No Secrets

Track list

Side 1

1. The Right Thing to Do

   2:57 • Studio version

2. The Carter Family

   3:29 • Studio version

3. You're So Vain

   4:17 • Studio version

4. His Friends Are More Than Fond of Robin

   3:00 • Studio version

5. We Have No Secrets

   3:57 • Studio version

Side 2

1. Embrace Me, You Child

   4:06 • Studio version

2. Waited So Long

   4:14 • Studio version

3. It Was So Easy

   3:06 • Studio version

4. Night Owl

   Written by James Taylor

   3:47 • Studio version

   Paul McCartney : Backing vocals Nicky Hopkins : Piano Klaus Voormann : Bass Jim Keltner : Drums Carly Simon : Vocals Jimmy Ryan : Backing vocals, Electric guitar Ray Cooper : Congas Bobby Keys : Tenor sax Bonnie Bramlett : Background vocals Doris Troy : Background vocals

   Session Overdubs: Oct 18, 1972 • Studio AIR Studios, London, UK

5. When You Close Your Eyes

   3:05 • Studio version

From Wikipedia:

No Secrets is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter Carly Simon, released by Elektra Records, on November 16, 1972.

The album was Simon’s major commercial breakthrough; it spent five weeks at No. 1 on the US Billboard 200 chart and quickly went Gold, as did its lead single, “You’re So Vain”, which remained at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for three weeks, and the Adult Contemporary chart for two weeks. Twenty-five years after its initial release, No Secrets was officially certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on December 12, 1997.
The album is ranked No. 997 in All-Time Top 1000 Albums (3rd. edition, 2000).

Recording and packaging

“Angel from Montgomery” was recorded by Carly Simon in her first session for the No Secrets album which was produced by Paul Buckmaster and featured James Taylor’s vocals and Danny Kortchmar on guitar. Simon recalls: “Elektra rejected [the tracks from that session] and…asked me to work with Richard Perry. [Elektra] didn’t think Buckmaster would produce a hit record for me”.

At the invitation of producer Richard Perry, Simon recorded the album at Trident Studios in London, where Perry was keen for Simon to work with engineer Robin Cable. Trident Studios had previously been the venue for the recording of notable albums including The Beatles’ White Album, David Bowie’s Space Oddity and Elton John’s second album.

The photograph for the cover, taken by Ed Caraeff, was shot in front of the Portobello Hotel, on Stanley Gardens in London’s Notting Hill.

Reception

Initial reviews for No Secrets were mixed to positive. Robert Christgau, writing in Creem, said, “if a horse could sing in a monotone, the horse would sound like Carly Simon, only a horse wouldn’t rhyme ‘yacht’, ‘apricot’, and ‘gavotte’. Is that some kind of joke?” Stephen Holden in Rolling Stone concluded that “what finally makes No Secrets so refreshing is her singing, which conveys the finest spirit of patrician generosity.”

More recent reviews have been much more positive. For example, AllMusic’s William Ruhlmann gave the album four-and-a-half stars (out of five). Ruhlmann noted that “You’re So Vain”, “set the album’s saucy tone, with its air of sexually frank autobiography and its reflections on the jet-set lifestyle.” He also stated that “now that she felt she had found true love, she was as willing to acknowledge her own mistakes and regrets as she was to point fingers.” He concluded that “Perry paid particular attention to Simon’s vocals and gave her music a new pop/rock ‘buoyancy that previous albums lacked’.”

“You’re So Vain” is ranked at No. 72 on Billboard‘s Greatest Songs of All-Time. The song was also voted No. 216 in RIAA’s Songs of the Century. It remains Simon’s biggest hit and is considered her signature song.

The making of the album, including commentary from many of the main musicians and production staff, was examined in the 2017 documentary Carly Simon: No Secrets directed by Guy Evans for Eagle Rock Film Productions.

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