Carly Simon finally reveals the subject of 'You're So Vain'...

Daily Mail ^ | 02/26/2010 | Lizzie Smith

[SeekAndFind]

For years there has been debate about which of Carly Simon's ex-boyfriends could have inspired the hit song You're So Vain.

But while former lovers Mick Jagger, Kris Kristofferson, Cat Stevens and Warren Beatty were left wondering whether 'this song is about you', they have been proved wrong.

For the Seventies singer has finally revealed the real inspiration behind her hit track wasn't a boyfriend at all - it was openly gay record producer David Geffen.

Simon, 64, ended the 38 year guessing game by whispering the name backwards on a reworked version of the song for her new album Never Been Gone, out next week.

Previously Simon had always claimed the song was a 'composite' of people she knew.

In 1972 when she wrote the song billionaire Geffen was the head of her Elektra record label.

It is thought she was inspired to write the damning lyrics after Geffen put all his time and energy into promoting her rival, Joni Mitchell, over her.

In the hit Simon sings that the man walked into the party like he was walking on to a yacht.

The subject of her wrath jilted her before going to Saratoga to watch his horse naturally win.

Beatty is said to have been convinced he was the inspiration behind the song.

Other suspects included Jagger, who sang backing vocals for the original song, and James Taylor, the American songwriter to whom Simon was married between 1972 and 1983.

[Liberty Valance]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQZmCJUSC6g
Carly Simon - You’re So Vain

[Lazamataz]

The lyrics don’t match. “Wife of a close friend”? Husband, maybe.

[Lazamataz]

LP

[Yardstick]

Look at the pointy tips on those fence posts. Someone could put an eye out.

[Lazamataz]

I’d hit it.

[Lazamataz]

That song WAS about me.

Dammit.

[Catsrus]

I agree that it fits Beatty better since Geffen is gay. Maybe its a combination of both???

[ReneeLynn]

It could be a combo. ‘Guess which one of you I’m singing about’ thing.

But hey, I’m still trying to figure out how ‘Refuge’ by Tom Petty is supposed to be about his fight with his record label.

[SeekAndFind]

If the song's about a playboy womanizer after whom all the girls are running, how could it be about Geffen?

Gays can be bisexual as many suspected Geffen is.

Girls were running after the rugged, good looking Rock Hudson way back before the world realized he was gay and dying of AIDS.

You think people like Angelina Jolie, Madonna, Lindsay Lohan, and (for instance ), Freddie Mercury ( lead singer of Queen ) dated only people of the opposite sex ??

This is a very mixed-up world we live in.

[Shimmer1]

Geffen had this big affair with Cher at one time. I think. (she didn’t really confide in me much)

[Shimmer1]

me. It’s about me.

[aculeus]

I’m still trying to understand “Mairzy Doats”.

[lainie]

What I want to know is, did she copy Farrah or did Farrah copy her?

[lainie]

Name a celebutard that you wouldn’t, for comparison

[Liberty Valance]

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/entertainment/post/2010/02/carly-simon-whispers-name-of-youre-so-vain-mystery-man-/1
I think there may be more to the story. Geffen may not be the mystery man. At least i’d like to think he’s not. ;o)

[Lazamataz]

Gary Coleman.

No wait, I'd hit that too.

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

And all this time Obama was SURE it was him.

[teenyelliott]

Funny, cause I often sing this song to people, singing

You're so gayyyyyy

You prolly think this song is about you...

[behzinlea]

Simon’s song was far more distinct in my memory than anything Mitchell ever wrote.

Joni Mitchell's "Woodstock" is easily as memorable to me--the cover version by CSN&Y, that is. I like her version too, but in an entirely different way.

[SunkenCiv]

“[Warren] Beatty is said to have been convinced he was the inspiration behind the song.”

Well, he is vain, so it figures he’d think the song was about him.

Thanks SeekAndFind.