Carly Simon

About

From Wikipedia:

Carly Elisabeth Simon (born June 25, 1945) is an American singer, songwriter, and children’s author. She rose to fame in the 1970s with a string of hit records; her 13 Top 40 U.S. hits include “Anticipation” (No. 13), “Haven’t Got Time for the Pain” (No. 14), “Attitude Dancing” (No. 21), “You Belong to Me” (No. 6), “Coming Around Again” (No. 18), and her four Gold-certified singles “You’re So Vain” (No. 1), “Mockingbird” (No. 5, a duet with James Taylor), “Nobody Does It Better” (No. 2) from the 1977 James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me, and “Jesse” (No. 11). She has authored five children’s books as well as two memoirs.

In 1964, Simon began a brief stint with her sister Lucy Simon as the Simon Sisters. The duo released three albums, beginning with Meet The Simon Sisters, which featured “Winkin’, Blinkin’ and Nod”. Based on the poem by Eugene Field, the song became a minor hit and reached No. 73 on the Billboard Hot 100. After Lucy left the group, Carly found great success as a solo artist with her 1971 self-titled debut album, which won her the Grammy Award for Best New Artist, and spawned her first Top 10 single, “That’s the Way I’ve Always Heard It Should Be” (No. 10), which earned her a Grammy Award nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Her second album, Anticipation, followed later that year and became an even greater success, spawning the successful singles “Anticipation” and “Legend in Your Own Time”, earning her another Grammy Award nomination, and becoming her first album to be certified Gold by the RIAA. Simon achieved international fame with her third album, No Secrets (1972), which sat at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for five weeks, was certified Platinum, and spawned the worldwide hit “You’re So Vain”, which sat at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks, and earned her three Grammy Award nominations, including Record of the Year and Song of the Year. The album’s second single, “The Right Thing to Do”, as well as its B-side, “(We Have) No Secrets”, were also successful. Her fourth album, Hotcakes (1974), soon followed and became an instant success, reaching No. 3 on the Billboard 200, going Gold almost immediately, and spawning the hit singles “Mockingbird” and “Haven’t Got Time for the Pain”. In 1977, Simon recorded “Nobody Does It Better” as the theme song to the Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me, and it became a worldwide hit. The song garnered her another Grammy Award nomination, and was the No. 1 Adult Contemporary hit of 1977. Retrospectively, it has been ranked one of the greatest Bond themes. Simon began recording more songs for films in the 1980s, including “Coming Around Again” for the film Heartburn (1986). The song became a major Adult Contemporary hit, and the Coming Around Again album appeared the following year, to further critical and commercial success, earning Simon another Grammy Award nomination, and spawning three more Adult Contemporary hit singles. With her 1988 hit “Let the River Run”, from the film Working Girl, Simon became the first artist to win a Grammy Award, an Academy Award, and a Golden Globe Award for a song composed and written, as well as performed, entirely by a single artist.

One of the most popular of the confessional singer/songwriters who emerged in the early ’70s, Simon has amassed 24 Billboard Hot 100 charting singles and 28 Billboard Adult Contemporary charting singles. Among her various accolades, she has won two Grammy Awards, from 14 nominations, and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame for “You’re So Vain” in 2004. AllMusic called her “one of the quintessential singer-songwriters of the ’70s”. She has a contralto vocal range, and has cited Odetta as a significant influence. Simon was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1994. She was honored with the Boston Music Awards Lifetime Achievement in 1995, and received a Berklee College of Music Honorary Doctor of Music Degree in 1998. In 2005, Simon was nominated for a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, but she has yet to claim her star. In 2012, she was honored with the Founders Award from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. In 2022, Simon was nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Last updated on March 16, 2022