Carly Elisabeth Simon
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2,018
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38
Film credits
3
Awards
Carly Simon’s 1972 album No Secrets reached number one with You’re So Vain and spent 71 weeks on the Billboard charts. In 1988, she won a Grammy, Oscar, and Golden Globe for a single song for Let the River Run, a first for any solo artist. She has released more than twenty-eight albums, written two New York Times best-selling memoirs, and composed a family opera.
Names, aliases, and relatives of Carly Simon — birth name, kin, and personal ties.
Carly Simon by the numbers — life, work, and family.
Carly Simon — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.
Carly Elisabeth Simon was born on June 25, 1943, in Manhattan, New York City, to Richard L. Simon, co-founder of Simon & Schuster, and Andrea Heinemann Simon. She attended Riverdale Country School and later Sarah Lawrence College. Her maternal grandmother was of Cuban and African descent, and a 2012 DNA analysis showed Simon has African and Indigenous ancestry.
Simon’s 1972 album No Secrets sold millions, with the single You’re So Vain reaching number one for three weeks and staying 71 weeks on the chart. In 1988, she wrote and performed Let the River Run for Working Girl, winning the Academy Award, Golden Globe, and Grammy for Best Original Song, the first solo artist to achieve that triple. She has released more than twenty-eight albums, including Anticipation and Coming Around Again, and composed the family opera Romulus Hunt. Later work includes songs for Disney’s Winnie the Pooh films and two New York Times best-selling memoirs.
Simon married singer-songwriter James Taylor in 1972; they divorced in 1983 and had two children, Sally Taylor born 1974 and Ben Taylor born 1977. In 1987 she married James Hart, divorcing in 2007. Her sisters Joanna and Lucy Simon both died of cancer in 2022, one day apart. Simon was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1997 and underwent a mastectomy and chemotherapy.
Simon was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and received the ASCAP Founders Award in 2012. Her song You’re So Vain was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, and VH1 ranked her #28 on its 100 Greatest Women of Rock N Roll. She owned her master recordings, a rarity for her generation, and won an Oscar, Grammy, and Golden Globe for a single song as both performer and composer.
The complete filmography of Carly Simon — every film, TV show, and documentary credit, ranked by popularity.
Every award, honor, and recognition received by Carly Simon — Grammys, hall-of-fame inductions, civic honors, lifetime achievements.
A wall of memorable lines from Carly Simon — lyrics, interviews, and off-the-cuff remarks captured over a lifetime.
A Really Strong Woman Accepts the War She Went Through and Is Ennobled by Her Scars.
We Need Role Models Who Are Going to Break the Mold.
My Scar Is Beautiful. It Looks Like an Arrow.
My Look Was Even More Solidified When I Started Singing in Greenwich Village with My Sister Lucy. We Wore Matching Dresses as the Simon Sisters.
Sometimes, but the Year I Lived in France I Started to Write Songs.
You Know, People Want to Honor Me, and on the One Hand I Just Don’t Want to Be a Poster Child; but on the Other, I Want to Do Something Classy and Great – Something Where the Residuals Will Go to the Cause.
I Try to Get to Those Peculiar and Particular Things That You Never Think of to Say.
No, Because I’ve Never Really Changed My Style That Much.
We Went to See All the Shows. American Musical Theater and Jazz Were Very Big.
Sometimes My Boyfriend Would Write the Lyrics and I Would Write the Melody, and Other Times I Would Start from Scratch. or Sometimes I Would Take a Local Poem and Put That to Music.
Little-known facts about Carly Simon — origins, oddities, and behind-the-scenes details from a public life.
Richard L. Simon, a co-founder and president of Simon & Schuster, was Carly Simon’s father.
Let the River Run, Simon’s 1988 hit from Working Girl, made her the first artist in history to win a Grammy, Oscar, and Golden Globe for a song composed, written, and performed solely by one artist.
Simon’s father was of German Jewish descent. Her maternal grandfather Frederick Adolph Heinemann was German, and her maternal grandmother Ofilia Oliete was from Cuba with Spanish and African roots. A 2012 episode of Finding Your Roots revealed Simon is 10% African and 2% Indigenous, indicating her grandmother was about 40% African.
At a 2003 charity auction on Martha’s Vineyard, Simon auctioned the identity of the subject of You’re So Vain. Dick Ebersol, then-chairman of NBC Sports, won with a $50,000 bid. He signed a confidentiality agreement and revealed only that the man’s name contains the letters E and A.
Simon is one of the few singer-songwriters of her generation who owns all her master recordings.
Simon and James Taylor have two children: daughter Sally Taylor born January 7, 1974 and son Ben Taylor born January 22, 1977.
To promote her 2005 album Moonlight Serenade, Simon announced public appearances despite her long-standing stage fright, stating she no longer has time for that negativity.
Simon’s sisters Lucy and Joanna both died of cancer in October 2022, just one day apart—Joanna on October 19 and Lucy on October 20.
Released in late 1972, You’re So Vain became a number one pop hit in early 1973.
Simon is the third of four children. Her brother Peter Simon 1947-2018 was a photojournalist; sister Lucy Simon 1940-2022 was a singer; and sister Joanna Simon 1936-2022 was an opera singer, Emmy-winning arts correspondent for PBS News Hour, and vice president of Fox Residential Group.
In 1972, Simon won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist.
Simon’s mother Andrea Heinemann Simon and close friend Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis died four months apart. Simon wrote Like a River for her mother and Touched by the Sun for Jackie, both included on her 1994 album Letters Never Sent.
Simon’s daughter Sally Taylor gave birth to her first grandchild, Bodhi Taylor Bragonier, in 2007.
Simon was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1994.
Diagnosed with breast cancer in October 1997, Simon underwent a mastectomy, chemotherapy, and reconstructive surgery.
Simon’s son Ben Taylor fronts the Ben Taylor Band, which supported Sheryl Crow on her 2003 European tour.
In 2012, Simon received the ASCAP Founders Award.
Let the River Run, Simon’s Oscar-winning theme from Working Girl, was used in a November 2001 U.S. Postal Service ad called Pride, a response to the 9/11 and anthrax attacks aimed at boosting morale.
Simon has released albums on labels including Elektra, Warner Bros., Epic, Arista, Rhino, Columbia, Hear Music, and Iris.
Berklee College of Music awarded Simon an honorary degree.
Simon is referenced in the song Life Is a Rock But the Radio Rolled Me by Reunion.
VH1 ranked Simon number 28 on its list of the 100 Greatest Women of Rock N Roll.
Quick answers to the questions readers ask most about Carly Simon.
Celebrities similar to Carly Simon — same craft, ranked by reach.
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