1963–1969: The Simon Sisters and Elephant's Memory 's
Great American Dream Machine Simon's career began with a music group with her sister
Lucy Simon as
the Simon Sisters, with Lucy singing
soprano and Carly
contralto. The duo made one more album together, 1969's
The Simon Sisters Sing the Lobster Quadrille and Other Songs for Children (which was released on CD in 2008 under the title
Carly & Lucy Simon Sing Songs for Children). In the Peter Coan biography "Taxi: The
Harry Chapin Story", it had been suggested that Chapin, performing with his brothers, had briefly considered an idea of merging their act with the Simon Sisters, and performing under the new moniker "The Brothers and Sisters". This idea was scrapped once Chapin and Simon's careers as solo artists began to gain traction. Simon collaborated with eclectic New York rockers
Elephant's Memory for about six months in the late '60s. Simon later said of her time with the band: "I hated the gigs. We played clubs where everyone smoked dope and cigarettes at the same time. The sound systems were so dreadful I lost my voice easily and regularly, and after a summer I quit." In 1968, Simon met and befriended
Jacob Brackman. Brackman would later become a frequent songwriting collaborator, with Simon describing him as her best friend: "When I moved to my apartment on 35th St. (Murray Hill), Jake lived around the corner and we were inseparable, sharing our social lives. He introduced me to so many of the friends I still have." Her second album,
Anticipation, followed November 1971. Like its predecessor, the album peaked at No. 30 on the
Billboard 200, and earned Simon a nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance at the
15th Annual Grammy Awards. Writing for
Rolling Stone,
Stephen Davis gave a glowing review of the album, calling the title track "a spirited examination of the tensions involved in a burgeoning romantic situation in which
nobody has any idea of what's going on or what's going to happen." He also singled out "Our First Day Together" as "a quiet song, lovely and quite enigmatic, with a trace of the minor chord influence of
Joni Mitchell," as well as "I've Got To Have You", which he described as "an absolute clincher." On her experience of recording the album, Simon later said: "It was one of the best memories I shall ever have of recording. I had a band. The entire album was just that band (
Andy Newmark, Jimmy Ryan, Paul Glanz) and myself.
Cat Stevens did some vocals and there were strings on a few songs, but on the whole, it was sparse, and I loved it." The album's lead single, also titled "
Anticipation", became a significant hit, reaching No. 3 at Easy Listening radio and No. 13 on ''Billboard's'' Pop singles chart. It subsequently became notable in popular culture for its use in a variety of commercials to market the ketchup of the
H. J. Heinz Company. The single was written in 15 minutes while Simon waited for Cat Stevens to pick her up for a date. The pair had become romantically involved shortly after Simon had opened for Stevens at
L.A.'s Troubadour around the time her debut album was released. The next single release, "
Legend in Your Own Time", made a more modest impact on the Pop singles chart, peaking at No. 50. It was very successful on the Easy Listening chart, nearly cracking the top 10 at No. 11. The closing song, "I've Got to Have You" (written by
Kris Kristofferson), was released as a single in
Australia and reached the Top 10 on the
Kent Music Report in 1972. Also in 1971, Simon appeared as an auditioning singer in
Miloš Forman film
Taking Off, performing "Long Term Physical Effects", which was also included on the
soundtrack album for the film.
