The film runs at 68 mins., This was the shortest feature-length Pooh film to be released in theaters until The 2011 Film at 63 mins.- Plot :...
in 2005. Several of her songs were also featured in the 2004 movie Little Black Book
Little Black Book
Little Black Book is a 2004 satirical comedy film directed by Nick Hurran.-Plot:Stacy Holt , an associate producer on a daytime talk show , is convinced that her boyfriend Derek is the right man for her, though he has an apparent phobia of commitment, and he's vague about his past relationships...
that starred Brittany Murphy
Brittany Murphy
Brittany Anne Murphy-Monjack , known professionally as Brittany Murphy, was an American actress and singer. She starred in films such as Clueless, Just Married, Girl Interrupted, Spun, 8 Mile, Uptown Girls, Sin City, Happy Feet, and Riding in Cars with Boys...
and Holly Hunter
Holly Hunter
Holly Hunter is an American actress. Hunter starred in The Piano for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. She has also been nominated for Oscars for her roles in Broadcast News, The Firm, and Thirteen...
. Simon appears in a cameo role as herself at the end of the movie. 2004 also saw the release of her fourth greatest hits album, Reflections: Carly Simon's Greatest Hits
Reflections: Carly Simon's Greatest Hits
Reflections: Carly Simon's Greatest Hits is singer-songwriter Carly Simon's 28th album, and fourth greatest-hits album, released in 2004. Later that same year an International version of the album was released, mainly for the UK market. It consisted of a different mix of songs and included the 1982...
, which peaked at #22 on the Billboard charts that year (#25 in the UK). The album became Simon's first Gold-certified disc since the late 1980s.
In 2005, she released her fourth album of standards, titled Moonlight Serenade. A surprise hit, it reached #7 on the Billboard Album charts, her highest-charting album in nearly 30 years. She was also nominated for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album. To promote Moonlight Serenade, Simon performed two concerts onboard the Queen Mary 2 which were recorded and released on DVD in 2005. She also performed a concert tour in the United States - her first tour in 10 years. Simon also sang a duet, "Angel Of The Darkest Night", with Mindy Jostyn on Jostyn's 2005 album Coming Home. The album was released several months after Jostyn's death on March 10, 2005. As one of Simon's closest friends, Jostyn was married to Jacob Brackman
Jacob Brackman
Jacob Brackman is an American journalist, writer, and musical lyricist.After graduating from Harvard University in 1965, he went to work for Newsweek as a journalist. He remained there for six months and was then hired by The New Yorker...
, Simon's long-time friend and musical collaborator. In 2005, she became involved in the legal defense of musician and family friend John Forté
John Forté
John Forté is a Grammy-nominated American recording artist, composer, music producer, educator and activist. He achieved fame while writing, producing and performing with the celebrated hip hop group The Fugees during the 1990’s, and has released four solo albums, including his most recent effort,...
with his struggle against a federal incarceration.
Simon again teamed up with the Swiss musician Andreas Vollenweider
Andreas Vollenweider
Andreas Vollenweider is a Swiss musician. His music has been categorized as World Music, Jazz, New Age and even Classical; two of his albums were number 1 on the Billboard charts simultaneously in the categories Classical, Jazz, Pop and Crossover for more than 11 weeks. His music could be...
for his 2006 holiday album, Midnight Clear. She performed vocals on the tracks "Midnight Clear", "Suspended Note", "Hymn to the Secret Heart" and "Forgive" (which was a song Simon wrote for her own 2002 holiday album Christmas Is Almost Here). Also in 2006, Simon performed with Livingston Taylor
Livingston Taylor
Livingston Taylor is an American singer-songwriter, born in Boston, Massachusetts and raised in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He attended the Westtown School in Pennsylvania...
on his album There You Are Again
There You Are Again
There You are Again is an album by American singer-songwriter Livingston Taylor released by Whistling Dog Music in January 2006. It represented a break from his nine-year long hiatus after his previous album. Glenn Rosenstein produced There You Are Again.Tell Jesus , one of the songs on the album,...
