Our Top Ten Carly Simon Songs

Our Top Ten Carly Simon Songs Happy 66th Birthday, Carly Simon! Over the course of almost four decades, the legendary singer-songwriter has put out a respectable number of hit songs. As a member of the Simon publishing family (as in Simon & Schuster), we have a pretty good guess as to why she’s always had a very literate approach to her songs.

In celebration of Carly’s birthday, let’s have a listen at 10 of our favorite Carly Simon songs of all-time:

‘That's The Way I've Always Heard It Should Be’ This single was released in 1971 on her self-titled debut album. The song tells the story of a woman’s yearning for marriage and not yet seeing the serious limitation of her parents’ marriage. The lyric, “I see his cigarette glow in the dark” is a very telling detail that reveals the narrator’s father's disappointment.

Simon was once quoted saying, “When I first wrote it I thought it was an unusual thing for people to break up, and now all my friends are divorced.”

‘Anticipation’ Released in 1971 on her album with the same name, ‘Anticipation’ was a nice change of pace for Simon—it was written about a man in a positive light. The song centered on Simon waiting for singer/songwriter Cat Stevens to pick her up for their first date. Years later, the track was also featured in a ketchup commercial.

‘You're So Vain’ Released in 1972, ‘You're So Vain’ became a perennial guessing game in the 70s, and eventually, Simon’s most famous song. As the lyrics go: “You’re so vain / you probably think this song is about you.” Who was she talking about in this sardonic ode to male conceit—Mick Jagger, James Taylor or Warren Beatty? The only person who knows for sure is TV-exec Dick Ebersol, who coughed up $50,000 to learn the truth, but was also sworn to secrecy. Just last year, it came out that Simon may have been singing about record producer David Geffen—a big disappointment if so! Either way, Simon was so angry at this mystery ex-boyfriend that she reportedly spit on the stage floor once while performing it.

‘You’re So Vain’ was certified Gold and ranked No. 72 on Billboard’s Greatest Songs of All-Time.

‘We Have No Secrets’ ‘We Have No Secrets’ was released as a single in 1973 off her ‘No Secrets’ album. This is one of the more vulnerable songs in Simon’s repertoire. The lyrics detail the pain of being involved with a boyfriend who is probably fooling around behind her back and doesn’t take the relationship as seriously as she does.

‘The Right Thing To Do’ Released 1973 on her album ‘No Secrets’, this upbeat love song was actually written about Simon’s then-husband, James Taylor. Word has it, the song was written after Simon saw Taylor perform at Carnegie Hall—when she went backstage to greet him, they ended up scheduling a date for that same night.

‘Mockingbird’ In 1973, Simon and her then-husband James Taylor recorded a remake of this Inez and Charlie Foxx song. The Simon/Taylor version of ‘Mockingbird’, which included altered lyrics and new keyboard arrangements by Taylor, was the first single released on Simon’s album ‘Hotcakes’. It became a Top 5 success on the U.S. charts.

‘Nobody Does It Better’ ‘Nobody Does It Better’ was recorded in 1977 as the theme song for the James Bond film ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’. It became the first Bond theme song to be titled differently from the name of the film, although the phrase “the spy who loved me” is in the lyrics. The song became a hit immediately upon release, sitting at No. 2 on the U.S. singles chart for three weeks. It also earned Simon an Academy Award nomination for Best Song.

‘Coming Around Again’ This single was released in 1986 on Simon’s album with the same name. Similarly to ‘Let The River Flow’, the lyrics of ‘Coming Around Again’ make it somewhat of a rebirth song—“ I know nothing stays the same / but if you're willing to play the game / it's coming around again.”

‘Let The River Run’ ‘Let The River Run’ was first featured in the 1988 film ‘Working Girl’ starring Melanie Griffith. Unlike many of Simon’s other songs, this track is exuberant—it seems to mirror Tess McGuill’s (Griffith’s character) rise from secretary to Wall Street exec. The song won an Academy Award for Best Original Song (1988), a Golden Globe from Best Original Song-Motion Picture (1989) and a Grammy for Best Song Written Specifically For A Motion Picture (1989).

'Moonlight Serenade' One of Simon's more recent singles, 'Moonlight Serenade', came off of her 2005 album with the same name. The super-smooth track is a reworking of the instrumental Glenn Miller standard. While it wasn’t necessarily a big hit on the charts, the song shows another side of Simon.