130 Facts About Carly Simon

Carly Elisabeth Simon was born on June 25,1943 and is an American musician, singer, songwriter, memoirist, and children's author.

Carly Simon has authored two memoirs and five children's books.

In 1963, Simon began performing with her sister Lucy Simon in the Simon Sisters.

Carly Simon achieved international fame with her third album, No Secrets, which sat at No 1 on the Billboard 200 for five weeks and was certified Platinum.

In 1977, Carly Simon recorded "Nobody Does It Better" as the theme song to the Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me, and it became a worldwide hit.

Carly Simon began recording more songs for films in the 1980s, including "Coming Around Again" for the film Heartburn.

Carly Simon has a contralto vocal range, and cited Odetta as a significant influence.

Carly Simon was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1994.

Carly Simon was honored with the Boston Music Awards Lifetime Achievement in 1995, and received a Berklee College of Music Honorary Doctor of Music Degree in 1998.

In 2005, Carly Simon was nominated for a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, but she has yet to claim her star.

In 2022, Carly Simon was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Carly Simon's mother, Andrea, was a civil rights activist and singer.

Carly Simon's father was from a German-Jewish family, while her mother was Catholic.

Carly Simon's maternal grandfather, Friedrich Heinemann, was of German descent; her maternal grandmother, Ofelia Oliete, known as "Chibie", was a Catholic originally from Cuba, and was of Pardo heritage, a freed-slave descendant.

Carly Simon was raised in the Riverdale neighborhood of the Bronx, and had two elder sisters, Joanna and Lucy, and a younger brother, Peter, all of whom died of cancer, predeceasing her.

Carly Simon began stuttering severely when she was eight years old.

Carly Simon attended Riverdale Country School and spent at least four semesters at Sarah Lawrence College.

The duo made one more album together, 1969's The Simon Sisters Sing the Lobster Quadrille and Other Songs for Children.

Carly Simon collaborated with eclectic New York rockers Elephant's Memory for about six months in the late '60s.

Carly Simon was signed by Jac Holzman to Elektra Records in 1970.

Carly Simon released her self-titled debut album on February 9,1971, and it peaked at No 30 on the Billboard 200.

The single was written in 15 minutes while Carly Simon waited for Cat Stevens to pick her up for a date.

Also in 1971, Carly Simon appeared as an auditioning singer in Milos Forman film Taking Off, performing "Long Term Physical Effects", which was included on the soundtrack album for the film.

Carly Simon hinted that it could be a composite of several people, with most press speculation considering Mick Jagger, who sings backup vocals on the recording, and Warren Beatty.

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

Carly Simon performed on brother-in-law Livingston Taylor's album Over the Rainbow, and sang with both Livingston and his famous brother James on the songs "Loving Be My New Horizon" and "Pretty Woman".

In 1974, Carly Simon followed the hugely successful No Secrets album with Hotcakes, which became an instant hit.

Carly Simon's Playing Possum and Another Passenger continued her run of high-profile and generally well-received album releases.

That same year saw Carly Simon contributing backup vocals on the song "Peter" on Peter Ivers's self-titled album.

In 1977, Carly Simon had an international hit with the million-selling Gold single "Nobody Does It Better", the theme to the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me.

Carly Simon's career took another upward swing in 1978 with the Top 10 album Boys in the Trees.

Carly Simon was featured on the front covers of People and Rolling Stone magazines that year.

On November 2,1978, Carly Simon guested on the song "I Live in the Woods" at a live, four-hour concert by Burt Bacharach and the Houston Symphony Orchestra at Jones Hall in Houston, Texas.

From 1972 to 1979, Carly Simon sang backup vocals on the following James Taylor songs and studio albums: "One Man Parade" from One Man Dog.

In 1980, Carly Simon signed with Elektra's sibling label Warner Bros.

In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, during a show to promote the album, Carly Simon collapsed onstage from exhaustion.