, singing on the opening track "We're The Best Of Friends".
In 2007, Simon released her fifth album of covers, a collection of "soothing songs and lullabies" called Into White
Into White (album)
Into White is an album by the American singer-songwriter Carly Simon. it is her 23rd studio album , and her fifth album of pop standards....
for Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
. The collection featured covers
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
of songs by Cat Stevens
Cat Stevens
Yusuf Islam , commonly known by his former stage name Cat Stevens, is an English singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, educator, philanthropist, and prominent convert to Islam....
, the title track, recordings by Judy Garland
Judy Garland
Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...
, The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
and the Everly Brothers, as well as two new original songs. It also featured vocal collaborations with her children, Ben Taylor
Ben Taylor (musician)
Benjamin Taylor is a musician and actor. He is the son of folk rock artists James Taylor and Carly Simon. His sister, Sally Taylor, is also a musician. Ben Taylor bears a striking resemblance to his famous father and has a singing voice akin to him as well...
and Sally Taylor. The album continued Simon's recently rejuvenated high chart profile and became Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
′s Hot Shot Debut, entering the chart at number #13.
In March 2008, it was announced that Simon had signed to the Starbucks
Starbucks
Starbucks Corporation is an international coffee and coffeehouse chain based in Seattle, Washington. Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse company in the world, with 17,009 stores in 55 countries, including over 11,000 in the United States, over 1,000 in Canada, over 700 in the United Kingdom, and...
label, Hear Music
Hear Music
Hear Music, also known as StarCon is the brand name of Starbucks' retail music concept and record label. Hear Music began as a catalog company in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1990 before being purchased by Starbucks in 1999.-Concept:...
. She released a new album entitled This Kind of Love
This Kind of Love
This Kind of Love is an album by American singer/songwriter Carly Simon, released in April 2008. It is Simon's 31st album, her 24th studio album, and her first album of original material since The Bedroom Tapes in 2000....
with them in the spring of 2008. The album was her first collection of original songs since 2000's The Bedroom Tapes
The Bedroom Tapes
The Bedroom Tapes is singer-songwriter Carly Simon's 24th album, and 20th studio album, released in 2000. In 2002, Simon released autographed limited editions of The Bedroom Tapes with two bonus tracks at the end of the album.-Track listing:...
. However, in October 2009, it was reported that Simon was suing Starbucks, saying they did not adequately promote the album — despite that it made the US Top 20 (#15) and sold nearly 150,000 copies. Simon's lawsuit stated that Starbucks publicly announced it was backing out of participation in Hear Music just days before the album came out — a decision that she claimed doomed the record before it was even released.
On June 19, 2008, Simon and her son Ben performed "You're So Vain" together on The Howard Stern Show on Sirius Satellite radio.
In October 2009, Simon released Never Been Gone
Never Been Gone
Never Been Gone is an album by the American singer/songwriter Carly Simon, released in October 2009. The album features new acoustic versions of many of Simon's past hits. It is her 25th studio album ....
, an album of acoustic reworkings of some of her classic songs. The album was released via Iris Records. On November 26, 2009, Simon appeared on the Care Bears
Care Bears
The Care Bears are characters created by American Greetings in 1981 for use on greeting cards. The original artwork for the cards was painted by artist Elena Kucharik. In 1983, Kenner turned the Care Bears into plush teddy bears...
float of the 83rd Annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, often shortened to Macy's Day Parade, is an annual parade presented by Macy's. The tradition started in 1924, tying it for the second-oldest Thanksgiving parade in the United States along with America's Thanksgiving Parade in Detroit, and four years younger than...
, where she sang "Let The River Run".
