Carly Simon

Carly Simon

Inspired by the broad tableau of American music which has surrounded her for a lifetime, from Broadway musicals to Hollywood, from folk and rhythm & blues to jazz standards and children’s music, from rock to pop and back again. Carly Simon is an accomplished singer, songwriter, producer, composer and musician. Add to this list her achievements as a writer of children’s books (five of them published so far on Simon & Schuster, the company co-founded by her father) and there is a picture of a rare artist. The release of her latest album on Arista, The Bedroom Tapes, coincides with the company’s 25th anniversary benefit concert broadcast. Most recently (in 1997), Carly Simon’s release of the album Film Noir completed a trilogy of recordings from the standard repertoire that began more than 15 years earlier with the album known simply as Torch (1981) and continued on Arista with My Romance (1990). Among the guests who brought their talent to Film Noir were Carly’s co-producer Jimmy Webb, legendary arrangers Arif Mardin, Torrie Zito and Van Dyke Parks, and Carly’s son Ben Taylor, who contributed background vocals on three songs. The highlight was a duet by Carly and John Travolta on the Hoagy Carmichael & Frank Loesser evergreen, “Two Sleepy People.” When Carly Simon was a 19 year-old student at Sarah Lawrence College, she joined her older sister Lucy on a lark as the Simon Sisters; the result was their first chart single, a folkie adaptation of the children’s poem “Winkin’, Blinkin’ and Nod.” Seven years later, nearly to the day, Carly made her solo debut with her self-titled album featuring the top 10 hit, “That’s the Way I’ve Always Heard It Should Be.” Over the course of the next decade, she piled up a litany of hits that defined the mood swings of the 1970s: “Anticipation,” “Legend In Your Own Time,” “You’re So Vain” (with Mick Jagger, backing vocals), “Mockingbird” (with James Taylor), “Haven’t Got Time For the Pain,” “Attitude Dancing,” “Nobody Does It Better” (from the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me), “Devoted To You” (a remake of the Everly Brothers tune, with Taylor) and “Jesse.” Director Mike Nichols’ personal request for Carly to score his 1986 film Heartburn (with Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson) resulted in “Coming Round Again.” The song turned into Simon’s Arista debut the following year (from the RIAA Platinum of the same name, her first million-seller in a decade) and her first top 20 hit in over five years. Her historic live HBO special from Martha’s Vineyard in 1988 turned into her next Arista Platinum album. The following year she won the Oscar-Golden Globe-Grammy trifecta for her song “Let the River Run” from the film Working Girl (with Harrison Ford and Melanie Griffith). Carly continued to compose music for film with the 1991 soundtrack for Postcards From the Edge. A year later, Nora Ephron’s This Is My Life included one of Carly’s greatest love songs, “You’re the Love Of My Life.” Her Arista albums went on to include My Romance (1990), Have You Seen Me Lately (also 1990), Letters Never Sent (1994), the definitive 3-CD box-set Clouds In My Coffee 1966-1996, and Film Noir (1997). With the long-awaited release of The Bedroom Tapes, Carly Simon’s waterfall of creativity continues to flow.


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