Carly Simon, The #31 Female Artist of the Rock Era

Carly Simon was born in New York City, New York.  She went to Riverdale Country School and briefly attended Sarah Lawrence College before leaving to pursue a musical career.  Carly and sister Lucy formed the Simon Sisters, who had a minor 1964 hit "Winkin', Blinkin' And Nod" and made three albums together.  After the end of that group, Carly joined the group Elephant's Memory for about six months.  She appeared in the 1971 movie Taking Off, and sang a song on the movie's soundtrack.

Simon signed a recording contract with Elektra Records, and released her self-titled debut album in 1971.  Her first single reached the Top 10.  Carly was nominated for Best Pop Female Vocalist for "That's The Way I've Always Heard It Should Be". 

  

To capitalize on the early momentum, Simon released the album Anticipation later in the year.  The title song reached #3 on the Easy Listening chart and #13 overall in the United States and #9 in Canada, and is famous for its use in ketchup commercials for Heinz.

Simon won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist.  In 1972, Carly released the album No Secrets, and came up with the smash of her career.  It reached #1 for three weeks in the U.S., sold over one million copies and was a Top 10 hit in nearly every major market in the world.  "You're So Vain" was nominated for Record of the Year and Best Pop Female Vocal Performance, Female.  The song is now one of The Top 500 Songs of the Rock Era*.

"You're So Vain" helped the album also hit #1 for six weeks; it has since gone Platinum.  Simon married James Taylor during this time in one of the great musical combinations of the Rock Era.  The follow-up single, "The Right Thing To Do", hit #4 on the Easy Listening Chart and #17 in the U.S. and the U.K.

In 1974, Carly released the album Hotcakes, which was a #3 Gold album itself.  Simon & Taylor combined for the song "Mockingbird".  The song reached #3 in Canada, #5 in the United States and #8 in Australia.

Next up was the single "Haven't Got Time For The Pain", which was a #2 Adult smash and #13 overall in the U.S. and #5 in Canada.

Simon released the album Playing Possum in 1975, which yielded the underrated single "Attitude Dancing", a #21 song in both the U.S. and Canada.

Simon's sales were declining, but she made an appearance on Saturday Night Live in 1976.  The following year, she scored a comeback hit with the smash "Nobody Does It Better", the theme to the James Bond movie The Spy Who Loved Me.  It was a #1 song for seven weeks on the Easy Listening chart and #2 overall in the United States and Canada.  The only song that beat it out was Debby Boone's "You Light Up My Life".  Simon was nominated for Song of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female.

In 1978, Simon proved she was back for good with the album Boys in the Trees, which went Platinum.  Carly made the covers of both Rolling Stone and People.  "You Belong To Me" reached #4 on the Adult Contemporary chart and #6 overall in the U.S. and #5 in Canada.  Carly received another Grammy nomination for Best Pop Female Vocalist. 

Simon & Taylor teamed up again for their cover of "Devoted To You", a #2 song on the AC chart.

Simon sang backup vocals for Taylor's sister Kate and on John Hall's debut solo album, and she sang on many of Taylor's albums.  After the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in 1979, Simon performed in the No Nukes concerts.  Later in the year, Carly released the album Spy, which didn't sell well but did earn another Grammy nomination for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female for "Vengeance".

In 1980, Carly signed with Warner Brothers Records and released the album Come Upstairs.  "Jesse" was a big multi-format hit, #4 in Australia, #8 on the AC chart and #11 overall in the U.S. and #12 in Canada.

Carly recorded "Be With Me" for the 1980 album In Harmony:  A Sesame Street Record, which won a Grammy for Best Album for Children.  Simon contributed "Maryanne", one of the songs the Simon Sisters had done, to the album In Harmony 2, which also won the Grammy in the same category.    

In 1981, Simon released the LP Torch, an album of jazz covers.  The single "Why" reached the Top 10 in the U.K. but success was contained there.  Her next two albums (Hello Big Man and Spoiled Girl) didn't fare well, but in 1987, Carly was back, signing a new contract with Arista Records and releasing the album Coming Around Again.  The title song was featured in the movie Heartburn and peaked at #5 on the AC chart and hit #10 in the U.K.  Simon was nominated for a Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

  

Simon enjoyed one of the best periods of her career on the chart that mattered the most, Adult Contemporary.  The second of four consecutive Top 10 AC hits from the Gold album Coming Around Again was "Give Me All Night".

Carly hit #8 on the Adult Contemporary chart with the single "The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of".

The fourth single from Carly's great album was "All I Want Is You", a #7 AC hit.

Simon recorded "The Turn Of The Tide" on a Marlo Thomas television special.  It was included on the soundtrack album and was adopted by the Democratic National Convention for their theme song.

Simon recorded numerous songs for movies, including Soup for One, Swing Shift, Nothing in Common and The Karate Kid, Part II.

Another of Carly's great movie songs was "Let The River Run" for the movie Working Girl.  She won the Oscar for Best Song from a Motion Picture, the Golden Globe in the same category and the Grammy for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media.  Carly thus became the first artist to win all three awards (Oscar, Golden Globe and Grammy) for a song that was written and performed entirely by one person (Bruce Springsteen became the only other such artist in 1993 with "Streets of Philadelphia".)

In 1988, Simon's concert at Martha's Vineyard was recorded for an HBO concert special, and Carly's Greatest Hits Live album went Platinum.  In 1990, Simon released her 15th career album, Have You Seen Me Lately.  The single "Better Not Tell Her" was a #4 hit on the AC chart.

Simon wrote the children's book "The Boy of the Bells" in 1990 and wrote the score for the movie Postcards from the Edge.  The following year, Simon wrote another children's book, "The Fisherman's Song".  She recorded "The Last Night of the World" with Placido Domingo for his album The Broadway I Love.

Simon wrote the music for the movie This Is My Life in 1992.  She also recorded "In the Wee Small Hours of the morning" for the blockbuster movie Sleepless in Seattle.

In 1992, Simon was commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera Association and the Kennedy Center to record the contemporary opera Romulus Hunt.  She also published another children's book, The Nighttime Chauffeur.

Carly was inducted into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame in 1994.

In 1995, Simon surprised commuters at New York's Grand Central Terminal with an unannounced performance that was filmed for a Lifetime Television Special.  In 1997, she recorded the album Film Noir, which was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Vocal Performance.  

Simon wrote her fifth children's book, "Midnight Farm".  She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1997, and went through surgery that year and again in 1998.  Carly sang backing vocals on Janet Jackson's All for You album.

Carly's smash "You're So Vain" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2004.  In 2005, Simon recorded another album of standards, Moonlight Serenade.  The project took off, giving Carly her biggest album in 30 years (#7), and she scored another Grammy nomination for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album.       

In 2012, Carly received the ASCAP Founder's Award.  She is still active writing, recording and performing.

Three-time Grammy Award winner Simon has sold over 12.5 million albums in the U.S. alone and has 11 Top 40 hits, with four making the Top 10 and one #1.  And, she has excelled with the most important group (adults), landing 28 hits, with 16 Top 10 songs and two #1's.