1972–1974: No Secrets, "You're So Vain", and Hotcakes Simon scored the biggest success of her career in 1972–73 with "
You're So Vain". The single hit No. 1 on the U.S. Pop and
Adult Contemporary charts, sold over a million copies in the United States alone, and became one of the decade's biggest hits. The song's success propelled Simon's breakthrough album,
No Secrets, to No. 1 on the
Billboard 200 chart for five consecutive weeks. The album achieved
Gold status that year, and by its 25th anniversary in 1997, it had been certified
Platinum. "You're So Vain" received nominations for
Record of the Year,
Song of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female at the
16th Annual Grammy Awards, Additionally, it was inducted into the
Grammy Hall of Fame in 2004 and was listed at No. 72 in 2008 on the
Billboard Hot 100's list of the top 100 songs from the chart's first 50 years, August 1958 through July 2008. On August 23, 2014, the
UK Official Charts Company gave it the accolade of 'ultimate song of the 1970s'. In 2021,
Rolling Stone ranked it No. 495 on their list of the
500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The subject of "You're So Vain" became one of the biggest mysteries in popular music, with the famous lyric "You're so vain/I bet you think this song is about you". For more than 40 years, Simon never publicly revealed the name of the subject. She hinted that it could be a composite of several people, with most press speculation considering
Mick Jagger, who sings backup vocals on the recording, and
Warren Beatty. Simon hinted the identity to a variety of talk shows and publications over the years, and, on August 5, 2003, auctioned off the information to the winner of a charity function for US$50,000, with the condition that the winner, television executive
Dick Ebersol, not reveal it. The follow-up single, "
The Right Thing to Do" (a love song directed to Simon's then husband
James Taylor), was another sizable hit later in 1973, reaching No. 4 on the Adult Contemporary chart and No. 17 on the Pop chart. The single's B-side, "
We Have No Secrets", also became noteworthy;
Rolling Stone critic
Stephen Holden regarded the track as exemplifying the theme of
No Secrets, which he saw as the "difficulty of being happy," by "painfully" expressing "the realization that emotion and rationalization are often irreconcilable." That same year, Simon performed on
Lee Clayton's self-titled album and co-sang on the song "New York Suite 409". She also performed on brother-in-law
Livingston Taylor's album
Over the Rainbow, and sang with both Livingston and his famous brother James on the songs "Loving Be My New Horizon" and "
Pretty Woman". '' In 1974, Simon followed the hugely successful
No Secrets album with
Hotcakes, which became an instant hit. It reached No. 3 on the
Billboard 200, remained on the chart for nearly eight months, and went Gold.
Hotcakes included two top ten singles: "
Mockingbird", a duet with James Taylor that peaked at No. 5 on ''Billboard's'' Pop Singles chart, and "
Haven't Got Time for the Pain", which hit No. 2 on ''Billboard's
Adult Contemporary chart. The album was also well received critically; Jon Landau, writing in Rolling Stone
, stated "Hotcakes'' is playful-sounding with some serious overtones — a balance that best suits [Simon] for the time being." He also singled out the tracks "Think I'm Gonna Have a Baby", "Forever My Love", and "Haven't Got Time for the Pain" as "substantial songs and performances, superior to almost everything else she has so far recorded." 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".
1975–1977: Playing Possum, "Nobody Does it Better", and continued success Simon's
Playing Possum (1975) and
Another Passenger (1976) continued her run of high-profile and generally well-received album releases.
Playing Possum hit the Top 10 on the
Billboard 200, and garnered a successful Top 40 single with "
Attitude Dancing", as well as two other charting singles, but its racy album cover, which depicts Simon wearing only a black negligee and knee-high black boots, generated controversy. It was nominated for
Best Album Package at the
18th Annual Grammy Awards. Shortly after the release of
Playing Possum, Elektra released her first greatest hits album,
The Best of Carly Simon. A major success, it went Gold within three weeks of release, and eventually became Simon's all-time best-selling disc, reaching Triple-Platinum status in the United States by the mid-1990s.
