You're So Vain



"You're So Vain" is a song written in 1971 by Carly Simon and released in November 1972. The song is a critical profile of a self-absorbed lover about whom Simon asserts "You're so vain, you probably think this song is about you." The title subject's identity has long been a matter of speculation, with Simon stating that the song refers to three men, only one of whom she has named publicly, actor Warren Beatty. The song is ranked at #92 on Billboard ' s Greatest Songs of All-Time. "You're So Vain" was voted #216 in RIAA's Songs of the Century, and in August 2014, the UK's Official Charts Company crowned it the ultimate song of the 1970s.

The distinctive bass guitar intro is played by Klaus Voormann. The strings were arranged by Simon and orchestrated by Paul Buckmaster. Simon plays piano on the track.

Subject of the song
Before the song became a hit single in 1972, Simon told an interviewer that the song was about "men," not a specific "man".

In 1983, she said it is not about Mick Jagger, who contributed uncredited backing vocals to the song. In a 1993 book, Angie Bowie claimed to be the "wife of a close friend" mentioned in "You're So Vain", and that Jagger, for a time, had been "obsessed" with her. Simon made another comment about the subject's identity as a guest artist on Janet Jackson's 2001 single, "Son of a Gun (I Betcha Think This Song Is About You)", which sampled "You're So Vain". Simon said about the song, "The apricot scarf was worn by Nick (Delbanco). Nothing in the words referred to Mick."

In a 2007 interview, Warren Beatty said, "Let's be honest. That song was about me." Simon had said in 1983 that Beatty "certainly thought it was about him — he called me and said thanks for the song..." In an interview for the 1978/1982 version of The History of Rock and Roll radio series, producer Richard Perry acknowledges that Simon was essentially referring to Beatty while also evoking other previous relationships in her life.

Over the years Simon has divulged "letter clues" and has claimed that the subject's name contains the letters A, E, and R.

Shortly before the writing of the song, Simon was married to James Taylor; she has said that he was "definitely not" the subject of the song. David Bowie, David Cassidy and Cat Stevens have all been cited by the press as speculative candidates.

In August 2003 Simon agreed to reveal the name of the song's subject to the highest bidder of the Martha's Vineyard Possible Dreams charity auction. With the top bid of $50,000, Dick Ebersol, president of NBC Sports and a friend of Simon, won the right to know the name of the subject of "You're So Vain". A condition of the prize was that Ebersol not reveal the name. Ebersol said Simon allowed him to divulge a clue about the person's name: "Carly told me that I could offer up to the entire world a clue as to what she'll tell me when we have this night in about two weeks. And the clue is: The letter 'E' is in the person's name."

In 2004 Simon told Regis Philbin, "If I tell it, it's going to come out in dribs and drabs. And I've given out two letters already, an 'A' and an 'E.' But I'm going to add one to it. I'm going to add an 'R,' in honor of you."

In 2005 Simon's ex-husband Jim Hart said he was sure that the song was not about anyone famous.

On June 19, 2008, Howard Stern stated that Simon had privately revealed to him about whom the song was written after her interview on his popular radio show on Sirius Satellite Radio. Stern commented, "There is an odd aspect to it... he's not that vain." On March 17, 2009, Stern stated that she had said it was a "composite of three people." Stern repeated this on May 5, 2014, stating, "She takes me aside, pulls me close, whispers in my ear... three names. She goes, it wasn't one person, it was three people." Simon herself confirmed that Stern was among "a few people" that she had given the names to.

In her 2008 book Girls Like Us, author Sheila Weller includes a detailed account of Simon's love affair with musician Dan Armstrong, and suggests that he was the inspiration for "You're So Vain." Her heartbreak over eventually losing him inspired the song "Dan, My Fling," which appears on her first album. Armstrong's full name, Daniel Kent Armstrong, contains all three letters of Simon's clue.

On November 4, 2009, Simon said she had hidden the name of the subject in a certain version of the song. The next day, the program's crew revealed the name concealed in a back-played whisper: David. Simon denied that the whisper was "David," saying she had spoken "Ovid" both forwards and backwards, and that sounded like David. In February 2010, Simon reiterated that the name of the subject was whispered in a re-recording of "You're So Vain": "There's a little whisper&mdash;and it's the answer to the puzzle." A representative for Simon confirmed that the name whispered during the song is "David". Multiple media outlets then speculated that the subject was Simon's former boss at Elektra, David Geffen. The following day Jim Hart, Simon's ex-husband and close friend, denied that the song was about Geffen. Simon said that when she wrote the song in 1971, she had not yet met Geffen. Simon's publicist also confirmed the song was not about Geffen, but that there was indeed "a David who is connected to the song in some way, shape, or form". Vanity Fair noted that in addition to "David", "Warren" and an unintelligible name are whispered during the recording.