On 2 March 2010, Radio 2 - An Evening With Carly Simon was broadcast. Simon performed live for the first time in the UK to a small audience of approximately 100 people with her son Ben. This co-incided with the UK release of the Never Been Gone album, which was released for the Mother's Day
Mother's Day
Mother's Day is a celebration honoring mothers and celebrating motherhood, maternal bonds, and the influence of mothers in society. It is celebrated on various days in many parts of the world, yet most commonly in March, April, or May...
season and peaked at #45 (Simon's first studio album to reach the UK Top 100 since 1987's Coming Around Again). Simon also appeared on various UK television shows to promote the album, including The One Show
The One Show
The One Show is a topical magazine-style daily television programme broadcast live on BBC One and BBC One HD, hosted by Alex Jones and Matt Baker. Chris Evans joins Jones to present the programme on Friday...
and BBC Breakfast
BBC Breakfast
BBC Breakfast is the morning television news programme simulcast on BBC One and the BBC News channel. It is presented live from BBC Television Centre in White City, West London, and contains a mixture of news, sport, weather, business and feature items...
.
Film and television appearances
Besides music, Simon has also appeared (as herself) in films, such as the 1985 film PerfectPerfect (film)
The soundtrack to Perfect was initially released in 1985 as a 12" vinyl record, and later re-released on CD.Side A#" Perfect" – 3:50#"I Sweat " – 3:54...
, and an uncredited appearance in the 2004 film Little Black Book
Little Black Book
Little Black Book is a 2004 satirical comedy film directed by Nick Hurran.-Plot:Stacy Holt , an associate producer on a daytime talk show , is convinced that her boyfriend Derek is the right man for her, though he has an apparent phobia of commitment, and he's vague about his past relationships...
. On television, she appeared (also as herself) in a 1989 episode of Thirtysomething and voiced a 1995 episode of Frasier
Frasier
Frasier is an American sitcom that was broadcast on NBC for eleven seasons, from September 16, 1993, to May 13, 2004. The program was created and produced by David Angell, Peter Casey, and David Lee in association with Grammnet and Paramount Network Television.A spin-off of Cheers, Frasier stars...
entitled "Roz in the Doghouse".
Personal life
Simon married fellow singer-songwriter James TaylorJames Taylor
James Vernon Taylor is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A five-time Grammy Award winner, Taylor was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2000....
on November 3, 1972. Simon and Taylor had two children, Sarah "Sally" Maria Taylor (born January 7, 1974) and Benjamin "Ben" Simon Taylor
Ben Taylor (musician)
Benjamin Taylor is a musician and actor. He is the son of folk rock artists James Taylor and Carly Simon. His sister, Sally Taylor, is also a musician. Ben Taylor bears a striking resemblance to his famous father and has a singing voice akin to him as well...
(born January 22, 1977), both of whom are musicians and political activists. Simon and Taylor divorced in 1983. In the June 20, 2004, issue of Askmen.com, Simon said that she no longer speaks to her ex-husband, James Taylor. "I would say our relationship is non-existent. It's not the way I want it." On October 4, 2007, Simon became a grandmother, when her daughter Sally gave birth to a son, Bodhi Taylor Bragonier.
Prior to her marriage to Taylor, Simon was briefly engaged to William Donaldson
William Donaldson
Charles William Donaldson was an English satirist, writer, playboy and, under the pseudonym of Henry Root, author of The Henry Root Letters.-Life and career:...
in the 1960s (who jilted fiancée Sarah Miles
Sarah Miles
-Early life and career:Sarah Miles was born in the small town of Ingatestone, Essex, in South East England.She first attended Roedean but at the age of 15 she enrolled at RADA, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art...
for her). Donaldson described her as "the answer to any sane man's prayers; funny, quick, erotic, extravagantly talented." She also was engaged to musician Russ Kunkel
Russ Kunkel
Russell Kunkel , also known as Russ Kunkel, is an American drummer and producer who has worked as a session musician with a number of well-known artists.Kunkel was born in Pittsburgh, PA...
, from 1985 to 1986.
Simon married James Hart, a writer, poet, and businessman, on December 23, 1987. The couple divorced in 2007.
Simon underwent a mastectomy
Mastectomy
Mastectomy is the medical term for the surgical removal of one or both breasts, partially or completely. Mastectomy is usually done to treat breast cancer; in some cases, women and some men believed to be at high risk of breast cancer have the operation prophylactically, that is, to prevent cancer...