Another Passenger reached No. 29 on
Billboard 200 and produced only one charting single on the Pop singles chart, "
It Keeps You Runnin' (written by
Michael McDonald of
the Doobie Brothers), which peaked just outside the Top 40 at No. 46. The second single, "
Half a Chance", only charted on the Adult Contemporary chart, peaking at No. 39. Despite the lukewarm commercial reception, the album was, and remains one of Simon's best reviewed works;
Rolling Stone called it "Carly Simon's best record", and it became a favorite among many of Simon's fans. To promote the album, Simon made her only appearance on
Saturday Night Live, on
May 8, 1976. It was a pre-taped performance—a rare occurrence on that show—because she suffered terrible bouts of
stage fright. In the appearance, she sang two songs: "Half a Chance" and her
signature song, "You're So Vain". That same year saw Simon contributing backup vocals on the song "Peter" on
Peter Ivers's self-titled album. In 1977, Simon had an international hit with the million-selling Gold single "
Nobody Does It Better", the theme to the
James Bond film
The Spy Who Loved Me. The song, her second-biggest U.S. hit after "You're So Vain", was 1977's biggest Adult Contemporary hit, where it held No. 1 for seven consecutive weeks. The single peaked one step behind
Debby Boone's hugely successful hit "
You Light Up My Life" on
Billboards Pop Singles chart from October 22 to November 5, 1977, and received nominations for
Song of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female at the
20th Annual Grammy Awards. In 2012,
Rolling Stone ranked it the third-greatest
James Bond theme song, the later which comes from Simon's album
Another Passenger. She was featured on the front covers of
People and
Rolling Stone magazines that year. Also in 1978, Simon and Taylor sang backing vocals on two songs for Taylor's sister
Kate's album
Kate Taylor: "Happy Birthday Sweet Darling" and "Jason & Ida". They sang backup on three songs on
John Hall's debut solo album
John Hall: "The Fault", "Good Enough", and "Voyagers". They also sing backup on one song, "Power", from Hall's next album, 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 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). In 1979, Simon released her eighth studio album:
Spy. The album's sales were a disappointment, peaking at only No. 45 on the
Billboard 200, and it was her last album for Elektra. A hard-edged single from the album, "
Vengeance", became a modest hit and received airplay on U.S. album rock stations, and peaked at No. 48 on the
Billboard Pop singles chart. "Vengeance" earned Simon a nomination for
Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female at the
21st Annual Grammy Awards—the first ceremony to feature the new category. Simon made a
music video for the track, and she would later become the second female solo artist to be featured on
MTV's first day on the air in 1981 (
Pat Benatar was the first female solo artist to appear on
MTV, with "
You Better Run", and
Juice Newton was the third, with "
Angel of the Morning").
Spy also features the songs "Never Been Gone" and "We're So Close", which have become fan favorites and stand among Simon's personal favorites of her own songs. Simon later called "We're So Close" "the saddest song I've ever written. It was about how close you can pretend to be when you know it's all coming undone. How you can use excuses to make it all look okay." In 2009, Simon released
Never Been Gone, an album which includes a newly recorded version of "Never Been Gone", along with some of her other greatest hits.
1980–1981: Move to Warner Bros, Come Upstairs, "Jesse", and Torch In 1980, Simon signed with Elektra's sibling label
Warner Bros. Records and released her ninth studio album:
Come Upstairs. In
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, during a show to promote the album, Simon fainted and collapsed onstage from exhaustion due to stage fright; "Fourteen shows were booked. I made it through eight and collapsed on stage. I had gotten very thin - only 114lbs. I canceled the rest of the shows," Simon later stated. She subsequently performed considerably less throughout the 1980s. From that album, Simon scored another million-selling U.S. Gold single with the hit "
Jesse", which peaked at No. 11 on
Billboard Pop singles chart and remained on the chart for six months. Simon later said of the track: "'Jesse' was a song laying plain the fact that good intentions go to hell when you are crazy for someone." Ruhlmann additionally singled out the title track as "frisky and seductive" and referred to the album's second single, "Take Me as I Am", as "an upbeat raver." 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—"Maryanne"—to the 1982 follow-up album
In Harmony 2, which was also produced by Lucy and her husband. Both albums won the
Grammy Award for Best Album for Children, in
1981 and
1983, respectively. Simon's 10th release,
Torch (1981), was an album of melancholy jazz standards, recorded long before it became fashionable for rock artists to delve into the "great American songbook". It peaked outside the Top 40 on
Billboard 200 (at No. 50), but remained on the charts for nearly six months and subsequently became one of her best-selling catalogue albums. The album was well-received critically; Stephen Holden, writing in
Rolling Stone, called the album "a gorgeous throwback", stating Simon's "magnificent alto, with its rough-and-tumble lows and wistful highs, has never sounded better."
Torch also features one original song by Simon, "From the Heart", as well as
Stephen Sondheim's "Not a Day Goes By", from his then-new musical
Merrily We Roll Along.
1982–1985: "Why", Hello Big Man, move to Epic, and commercial decline In 1982, Simon sang the
Nile Rodgers &
Bernard Edwards-produced single "
Why", from the
soundtrack album to the film
Soup for One. It was a Top 10 hit in the U.K., and successful throughout Europe. Although "Why" stalled at No. 74 in the U.S., the song became a mellow classic in the aftermath of its being picked up to be covered and sampled by different artists from around 1989 onward. In 2015,
Pitchfork ranked it No. 188 on their list of the 200 Best Songs of the 1980s. She had another UK success (No. 17) with the single "
Kissing with Confidence", a song from 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. In 1983, Simon released her 11th album,
Hello Big Man. Although it suffered from disappointing sales, the album received critical acclaim.
