You're So Vain

Album

No Secrets

Label

Elektra Records

Genre

Soft Rock

Composer(s)

Carly Simon

Entered Chart

Dec 2, 1972

Peak Date

Jan 6, 1973

Released

November 8, 1972

Recorded

1972 Studio Trident

Catalog #

Elektra 45824

B-Side

His Friends Are More Than Fond Of Robin

has told. According to Howard, he has since forgotten, but he knows it's not David Geffen. In 1976, Simon performed this on Saturday Night Live, but taped her performance about an hour before the show because she got really bad stage fright. Chevy Chase played the cowbell and sang in the background. In February 2010, Simon gave a clue regarding to whom this song is directed, when she told Uncut magazine: "You know what, I'm just going to tell you this. The answer is on the new version of 'You're So Vain,' on my new record Never been Gone. There's a little whisper and it's the answer to the puzzle." A representative for Simon confirmed that the name whispered during the song is "David." Multiple media outlets quickly reported that the subject was David Geffen, who ran Simon's Elektra record label at the time of the song's release. They surmised that the song had been inspired by her resentment of the attention Geffen had put into promoting her label-mate Joni Mitchell: In 1973 Mitchell penned "Free Man in Paris" about Geffen. However, in an email to Showbiz 411, Simon said that Geffen is not the "David" in question. She wrote: "What a riot! Nothing to do with David Geffen! What a funny mistake! Someone got a clue mistaken for another mistake," adding that she never even knew Geffen in 1971 when the song was written, "How can this guessing game stop without a lie?" she said. The chorus of this song ("You're so vain, you probably think this song is about you; don't you?") is included in the Nine Inch Nails song "Starf---ers, Inc" on The Fragile album. >> In 2001, Simon sang on Janet Jackson's "Son Of A Gun," which was an updated version of this song. One of the more unusual covers of this song is Marilyn Manson's 2012 version, which features the actor Johnny Depp on drums and lead guitar. According to Manson, Depp called him and asked if he would like to record a song. They jammed at Depp's studio and came up with the idea to cover this song, as they both thought it would be ironic. In 2015, Taylor Swift listed this as the #1 "Song That Made Me," explaining that its coy look at a famous ex-lover was an inspiration for many of her songs. Swift brought Simon on stage to sing the song with her at a concert at Gillette Stadium on July 27, 2013. She says that after the show, Simon told her who the song was written about. Warren Beatty was uncharacteristically loquacious while promoting his 2016 movie Rules Don't Apply, and in an interview with The Toronto Sun, he talked a bit about Simon and what she said about him in her book. "I think Carly Simon is a very intelligent woman, who was extremely helpful when I was deeply involved in the McGovern campaign, and she was terribly helpful with raising money through the entertainment industry, which we did at that time in an unprecedented way," he said. "I would say there is invention there that is simply not true, but that's fine. And there's some small amount of truth there. Not a lot, but that's just one example of what has happened with me for a number of books." In 2010, Simon told Uncut that Mick Jagger can be officially scratched from the running for subject of the song. "It had been written before I met Mick," she said. "So he's not a contender. But I owe more to Mick Jagger than anybody in the business — the fact that he sang on that record, brought it over the top. Richard had me do the whole lead vocal again, that he'd tortured me into singing 100 times because he thought Mick had lifted it to a new level. At the time it annoyed me, I was so heartily sick of the song. But that backing vocal was so right on."

(Son of a gun)

He walked into the party
Like you were walking on to a yacht
Your hat strategically dipped below one eye
Your scarf, it was apricot
You had one eye in the mirror
As you watched yourself Gavotte
And all the girls dreamed that they'd be your partner
They'd be your partner, and

You're so vain
You probably think this song is about you
You're so vain (you're so vain)
I'll bet you think this song is about you
Don't you?
Don't you?

Oh, you had me several years ago
When I was still quite naive
When you said that we made such a pretty pair
And that you would never leave
But you gave away the things you loved
And one of them was me
I had some dreams, they were clouds in my coffee
Clouds in my coffee, and

You're so vain
You probably think this song is about you
You're so vain (you're so vain)
I'll bet you think this song is about you
Don't you?
Don't you?
Don't you?

I had some dreams, they were clouds in my coffee
Clouds in my coffee, and

You're so vain
You probably think this song is about you
You're so vain (you're so vain)
I'll bet you think this song is about you
Don't you?
Don't you?

Well I hear you went up to Saratoga
And your horse, naturally, won
Then you flew your Learjet up to Nova Scotia
To see the total eclipse of the sun
Well, you're where you should be all the time
And when you're not, you're with some underworld spy
Or the wife of a close friend
Wife of a close friend, and

You're so vain
You probably think this song is about you
You're so vain (so vain)
I'll bet you think this song is about you
Don't you?
Don't you?
Don't you? Now

You're so vain
You probably think this song is about you
You're so vain
You probably think this song is about you
You're so vain
Writer/s: Carly E. Simon