The Very Best of Carly Simon: Nobody Does It Better (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Carly Elisabeth Simon was born on this day in New York City, New York, USA in 1945 She is 68 years old.
She was born into a musical family. Her father played piano (and was a co-founder of Simon and Schuster publishing house), her mom, Andrea, was a singer and civil rights activist. The family sang together in what Carly calls “the family choir” when the she and siblings Joanna, Lucy, and Joey were growing up in Riverdale, NY and Stamford, Connecticut.
Lucy & Carly – The Simon Sisters Sing for Children (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
She and sister Lucy formed the Simon Sisters and played at Greenwich Village clubs opening for the likes of “Woody Allen, Bill Cosby, Dick Cavett and other soon-to-be-famous people.” [Carlysimon.com/Biography.html] Those late nights and long train rides from the city meant overdue papers and raised eyebrows at Sarah Lawrence College, and Carly dropped out. She moved to the south of France with her boyfriend and pursued her music full-time.
Three albums and a hit (Wynken, Blinken and Nod) later The Simon Sisters collaboration came to an end after Carly had a nervous breakdown (brought on by a wine allergy) and Lucy got married.
She was signed by Elektra Records in 1970 and released her first, self titled album in 1971. The record featured her hit “That’s The Way I’ve Always Heard It Should Be.”
Simon says making her second album, Anticipation, “was one of the best memories I shall ever have of recording. I had a band. The entire album was just that band… there were strings on a few songs, but on the whole it was sparse and I loved it.” [Ibid]
Twenty-four albums and nine compilations followed. Simon won three Grammy Awards — in 1972 for Best New Artist; 1990 for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture for “Let the River Run” (Working Girl); and in 2004 when “You’re So Vain” was inducted to the Grammy Hall of Fame. “Let the River Run” also won an Academy Award and Golden Globe Award, making it the first song to win the Grammy, Oscar, Golden Globe trifecta. Simon was inducted to the songwriters Hall of Fame in 1994.
Here’s a smattering of Carly Simon’s best…
And my personal favorite…
Related articles
- The Best of Carly Simon (autopreview.wordpress.com)
ritaLOVEStoWRITE 
June 26th, 2013 at 1:38 pm
I’ve always loved her stuff.
Today on FB someone posted her picture with a Somali cat. Made me even more fond of her
June 26th, 2013 at 3:45 pm
I was so glad I got my cable back (properly) so I could listen to her honeyed voice. 🙂