Rolling Stone stated "Simon has returned to the sort of beautiful, folk-based singing and songwriting that originally made the world fall in love with her." Additionally, they singled out the title track and "It Happens Everyday" as "two of the album's best songs." The lead single, "
You Know What to Do", peaked at No. 83 on the
Billboard Hot 100 chart, and No. 36 on the Adult Contemporary chart. 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). In 1984, Simon made an uncredited cameo appearance in
Ray Parker Jr.'s music video for "
Ghostbusters", the theme song from the
film of the same name. By this time, her contract with Warner Bros. had ended. In 1985, she signed with
Epic Records and released her 12th album,
Spoiled Girl. The album yielded two singles: "
Tired of Being Blonde" and "
My New Boyfriend", with only the former charting on the
Billboard Hot 100 (No. 71) and Adult Contemporary chart (No. 34). In July 2012, Hot Shot Records re-released the album as a deluxe edition with four bonus tracks. One of the album's tracks, "The Wives Are in Connecticut", caught the attention of
Nora Ephron and
Mike Nichols, who asked Simon to score their upcoming film
Heartburn. Critical reception was also largely positive;
People wrote "Simon remains perhaps the most interesting of women pop singers. This album proves she is still captivating." Similarly,
The New York Times called it "the latest and one of the strongest chapters in a growing catalogue," it "embodies everything that the 41-year-old singer-songwriter does best." The album remained on the
Billboard 200 for over a year, became Simon's first Gold release in nine years, and went Platinum in 1988. It garnered her a Grammy Award nomination for
Best Female Pop Vocal Performance that same year. In October 2017, Hot Shot Records released a two-disc 30th Anniversary deluxe edition of the album. These and older songs were featured in a picturesque
HBO concert special titled ''
Live from Martha's Vineyard, where Simon and her band performed live on a specially built stage in the town of Gay Head in early June 1987. Most of these songs were compiled for her 1988 album, Greatest Hits Live''. Simon's first live album;
Greatest Hits Live continued her mounting comeback, quickly going Gold, before later certified Platinum by the
RIAA in 1996. From the album, a recording of Simon's evergreen "You're So Vain" was released as a single in the UK. • "Something More" for the film
Love Child (1982). • "Someone Waits for You" for the film
Swing Shift (1984). • "All the Love in the World" for the film
Torchlight (1985). • "It's Hard To Be Tender" for the television
miniseries Sins (1986). • "If It Wasn't Love" for the film
Nothing in Common (1986). • "Two Looking at One" for the film
The Karate Kid Part II (1986). • "
Coming Around Again"/"
Itsy Bitsy Spider" for the film
Heartburn (1986). • "
Let the River Run" for the film
Working Girl (1988), for which she won the
Academy Award for Best Original Song (1988), the
Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song (1988), and the
Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media (1990). After the success of "Coming Around Again", Nichols asked Simon to score his next film,
Working Girl. She spent the better part of 1988 scoring the film, and according to Simon, the studio threatened to replace "Let the River Run" with "
Witchy Woman" by the
Eagles. "Let the River Run" became a major hit, peaking at No. 49 on the
Billboard Hot 100 and No. 11 on the Adult Contemporary chart. In 2004,
AFI ranked the song at No. 91 on their list of the
100 greatest songs in American cinema. The
Working Girl soundtrack album was released in August 1989, and featured more music from Simon. That same year, she released her first children's book,
Amy the Dancing Bear. 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, Simon wrote and recorded a song titled "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 co-wrote and recorded the title song to the
Broadway play
Sleight of Hand. The song was later released as the B-side to the single "Give Me All Night", from the
Coming Around Again album. That same year, 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 on
A&M Records.
1990–1994: My Romance, Have You Seen Me Lately, and continued success In 1990, Simon released her second
standards album,
My Romance, and an album of original material,
Have You Seen Me Lately.
