"You're So Vain" | ||||
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Single by Carly Simon | ||||
from the album No Secrets | ||||
B-side | "His Friends Are More Than Fond of Robin" | |||
Released | November 1972 | |||
Format | 7" single | |||
Recorded | Autumn 1972, Trident Studios | |||
Genre | Pop, soft rock | |||
Length | 4:19 | |||
Label | Elektra | |||
Writer(s) | Carly Simon | |||
Producer(s) | Richard Perry | |||
Carly Simon singles chronology | ||||
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"You're So Vain" is a song written and performed 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 #82 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 and the strings were arranged by Simon and orchestrated by Paul Buckmaster. Simon plays piano on the track.
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 Angela 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 in 1983 said Beatty "certainly thought it was about him — he called me and said thanks for the song..."