After her live performance of the song with Simon in July 2013, Taylor Swift stated that Simon had revealed the identity of the song's subject to her in confidence.

In November 2015, Simon, promoting her about-to-be-published memoir, said, "I have confirmed that the second verse is Warren (Beatty)" and added that while "Warren thinks the whole thing is about him," he is the subject of that verse only, with the remainder of the song referring to two other, still unnamed men.

References in the song

 * Gavotte — used in the line "You had one eye in the mirror as you watched yourself gavotte" — is a French kissing dance. In this context it can be taken to mean moving in a pretentious manner.
 * Simon said the line "clouds in my coffee" came "from an airplane flight that I took with Billy Mernit, who was my friend and piano player at the time. As I got my coffee, there were clouds outside the window of the airplane and you could see the reflection in the cup of coffee. Billy said to me, 'Look at the clouds in your coffee'."
 * The line "I hear you went up to Saratoga and your horse naturally won" refers to the Saratoga Race Course horse-racing season held in late July, August, and early September in Saratoga Springs, New York. The season is frequented by the rich and famous of New York and other East Coast cities.
 * Two solar eclipses ("Then you flew your Lear jet up to Nova Scotia to see the total eclipse of the sun") were visible from Nova Scotia in the early 1970s, on March 7, 1970, and July 10, 1972. Simon said she wrote the song in 1971, but the 1972 eclipse (which could only be seen in Nova Scotia as opposed to the 1970 eclipse which traversed the entire East Coast, and also happened during the Saratoga racing season) better fits the narrative.

Later versions and adaptations

 * The song has been recorded by Chocolate Starfish, The Mountain Goats, David Axelrod, John Barrowman, Liza Minnelli, Jack Klugman and Tony Randall (as "The Odd Couple"), Chimira, Venice, The Feeling, Jann Arden, Janet Jackson (who sampled the song in "Son of a Gun (I Betcha Think This Song Is About You)", with Simon providing featured vocals), Trey Songz (who sampled from Janet Jackson in his single "About You)," Anna Waronker, Faster Pussycat, Dres, Daryll-Ann, Smokie, Sally Seltmann, Asaro and Wolcott, Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs, Marilyn Manson (featuring Johnny Depp), and Italian pop star Mina in her 1985 album Finalmente ho conosciuto il conte Dracula....
 * Foo Fighters performed the song live at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards in 2008.
 * On July 27, 2013, Simon performed "You're So Vain" with Taylor Swift on her Red Tour.
 * The song "Starfuckers, Inc." by Nine Inch Nails, released in 2000, references "You're So Vain", by quoting the chorus.
 * Supporters of English football team Everton F.C. sang the song to player Leighton Baines at the 2009 football matches.
 * On their 2009 album Felony, New York City metalcore band Emmure had a song titled "R2Deepthroat" where vocalist Frankie says "You're so vain, I bet you think this song is about you, don't you?"
 * In the lead-up to the 2016 US presidential election, Simon authorized the use of the song in an ad against Donald Trump.
 * In a piece posted by BBC News on May 5, 2017, Simon sings a previously unreleased fourth verse to the song, which she states had been written on a pad some time ago but never made it into the song. It references a man, married multiple times, who "called her once to ask her things she couldn't quite divine".
 * On the October 3, 2017, episode of the reality television singing competition program The Voice, Karli Webster performed a shortened version of the song for a Blind Audition, which turned the chairs of prospective coaches Adam Levine and Miley Cyrus. (The full version of Webster's rendition is available for purchase and download on iTunes.)  Webster ultimately chose Cyrus as her coach and joined Team Miley.

Chart performance
The song was a number-one hit in the US, Canada and Australia and reached number four in Ireland and South Africa. Bowing at #99 on the Billboard Hot 100 on 2 December 1972, the song took only five more weeks to rocket to the top of the chart, where it stayed for the first three weeks of 1973, also spending two weeks at the top of the Easy Listening chart in early 1973, her first number one on either chart. "You're So Vain" was Simon's breakthrough hit in the United Kingdom, reaching number three on the UK chart on its original release in 1973. The song was re-released in the UK in 1991 to cash in on its inclusion in a commercial for Dunlop Tyres, peaking at number 41.

Awards

 * rowspan="3"| 1974
 * rowspan="4"| "You're So Vain"
 * Record of the Year
 * Nominated
 * Song of the Year
 * Nominated
 * Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female
 * Nominated
 * 2004
 * Grammy Hall of Fame Award
 * Inducted
 * }
 * 2004
 * Grammy Hall of Fame Award
 * Inducted
 * }