My Romance was quickly followed by another concert special for
HBO, titled
Carly in Concert: My Romance and featuring
Harry Connick, Jr. Have You Seen Me Lately features a title track that was supposed to have been the main theme for the
Mike Nichols film
Postcards from the Edge; the entire title sequence – including the song – was deleted by producers, although a great deal of Simon's underscore compositions and thematic interludes remain in the film, eventually earning Simon her second BAFTA Award nomination for Best Original Film Score in
1991. The album was a critical and commercial success, spending eight months on the
Billboard 200, while Stephen Holden, writing in
The New York Times, called the album "superb" and the title track "the album's most stunning moment." The album also features the major (No. 4) Adult Contemporary chart hit "
Better Not Tell Her", which remained on the chart for 21 weeks, becoming Simon's biggest hit of the 1990s. A second single, "Holding Me Tonight", was also a successful Adult Contemporary chart hit, peaking at No. 36. That same year, Simon published her second children's book,
The Boy of the Bells. In 1992, Simon wrote the music for the
Nora Ephron film
This Is My Life, and the
soundtrack album was released shortly thereafter. It includes the song "
Love of My Life", a No. 16 Adult Contemporary hit. In 1993, she contributed her performance of "
In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning", from her 1990 album
My Romance, to the Nora Ephron film
Sleepless in Seattle. It was also included on the film's soundtrack album. Simon recorded the same song in combination with "
Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out to Dry" with
Frank Sinatra for his album
Duets (1993). By this point, Sinatra's health was too poor for him to record, so the feat was accomplished by producers lifting an isolated prerecorded vocal track from an earlier performance and laying a new background – and Simon – behind it. The album later earned a nomination for
Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance at the
37th Annual Grammy Awards. In 1993, Simon was commissioned by the
Metropolitan Opera Association and the
Kennedy Center to record a contemporary opera that would appeal to younger people. The result was
Romulus Hunt (named after its 12-year-old protagonist), released in November of that year. In December 2014, the Nashville Opera Association premiered a new performance edition of the opera. Also in 1993, Simon published her fourth children's book,
The Nighttime Chauffeur, Simon wrote and performed the theme song, titled "The Promise and the Prize", for the short-lived sitcom
Phenom (1993–1994). 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 tribute album
The Glory of Gershwin. That same year, Simon recorded and released her 16th album,
Letters Never Sent. The album originated from Simon finding an old box of letters that she'd written, but never mailed, and she set a handful of them to music.
Entertainment Weekly stated "The results are funky, fascinating, and sumptuous. A daring move that pays off." From the album, Simon wrote "Like A River" in honor of her mother,
Andrea Simon, and "Touched by the Sun" for her dear friend,
Jackie Onassis, both of whom died from cancer in 1994. The song "The Night Before Christmas", originally written for the 1992 Nora Ephron film
This Is My Life and featured on the soundtrack album, was also featured in Ephron's 1994 film
Mixed Nuts, as well as its soundtrack album. That same year, Simon released
Bells, Bears and Fishermen, a spoken word recording of her first three children's books:
Amy the Dancing Bear,
The Boy of the Bells, and ''The Fisherman's Song
, complete with sound effects and original music. It was re-released on Blu-ray, Vinyl and CD on January 27, 2023. Simon also featured in an episode of the Lifetime original series Intimate Portrait'', which was broadcast the same night. Also in 1995, she performed on an American concert tour in conjunction with
Hall & Oates. On August 30, 1995, Simon 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. Simon performed a duet with
Mindy Jostyn on the song "Time, Be on My Side", which featured on Jostyn's 1995 album
Five Miles from Hope about her recent
battle with colon cancer. Ten years later, Jostyn died from the disease at the age of 43. On November 7, 1995, Simon released the three-disc boxed set
Clouds in My Coffee. A full career retrospective at the time of its release, the box set features 58 songs spanning Simon's career from 1965 to 1995. Nine tracks were previously unreleased on any of Simon's albums, and the booklet includes numerous photographs and extensive liner notes by Simon. That same year, Simon and her sister Lucy sang on the track "The Great Mandala (The Wheel of Life)" from
Peter, Paul and Mary's album
LifeLines. In November 1995, 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, writing "Chrissie was a bit intoxicated and was yelling out during Joni's performance which needless to say, everybody wanted to hear. Chrissie was sitting right next to me and I asked her to be a little quieter. She started choking me in a loving way, saying: 'you're great too Carly, get up there, you need to do this too'. That's all it was about. I must say that her choking me in 'fun intoxication' looked to a lot of the audience like a fight. It was not. I just couldn't believe that no one was interceding and saying anything to her. I love her music and respect her as an artist. It was just one of those things. Go figure." Simon continued to write and record music for films, and wrote the theme songs to several more movies; these included "Two Little Sisters" from the
drama film ''
Marvin's Room (1996), and "In Two Straight Lines" from the family comedy Madeline'' (1998). She released her fifth children's book,
Midnight Farm, on August 1, 1997. ''Songs in Shadow: The Making of Carly Simon's Film Noir
aired as a special presentation on AMC. This documentary also features footage of Webb, Arif Mardin and Van Dyke Parks in the studio recording the album with Simon. The following year, the single-disc UK import The Very Best of Carly Simon: Nobody Does It Better was released, and became a UK Albums Chart hit, peaking at No. 22. That same year, Simon and her daughter Sally Taylor contributed the track "Amity" to the soundtrack album of the film Anywhere but Here''.