From that album, Carly Simon scored another million-selling US Gold single with the hit "Jesse", which peaked at No 11 on Billboard Pop singles chart and remained on the chart for six months.

Carly Simon contributed the song "Be With Me" to the 1980 album In Harmony: A Sesame Street Record, which was produced by her sister Lucy and Lucy's husband, David Levine.

Carly Simon's 10th release, Torch, was an album of melancholy jazz standards, recorded long before it became fashionable for rock artists to delve into the "great American songbook".

Also in 1981, Carly Simon was the second female solo artist to be featured on MTV's first day of the air in her video for "Vengeance".

Carly Simon had another UK success with the single "Kissing with Confidence", a song from the 1983 album Dancing for Mental Health by Will Powers.

Carly Simon was the uncredited singer of the song co-written and mixed by Todd Rundgren.

In 1983, Carly Simon released her 12th album, Hello Big Man.

Carly Simon filmed a music video for the song at her home on Martha's Vineyard, which received moderate airplay on MTV in the autumn of 1983.

That same year, Carly Simon performed on two albums: The Perfect Stranger by Jesse Colin Young and Wonderland by Nils Lofgren.

In 1984, Carly Simon made an uncredited cameo appearance in Ray Parker Jr.

In 1986, Carly Simon signed with Arista Records and soon rebounded from her career slump.

Carly Simon spent the better part of 1988 scoring the film, and according to Simon, the studio threatened to replace "Let the River Run" with "Witchy Woman" by the Eagles.

Nichols's decision prevailed, and Carly Simon became the first artist to win all three major awards for a song composed and written, as well as performed, entirely by a single artist.

In 1987, Carly Simon co-wrote and recorded the title song to the 1987 Broadway play Sleight of Hand.

That same year, Carly Simon sang the theme for the 1988 Democratic National Convention, "The Turn of the Tide", for a Marlo Thomas television special Free to Be.

In 1990, Carly Simon released her second standards album, My Romance, and an album of original material, Have You Seen Me Lately.

That same year, Carly Simon published her second children's book, The Boy of the Bells.

That same year, Carly Simon performed a duet with Placido Domingo on the song "The Last Night of the World" on Domingo's album The Broadway I Love.

In 1992, Carly Simon wrote the music for the Nora Ephron film This Is My Life, and the soundtrack album was released shortly thereafter.

Carly Simon recorded the same song in combination with "Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out to Dry" with Frank Sinatra for his album Duets.

In 1993, Carly Simon was commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera Association and the Kennedy Center to record a contemporary opera that would appeal to younger people.

Also in 1993, Carly Simon published her fourth children's book, The Nighttime Chauffeur, and contributed to Swiss musician Andreas Vollenweider's album Eolian Minstrel; she co-wrote the song "Private Fires" with Vollenweider, and was featured vocalist on the song.

That same year, Carly Simon recorded and released her 16th album, Letters Never Sent.

The album originated from Carly Simon finding an old box of letters that she'd written, but never mailed, and she set a handful of them to music.

That same year, Carly Simon released Bells, Bears and Fishermen, a spoken word recording of her first three children's books: Amy the Dancing Bear, The Boy of the Bells, and The Fisherman's Song, complete with sound effects and original music.

Carly Simon featured in an episode of the Lifetime original series Intimate Portrait, which was broadcast the same night.

Carly Simon performed a duet with Mindy Jostyn on the song "Time, Be on My Side", which featured on Jostyn's 1995 album Five Miles from Hope about her recent battle with colon cancer.

On November 7,1995, Carly Simon released the three-disc boxed set Clouds in My Coffee.

Carly Simon started choking me in a loving way, saying: 'you're great too Carly, get up there, you need to do this too'.

Carly Simon continued to write and record music for films, and wrote the theme songs to several more movies; these included "Two Little Sisters" from the drama film Marvin's Room, and "In Two Straight Lines" from the family comedy Madeline.

