Pop-Culture | Posted by Julie Z on 05/9/2010
Support Women Artists Sunday (Mother’s Day Edition): Carly Simon
Carly Simon
My Mom is obsessed with Carly Simon. I’m pretty sure I knew the lyrics of Let The River Run before I knew my own name, which I suspect was inspired by the Carly song “Julie Through The Glass.” So this week I’m dedicating SWAS to Carly and more indirectly to my mommy! Happy Mother’s Day Everybody!
The daughter of Richard Simon, co-founder of the Simon and Schuster publishing empire, Carly attended Riverdale county school and spent two years at the elite Sarah Lawrence school, before dropping out to form a folk duo with her sister, Lucy.
They billed themselves as the Simon Sisters and managed to get work at small clubs and coffee houses in the early 60s.
Her first Top 10 hit “That’s The Way I’ve Always Heard It Should Be,” won her the Best New Artist Grammy Award, and was soon followed by “Anticipation,” and her album “No Secrets”, with its smash hit “You’re So Vain.”
Sustained good sales continued with 1978’s “You Belong To Me” and the album “Boys In The Trees”, but Carly’s career then went into decline, with none of her early 80’s albums scoring commercial successes. Following her divorce from James Taylor, she also stopped performing live.
1987 saw a turnaround, with the theme for “Heartburn” – “Coming Around Again” becoming a big hit. The album of the same name was a bestseller and charted for well over a year.
Her iconic status secured, she was then able to release albums at a more relaxed pace, which allowed her to be more adventurous in her writing and creativity, and critical and commercial success followed.
A fight with breast cancer in 1997 and the subsequent depression she experienced due to chemotherapy have only served to heighten her song writing capabilities, and the fully recovered Carly remains a notable presence in the media and music industry.
You’re So Vain
Coming Around Again
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Erica @ at 10:02 pm, May 9th, 2010
This just made my day! I used to live on Martha’s Vineyard & my family always had her brother take photos at our family events. Such a sweet, talented family. Carly was (& I can assume, still is) totally rad. It makes me sad most people only know her for ‘You’re So Vain” (if they even know that). Some of her other songs are my favorites. Thanks for this!
Is it My "Feminist Duty" to Mention Mother's Day? | Menstrual Poetry @ at 8:58 am, May 10th, 2010
[...] fbomb dedicated their ongoing series of articles of ‘Support Women Artists Sunday’ to Mother’s Day and to Carly Simon because their mother was obsessed with the artist. [...]