2000–2002: The Bedroom Tapes, departure from Arista, and Christmas album On May 16, 2000, Simon released her 18th studio album,
The Bedroom Tapes. Largely written and recorded at home in her bedroom while she was recuperating from her health problems of the previous couple of years, it was Simon's first album of original songs since
Letters Never Sent, nearly six years earlier.
The Bedroom Tapes peaked at only No. 90 on the
Billboard 200, but received widespread critical acclaim. AllMusic wrote that Simon was "as raw as she was on 1975's
Playing Possum, and just as sweet as 1987's
Coming Around Again, but Simon is fresh. Although in her mid-fifties, she is still a charmer." Writing for
Billboard, Steve Baltin called the album "A feast for fans of intelligent, richly crafted pop music", while
People wrote that the album "unfolds like a one-woman show", calling it a "Boffo performance." The opening track, "Our Affair", was remixed by
Richard Perry and featured on the soundtrack album of the 2000 film
Bounce, starring
Gwyneth Paltrow and
Ben Affleck. In 2001, Simon performed on "
Son of a Gun" with
Janet Jackson on Jackson's album
All for You. According to Jackson, she phoned Simon to ask for permission to use
samples of "You're So Vain", but Simon wanted to re-record her vocals. She agreed, with Simon wanting to write new lines. Jackson's producer
Jimmy Jam sent her the tracks they were already working on, and she went into a studio on
Martha's Vineyard to record some material. She
rapped, initially thinking that Jackson and the producers would not use it, but they decided to marry both tracks, as the singers thought it "worked perfectly", and it became a duet. Simon expressed that Jackson "could not have been sweeter or more appreciative." The song was released as a single and peaked at No. 28 on the
Billboard Hot 100. Simon also contributed backup 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. Titled "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 January 2002, Simon recorded a Christmas album,
Christmas Is Almost Here, while she was in Los Angeles to lend support to her son Ben Taylor and his band. It was released by
Rhino Records that October. That same year, Simon personally chose all of the songs for a new two-disc anthology album, simply titled
Anthology. This release represented every one of her studio albums (up until that point) with at least one song, digitally remastered, and also released on Rhino Records. The following year saw a re-release of her Christmas album with two extra tracks: "
White Christmas" (with
Burt Bacharach) and "Forgive" (with Andreas Vollenweider). These two tracks were also released together as a CD single. She also performed two concerts during the 2004 holiday season at
Harlem's
Apollo Theater, along with
BeBe Winans,
Rob Thomas, son Ben and daughter Sally,
Livingston Taylor, Mindy Jostyn and
Kate Taylor, along with other members of the Taylor and Simon family.
