Carly Simon

Carly Elizabeth Simon (born June 25, 1945 in New York City) is an American musician who emerged as one of the leading lights of the early 1970s singer-songwriter boom.

Biography

Family

Simon's father was Richard L. Simon (co-founder of Simon & Schuster, Inc.), an accomplished pianist who often played Chopin and Beethoven at home. She was raised in the Riverdale neighborhood of New York City and has two sisters and a brother.

Related Topics:
Richard L. Simon - Simon & Schuster, Inc. - Chopin - Beethoven - Riverdale - New York City

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Simon married fellow singer-songwriter James Taylor in 1972. Simon and Taylor had two children, Sarah Maria "Sally" (born on January 7, 1974) and Benjamin Simon "Ben" Taylor (born on January 22, 1977), prior to their 1983 divorce.

Related Topics:
James Taylor - 1972 - Sarah Maria "Sally" - January 7 - 1974 - Benjamin Simon "Ben" - January 22 - 1977 - 1983

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Early career

After a short-lived attempt at launching a career with her sister Lucy (they had a minor hit in the mid-1960s with a version of the children's song "Winken, Blinken, and Nod" as "The Simon Sisters"), and a short spell with eclectic New York rockers Elephant's Memory, Simon launched her solo career in 1971 with the self-titled Carly Simon. The album contained a top-ten hit, "That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be", and was followed quickly by a second album, Anticipation, the title cut from which also scored airplay. Simon's major breakthrough, though, was 1972's No Secrets. The album spawned several successful singles, including Simon's biggest hit, "You're So Vain". (See that article for the enduring mystery of who the song is about).

Related Topics:
Lucy - Elephant's Memory - 1971 - Carly Simon - Anticipation - 1972 - No Secrets - You're So Vain

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Simon followed up the success of No Secrets with the well-received albums Hotcakes (1974) and Playing Possum (1975). Her sales began moderating, though in the later 1970s she would have hits with "Nobody Does It Better" (from the soundtrack to the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me) and "You Belong to Me" (from Boys in the Trees, 1978).

Related Topics:
Hotcakes - 1974 - Playing Possum - 1975 - 1970s - Soundtrack - James Bond - The Spy Who Loved Me - Boys in the Trees - 1978

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1980s

In 1980, Simon collapsed onstage of exhaustion, and largely retired from performing in the 1980s. Torch (1981) was an album of melancholy standards reflecting her mood at the time. "Why" (1982) was a hit in the UK, but few of her singles in the 1980s rose in the pop charts, although some did better among adult contemporary audiences. Moreover, during this time Simon successfully contributed to several film scores, including the songs "In The Wee Small Hours" for Sleepless In Seattle, "Coming Around Again" for Heartburn, and "Let the River Run" for Working Girl (for which she won the Academy Award for Best Song in 1988). The album Coming Around Again (1987) was her strongest during this decade, as exemplified by "Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of", and the title track, which wove in and out of the children's song "Itsy Bitsy Spider". These and older songs were featured in a picturesque HBO special set on Martha's Vineyard.

Related Topics:
1980 - 1980s - 1981 - Standards - Why - 1982 - Adult contemporary - Sleepless In Seattle - Working Girl - Academy Award for Best Song - 1988 - Coming Around Again - 1987 - HBO - Martha's Vineyard

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Later career

Simon worked on several projects in the 1990s including an opera Romulus Hunt and a cover of "Take Me Out To The Ball Game" for Ken Burns' 1994 film Baseball. In 1995 she put aside years of stage fright long enough to stage an American concert tour in conjunction with Hall and Oates. In 1998, Simon was diagnosed with breast cancer and received chemotherapy. In 2000 she recorded her first album since her illness, The Bedroom Tapes.

Related Topics:
1990s - Ken Burns - 1994 - 1995 - Stage fright - Hall and Oates - 1998 - Breast cancer - 2000 - The Bedroom Tapes

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Among Simon's recent work were songs for the Disney Winnie the Pooh film Piglet's Big Movie. Her songs were also prominently featured in the movie Little Black Book starring Brittany Murphy and Holly Hunter. In 2005 she released another album of standards titled Moonlight Serenade.

Related Topics:
Disney - Winnie the Pooh - Piglet's Big Movie - Brittany Murphy - Holly Hunter - 2005

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Also in 2005, she became involved in the legal defense of fellow musician and family friend John Forté with his struggle against a federal incarceration.

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Carly Simon currently lives on Martha's Vineyard and co-owns a store in Vineyard Haven named Midnight Farm, which is also the title of one of the series of children's books she wrote in the 1990s.

Related Topics:
Martha's Vineyard - Vineyard Haven

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Awards and recognition

Grammy Awards:

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• Best New Artist, 1972
• Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or Television, 1990, "Let the River Run" from Working Girl

Academy Award:

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• Best Song, 1988, "Let the River Run" from Working Girl

Other awards:

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• Inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1994.