Carly Simon released her fifth children's book, Midnight Farm, on August 1,1997.

In 1999, Carly Simon worked again with Andreas Vollenweider, and was the featured vocalist for the song "Your Silver Key" on Vollenweider's album Cosmopoly.

On May 16,2000, Carly Simon released her 18th studio album, The Bedroom Tapes.

In 2001, Carly Simon performed on "Son of a Gun" with Janet Jackson on Jackson's album All for You.

Carly Simon agreed, with Simon wanting to write new lines.

Carly Simon rapped, initially thinking that Jackson and the producers would not use it, but they decided to marry both tracks, as the singers thought it "worked perfectly", and it became a duet.

Carly Simon contributed backup vocals on two songs, "Don't Turn Away" and "East of Eden", for Mindy Jostyn's 2001 album Blue Stories.

In January 2002, Carly Simon recorded a Christmas album, Christmas Is Almost Here, while she was in Los Angeles to lend support to her son Ben Taylor and his band.

That same year, Carly Simon personally chose all of the songs for a new two-disc anthology album, simply titled Anthology.

Carly Simon performed two concerts during the 2004 holiday season at Harlem's Apollo Theater, along with BeBe Winans, Rob Thomas, son Ben and daughter Sally, Livingston Taylor, Mindy Jostyn and Kate Taylor, along with other members of the Taylor and Simon family.

Carly Simon wrote and recorded songs for the Disney Winnie the Pooh films Piglet's Big Movie in 2003 and Pooh's Heffalump Movie in 2005, as well as the direct-to-video A Very Merry Pooh Year in 2002.

Several of her songs were featured in the 2004 film Little Black Book, which starred Brittany Murphy and Holly Hunter, with Carly Simon appearing as herself in a cameo role at the end of the film.

Carly Simon sang a duet, "Angel of the Darkest Night", with Mindy Jostyn on Jostyn's 2005 album Coming Home.

In 2005, Carly Simon became involved in the legal defense of musician and family friend John Forte with his struggle against a federal incarceration.

Also in 2006, Carly Simon performed with Livingston Taylor on his album There You Are Again, singing on the opening track "Best of Friends", which became a Top 40 Adult Contemporary hit.

In 2007, Carly Simon released her fifth album of covers, a collection of "soothing songs and lullabies" called Into White.

In March 2008, it was announced that Carly Simon had signed with the Starbucks label, Hear Music.

Carly Simon released a new album titled This Kind of Love with them in the spring of 2008.

The album was her first collection of all original songs since 2000's The Bedroom Tapes, and it became another commercial and critical success for Carly Simon, reaching No 15 on the Billboard 200, and selling nearly 150,000 copies by 2009.

On October 13,2009, it was reported that Carly Simon was suing Starbucks, saying they did not adequately promote This Kind of Love.

On October 27,2009, Carly Simon released her 23rd album, Never Been Gone, on Iris Records.

On November 26,2009, Carly Simon appeared on the Care Bears float of the 83rd Annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, where she performed an acoustic version of her hit "Let the River Run".

Carly Simon appeared on various UK television shows to promote the album, including The One Show and BBC Breakfast.

That same year, Carly Simon contributed the track "Calls a Soft Voice" to Arif Mardin's album All My Friends Are Here.

Carly Simon performed "Anticipation" and "You're So Vain" at the ceremony.

That same year, Carly Simon contributed the track "Just Like a Woman" to the Bob Dylan tribute album Chimes of Freedom.

On July 27,2013, in Foxborough, Massachusetts, Carly Simon performed "You're So Vain" with Taylor Swift on her Red Tour.

Later that year, Carly Simon dueted with Jimmy Webb on the track "Easy for You to Say" from his album Still Within the Sound of My Voice.

On October 30,2013, Carly Simon performed alongside Natasha Bedingfield at the Oceana Partners Award Gala in Los Angeles.