2003–2007: Reflections, move to Columbia, and commercial resurgence Simon wrote and recorded songs for the
Disney Winnie the Pooh films ''
Piglet's Big Movie in 2003 and Pooh's Heffalump Movie in 2005, as well as the direct-to-video A Very Merry Pooh Year in 2002. Several of her songs were also featured in the 2004 film Little Black Book, which starred Brittany Murphy and Holly Hunter, with Simon appearing as herself in a cameo role at the end of the film. In the spring of 2004, Simon released her fourth greatest hits album: Reflections: Carly Simon's Greatest Hits. The album was a great critical and commercial success, peaking at No. 22 on the Billboard
200, and remaining on the chart for 19 weeks. On March 2, 2007, the album was certified Gold by the RIAA. An international version of the album was also released; it hit No. 25 on the UK charts and went Gold there as well. Also in 2004, Simon performed a duet version of "The Right Thing to Do" with Megan Mullally for the TV soundtrack Will & Grace: Let the Music Out!''. In the summer of 2005, Simon released her fourth album of standards,
Moonlight Serenade, on
Columbia Records. A critical and commercial success, it reached No. 7 on the
Billboard 200 (her first Top 10 album on this chart since
Boys in the Trees in 1978), and she was nominated for the
Grammy Award for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album the following year. To promote
Moonlight Serenade, Simon performed two concerts on board the
RMS Queen Mary 2 that September, which were recorded and released on DVD as
A Moonlight Serenade on the Queen Mary 2 on November 22, 2005. Accompanied by her children, Sally and Ben, Simon embarked on a concert tour across the United States—her first tour in 10 years, titled "The Serenade Tour". She 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. One of Simon's closest friends, Jostyn was married to
Jacob Brackman, Simon's long-time friend and musical collaborator. In 2005, Simon 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 Andreas Vollenweider for his 2006 holiday album,
Midnight Clear, performing vocals on four tracks: "
Midnight Clear", "Suspended Note", "Hymn to the Secret Heart", and "Forgive" (which was a song Simon wrote for the 2003 re-release of her own 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 "Best of Friends", which became a Top 40 Adult Contemporary hit. In 2007, Simon released her fifth album of covers, a collection of "soothing songs and lullabies" called
Into White. The collection featured
covers of songs by
Cat Stevens,
the Beatles,
Judy Garland, and
the Everly Brothers, as well as two new original songs, "Quiet Evening" and "I'll Just Remember You", and a re-recording of Simon's own "
Love of My Life". The album also features vocal collaborations with her children; Ben and Sally, who perform a
trio with Simon on the track "
You Can Close Your Eyes", which author Sheila Weller described in her 2008 book
Girls Like Us as "slow, spectral" and "achingly beautiful."
People also praised the track, describing it as "dreamy", and calling it "the best moment on the album."
Into White continued Simon's recently rejuvenated high chart profile, and became
Billboard Hot Shot Debut, entering the chart at No. 15, peaking at No. 13 the following week, and remaining on the chart for 10 weeks.
2008–2011: This Kind of Love and Never Been Gone In March 2008, it was announced that Simon had signed with the
Starbucks label,
Hear Music. She released a new album titled
This Kind of Love with them in the spring of 2008. The album was her first collection of all original songs since 2000's
The Bedroom Tapes, and it became another commercial and critical success for Simon, reaching No. 15 on the
Billboard 200, and selling nearly 150,000 copies by 2009. On June 19, 2008, Simon and her son Ben performed "You're So Vain" together on
The Howard Stern Show on Sirius Satellite radio. On October 13, 2009, it was reported that Simon was suing Starbucks, saying they did not adequately promote
This Kind of Love. 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 October 27, 2009, Simon released her 23rd album,
Never Been Gone, on Iris Records. An album of acoustic reworkings of some of her greatest hits and classic songs, it also features two new songs: "No Freedom" and "Songbird". On November 26, 2009, Simon appeared on the
Care Bears float of the 83rd Annual
Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, where she performed an acoustic version of her hit "Let the River Run". On March 2, 2010,
BBC Radio 2 broadcast
An Evening With Carly Simon, where she performed live for the first time in the UK with her son Ben Taylor to a small audience of approximately 100 people. This coincided with the UK release of Simon's album
Never Been Gone, which was released for the
Mother's Day season and peaked at No. 45, becoming her first studio album to reach the
UK Albums Chart Top 100 since 1987's
Coming Around Again.
2012–2019: ASCAP Founders Award, collaborations, and memoirs On April 18, 2012, Simon was honored with the Founders Award from the
American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. She performed "
Anticipation" and "
You're So Vain" at the ceremony.