, chemotherapy
Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy is the treatment of cancer with an antineoplastic drug or with a combination of such drugs into a standardized treatment regimen....
, and reconstructive surgery for breast cancer
Breast cancer
Breast cancer is cancer originating from breast tissue, most commonly from the inner lining of milk ducts or the lobules that supply the ducts with milk. Cancers originating from ducts are known as ductal carcinomas; those originating from lobules are known as lobular carcinomas...
during 1997 and 1998. There had been a lump in her breast for several years before then, but her doctors had advised her against surgery. Simon later recounted: "Then one doctor said, 'You know what, I'd rather see it in a jar than in your breast.'" She also said that she felt "a little angry with myself" over the fact that she did not insist on taking it out sooner. Simon's surgery came at the same time as the death of her long-time friend Linda McCartney
Linda McCartney
Linda Louise McCartney, Lady McCartney was an American photographer, musician and animal rights activist. Her father and mother were Lee Eastman and Louise Sara Lindner Eastman....
, who had also struggled with breast cancer. Simon described McCartney's death as having emotionally "crushed" her.
Simon resides on Martha's Vineyard
Martha's Vineyard
Martha's Vineyard is an island located south of Cape Cod in Massachusetts, known for being an affluent summer colony....
and is associated with a store in Vineyard Haven
Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts
Vineyard Haven is a community within the town of Tisbury on Martha's Vineyard in Dukes County, Massachusetts, United States. It is listed as a census-designated place by the U.S...
named Midnight Farm, the title of one of her series of children's books from the late 1980s and 1990s.
In an interview published on May 1, 2008, with the Bay Area Reporter
Bay Area Reporter
The Bay Area Reporter is a free weekly newspaper serving the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered communities in the San Francisco Bay Area; it is the oldest-continuously published, and one of the largest LGBT newspapers in the United States....
, an LGBT
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
news service, Simon was asked about the possibility of a performance in the True Colors Tour
True Colors Tour
The True Colors Tour is an annual music tour created by American pop singer Cyndi Lauper. The tour benefits the Human Rights Campaign and other organizations that provide support to the LGBT community and to the straight friends and family who love them, including PFLAG and the Matthew Shepard...
. She responded, "The part that I could be involved in is the gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
and lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
part. The part that would be hard for me is to commit to a tour, because I'm not very comfortable being onstage. But the part that would be easiest for me would be singing on behalf of all of us. I don't consider myself to be not gay... I've enlarged all of my possibilities. I have a lot of extremely personal stories to tell about that, but we won't go into that right now. Let's just say that it just depends upon who I'm with."
Simon addressed the rumors about her sexuality created by the interview on The Howard Stern Show which aired June 18, 2008. Since July 2006 she has been dating a surgeon, Richard H. Koehler, a Gulf War
Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
veteran.
Simon has been close friends with James Taylor's younger brother Livingston Taylor
Livingston Taylor
Livingston Taylor is an American singer-songwriter, born in Boston, Massachusetts and raised in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He attended the Westtown School in Pennsylvania...
for over forty years. Livingston has said, "I love Carly and Carly loves me. She's a ferocious advocate and supporter of my music." They have worked as a musical duo for some songs such as "Best of Friends", released in Livingston's 2006 album There You Are Again, and others earlier in their careers.
In May 2010 Simon revealed she had been one of the several celebrities who fell victims to financial advisor Kenneth I. Starr
Kenneth I. Starr
Kenneth Ira Starr is a former American certified public accountant and attorney convicted of running a $30 million Ponzi scheme with the money of numerous wealthy and celebrity clients...
, now a prison inmate, whose Ponzi scheme
Ponzi scheme
A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that pays returns to its investors from their own money or the money paid by subsequent investors, rather than from any actual profit earned by the individual or organization running the operation...
lured her into 'investing' millions of dollars with him, which she lost.
Awards and recognition
- Grammy AwardGrammy AwardA Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
s:- 1971 — Best New ArtistGrammy Award for Best New ArtistThe Grammy Award for Best New Artist has been awarded since 1959. Years reflect the year in which the Grammy Awards were handed out, for records released in the previous year. The award was not presented in 1967...