On November 24,2015, Carly Simon published Boys in the Trees: A Memoir, an autobiographical book focusing on her childhood and her early life, from age five until the year 1983.

On February 14,2016, Carly Simon made a surprise appearance at Clive Davis's Pre-Grammy Party and performed "You're So Vain", which drew a "thunderous standing ovation", and appeared in Davis' Grammy Party Class Photo.

Later that year, Carly Simon confirmed during a book signing that she and her son Ben Taylor were working to release EDM remixes of her signature songs.

Carly Simon said she wanted to record an album with her two children.

On October 22,2019, Carly Simon released a second memoir titled Touched by the Sun: My Friendship with Jackie, which recounts her friendship with former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

On February 2,2022, Carly Simon was announced as one of the 17 performers nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2022.

On May 4,2022, Carly Simon was announced as one of the seven artists in the performer category being inducted.

On November 5,2022, Carly Simon was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Carly Simon was unable to attend the ceremony due to a personal tragedy.

Carly Simon married fellow singer-songwriter James Taylor on November 3,1972.

In June 2004, Carly Simon said that she no longer speaks to her ex-husband.

Carly Simon was engaged to musician Russ Kunkel, from 1985 to 1986.

Carly Simon married James Hart, a writer, poet and businessman, on December 23,1987.

Carly Simon underwent a mastectomy, chemotherapy, and reconstructive surgery for breast cancer between 1997 and 1998.

Carly Simon's surgery came at the same time as the death of her long-time friend Linda McCartney, who had battled breast cancer.

Furthermore, Carly Simon has had osteopenia since at least the age of 61, which has resulted in her avoidance of high-heeled shoes in order to escape discomfort.

Carly Simon has been close friends with James Taylor's younger brother Livingston Taylor for over 40 years.

In May 2010, Simon revealed she had been one of the several celebrities who fell victim to financial advisor Kenneth I Starr, whose Ponzi scheme lured her into "investing" millions of dollars with him, which she lost.

In 2008, Carly Simon was reportedly dating Richard Koehler, a surgeon specializing in minimally invasive laparoscopy.

In October 2016, Carly Simon donated the rights to "You're So Vain" for use in an anti-Donald Trump political attack ad.

Carly Simon had long chosen to keep her political views private and had never allowed "You're So Vain" to be used for political purposes in the past.

Simultaneously, Carly Simon announced her opposition to Trump's candidacy in the upcoming 2016 US presidential election.

Carly Simon cited the tape as what motivated her for the first time in her career to publicly take a political stance.

In October 2022, Carly Simon lost both of her sisters to cancer within a day of each other.

Joanna Carly Simon died on October 19,2022, from thyroid cancer and Lucy Carly Simon died the following day from metastatic breast cancer.

Carly Simon has received various accolades and honors throughout her career, including two Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, and a Golden Globe Award.

Carly Simon received two consecutive BAFTA nominations for Best Original Film Score, in 1990 and 1991, respectively.

In 2005, Carly Simon was nominated for a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, but a date was never set and she has yet to claim her star.

Carly Simon was set to be honored at Carnegie Hall with a tribute concert on March 19,2020, but it was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

On November 5,2022, Carly Simon was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Carly Simon is one of the various artists mentioned in the 1974 Reunion song "Life Is a Rock ".

Groovie Ghoulies recorded a song simply titled "Carly Simon", which was released on their 1999 album Fun in the Dark.

Carly Simon appeared as herself in the films Perfect and Little Black Book.

The fifth-season premiere episode of Bob's Burgers, "Work Hard or Die Trying, Girl", involves Gene Belcher and his sometime friend Courtney Wheeler staging separate, and then ultimately unified, stage reenactments of the movies Die Hard and Working Girl, with Courtney's father Doug promising to enlist Carly Simon to appear at his daughter's performance.

Carly Simon provides an uncredited voice cameo at the end, singing the ersatz theme song to the children's combined musical.