Bill Withers presented Simon with her award and honored her with a speech, and
Dixie Chicks lead singer
Natalie Maines performed Simon's 1971 hit "
That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be". Proceeds from the album were donated to the
human rights organization
Amnesty International. On July 27, 2013, in
Foxborough, Massachusetts, Simon performed "
You're So Vain" with
Taylor Swift on her
Red Tour. Swift had previously cited Simon as a musical influence and "You're So Vain" as one of her favorite songs. Later that year, Simon dueted with Jimmy Webb on the track "Easy for You to Say" from his album
Still Within the Sound of My Voice. On October 30, 2013, Simon performed alongside
Natasha Bedingfield at the
Oceana Partners Award Gala in
Los Angeles. On November 24, 2015, Simon published
Boys in the Trees: A Memoir, an autobiographical book focusing on her childhood and her early life, from age five until the year 1983. and
Billboard later ranked it No. 50 on their list of the 100 Greatest Music Books of All Time. The two-disc compilation album
Songs from the Trees (A Musical Memoir Collection) was simultaneously released along with the book. The album features songs written and/or recorded during the era the book covers, as well as two previously unreleased songs: "Showdown" (originally recorded during the sessions for Simon's 1978 album
Boys in the Trees) and "I Can't Thank You Enough", a brand new song written and performed with her son Ben Taylor. On February 14, 2016, Simon made a surprise appearance at
Clive Davis's Pre-
Grammy Party and performed "You're So Vain", which drew a "thunderous standing ovation", and appeared in Davis' Grammy Party Class Photo. Later that year, Simon confirmed during a book signing that she and her son Ben Taylor were working to release
EDM remixes of her signature songs. She also said she wanted to record an album with her two children. In April 2017, Simon featured on the deluxe edition of the
Gorillaz album
Humanz, on the track "Ticker Tape". That same year,
BBC Four broadcast the documentary
Carly Simon: No Secrets as part of their
Classic Albums series. It details the making of the album
No Secrets, and includes interviews with Simon, producer
Richard Perry, and many of the main musicians and production staff. The following year, Simon came to terms with the
Universal Music Publishing Group to administer her song portfolio. On October 22, 2019, Simon released a second memoir titled
Touched by the Sun: My Friendship with Jackie, which recounts her friendship with former
First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. As a tie-in to its release, Simon also released a newly mixed live version of "Touched by the Sun" from her 1995 concert special
Live at Grand Central as a single. The book was selected by
People as one of the top 10 books of 2019.
2020–present: Carnegie Hall tribute and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction On November 27, 2019, it was announced that Simon would be honored at
Carnegie Hall with a tribute concert, titled
The Music of Carly Simon, on March 19, 2020. On March 12, 2020, it was announced the concert had been postponed until fall due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. It was later rescheduled to take place on March 23, 2022, before being cancelled altogether due to COVID-19–related challenges. On February 2, 2022, Simon was announced as one of the 17 performers nominated for the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2022. On May 4, 2022, Simon was announced as one of the seven artists in the performer category being inducted. In an interview with
Rolling Stone, Simon stated "There's that first thought of, 'I don't believe it. It must be the
House of Pancakes I just got into.' Truly, I was dumbfounded. I thought they must be mistaken." Simon evenly jokingly theorized that the reason for being shut out of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame despite being eligible for 26 years prior was due to a her cameo scene in the 1985 film
Perfect where she had to throw a drink at star John Travolta's face in a restaurant with
Rolling Stone publisher (and Hall of Fame co-founder/former Hall chairman)
Jann Wenner, who also had cameo in the same scene; looking on, to which described their friendship as being "awkward" afterwards. When asked about the possibility of performing at the ceremony, Simon stated "I don't know. I'm not going to put myself onstage and scare the hell out of myself." Simon said she'd like Cat Stevens or
Robbie Robertson to induct her: "Those are the two people who were instrumental in my first solo light." It was announced on July 12, 2023, that the compilation album
These Are the Good Old Days: The Carly Simon and Jac Holzman Story would be released on CD and Vinyl on September 15, 2023. The collection features a mix of hits and deep cuts selected from Simon's first three albums, chosen and sequenced by Holzman. ==Personal life==