- 1989 — Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or TelevisionGrammy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual MediaThe Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media has been awarded since 1988 and is awarded to songs written for films, television, video games or other visual media...
for "Let the River RunLet the River Run"Let the River Run" is a song first featured in the 1988 film Working Girl, with music and lyrics by Carly Simon. The song won the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 61st Academy Awards in 1989...
" from Working GirlWorking GirlWorking Girl is a 1988 romantic comedy film written by Kevin Wade and directed by Mike Nichols. It tells the inspiring story of a Staten Island-raised secretary, Tess McGill , working in the mergers and acquisitions department of a Wall Street investment bank...
(1988) - 2004 (inducted) — Grammy Hall of Fame AwardGrammy Hall of Fame AwardThe Grammy Hall of Fame Award is a special Grammy award established in 1973 to honor recordings that are at least twenty-five years old and that have "qualitative or historical significance"...
for "You're So VainYou're So Vain"You're So Vain" is a song written and performed by Carly Simon and released in December 1972. The song is a critical profile of a self-absorbed lover; Simon asserts "You're so vain, you probably think this song is about you." The subject's identity has been the matter of speculation, fueled by...
" (1972)
- 1971 — Best New Artist
- Academy AwardAcademy AwardsAn Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
:- 1988 — Best Song, "Let the River RunLet the River Run"Let the River Run" is a song first featured in the 1988 film Working Girl, with music and lyrics by Carly Simon. The song won the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 61st Academy Awards in 1989...
" from Working GirlWorking GirlWorking Girl is a 1988 romantic comedy film written by Kevin Wade and directed by Mike Nichols. It tells the inspiring story of a Staten Island-raised secretary, Tess McGill , working in the mergers and acquisitions department of a Wall Street investment bank...
- 1988 — Best Song, "Let the River Run
- Golden Globe AwardGolden Globe AwardThe Golden Globe Award is an accolade bestowed by the 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign...
s:- 1989 — Best Original SongGolden Globe Award for Best Original SongGolden Globe Award for Best Original Song was awarded for the first time in 1962 and has been awarded annually since 1965 by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.-1960s:...
, "Let the River RunLet the River Run"Let the River Run" is a song first featured in the 1988 film Working Girl, with music and lyrics by Carly Simon. The song won the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 61st Academy Awards in 1989...
" from Working GirlWorking GirlWorking Girl is a 1988 romantic comedy film written by Kevin Wade and directed by Mike Nichols. It tells the inspiring story of a Staten Island-raised secretary, Tess McGill , working in the mergers and acquisitions department of a Wall Street investment bank...
(1988)
- 1989 — Best Original Song
- Other awards:
- 1994 — inducted into the Songwriters Hall of FameSongwriters Hall of FameThe Songwriters Hall of Fame is an arm of the National Academy of Popular Music. It was founded in 1969 by songwriter Johnny Mercer and music publishers Abe Olman and Howie Richmond. The goal is to create a museum but as of April, 2008, the means do not yet exist and so instead it is an online...
- 1994 — inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame
Discography
Studio albums
|
Compilations
|
Videography
- Live from Martha's Vineyard, 1987
- Carly in Concert — My Romance, 1990
- Live at Grand Central, 1995
- A Moonlight Serenade on the Queen Mary 2, 2005
- Christa McAuliffe: Reach for the Stars documentary, songs by Carly Simon 2006 http://www.Teacher1986.com
Works
- Amy the Dancing Bear, 1989
- The Boy of the Bells, 1990
- The Fisherman's Song, 1991
- The Nighttime Chauffeur, 1993
- Midnight Farm, 1997
External links
- Carly Simon at the Notable Names DatabaseNNDBThe Notable Names Database , produced by Soylent Communications, the same entity that produces Rotten, Daily Rotten, Dr. Sputnik's Society Pages and Penny Postcards, is an online database of biographical details of over 36,000 people of note...
- Carly Simon at Rollingstone
- Autobiography