album rating: ★★★★☆
a) Genre
Singer-songwriter / Pop rock / Soft rock. No Secrets is Carly Simon's third studio album and her major commercial breakthrough. It sits at the intersection of the introspective singer-songwriter tradition of the early 1970s and a more polished, rock-inflected pop production aesthetic. Producer Richard Perry deliberately moved Simon away from the folk-oriented sound of her first two albums toward a harder, more rhythmically driven sound, while preserving the autobiographical directness of her lyrics. The repertoire is entirely original (with one exception -- James Taylor's 'Night Owl'), spanning saucy social satire ('You're So Vain'), tender intimacy ('The Right Thing to Do'), psychedelic ballad ('His Friends Are More Fond of Robin'), and folk-rock ('Embrace Me, You Child').
b) Release
Original US release: Elektra Records (28 November 1972; catalogue EKS 75049), phonographic copyright P 1972 Elektra Records. Distributed in the UK by WEA Records Ltd. (catalogue K 42127); UK pressing: CBS Pressing Plant, Aston Clinton; packaging by Shorewood Packaging Co. Ltd., England. US pressings were made at various Columbia Records pressing plants, including Santa Maria, California. Lacquer cutting: Doug Sax at The Mastering Lab, Los Angeles. Art direction and design by Robert L. Heimall; cover photography by Ed Caraeff (shot in front of the Portobello Hotel, Stanley Gardens, Notting Hill, London); inner sleeve photography by Peter Simon (Carly's brother). A 25th-anniversary reissue was certified Platinum by the RIAA on 12 December 1997. A 2017 documentary, Carly Simon: No Secrets, directed by Guy Evans, examined the making of the album with commentary from the musicians and production staff. 'You're So Vain' was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2004.
c) Production
Produced by Richard Perry. Perry (born 18 June 1942, Brooklyn, New York, USA) was one of the most successful pop producers of the early 1970s, known for his work with Barbra Streisand, Nilsson, Ringo Starr, and Carly Simon. He was engaged by Elektra Records founder Jac Holzman after Holzman and Perry independently converged on the same idea: 'like a lightbulb for both of them', as Simon recalled. Initial sessions had been produced by Paul Buckmaster -- known for his string arrangements on Elton John's albums -- and included a version of 'Angel from Montgomery' featuring James Taylor; these were rejected by Elektra in favour of Perry's involvement for a more commercially viable direction. Perry gave Simon's music, in AllMusic critic William Ruhlmann's assessment, 'a new pop/rock buoyancy that previous albums lacked'. He described his approach to the album as being like a film director: 'holding the camera, directing the players, calling the final shots, doing a theme'. 'You're So Vain' was recorded on three separate occasions with different drummers before a satisfactory take was achieved. Engineers: Robin Geoffrey Cable (recording at Trident Studios); Bill Schnee (remix at Sound Labs, Hollywood); Robin Cable (additional remixing at Air Studios, London); Mark Berry (recordist); Doug Sax (lacquer cutting, The Mastering Lab, Los Angeles). Key session musicians included Klaus Voormann (bass, on most tracks), Andy Newmark, Jim Gordon, and Jim Keltner (drums), Nicky Hopkins (piano), Bill Payne (organ), Jimmy Ryan (guitar), Ray Cooper (congas), Lowell George (slide guitar), and Kirby Johnson (string and horn arrangements). Mick Jagger contributed uncredited backing vocals to 'You're So Vain'. Paul McCartney and Linda McCartney sang on 'Night Owl' -- they had been recording the title song for Live and Let Die in the next room at Trident. James Taylor sang on 'Waited So Long'. Bonnie Bramlett sang on 'Night Owl'. Carly's sister Joanna Simon sang background vocals. Simon herself played acoustic piano and guitar throughout, and arranged the strings on 'You're So Vain' and the ARP synthesiser on 'His Friends Are More Fond of Robin'.
d) Recording
Recorded at Trident Studios, St Anne's Court, Soho, London, England, during September and October 1972. Trident had previously been the recording venue for key albums including The Beatles' White Album, David Bowie's Space Oddity, and Elton John's second album. Remixed at Sound Labs, Hollywood, California, USA (engineer: Bill Schnee) and at Air Studios, London, England (engineer: Robin Cable). Disc cutting at The Mastering Lab, Los Angeles, California, USA (Doug Sax).
e) Reception
No Secrets was Carly Simon's major commercial breakthrough and one of the defining pop albums of 1972-73. It spent five consecutive weeks at number 1 on the US Billboard 200 (the week of 13 January 1973 and four following weeks). Its lead single 'You're So Vain' spent three weeks at number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 (beginning 6 January 1973) and two weeks at number 1 on the Adult Contemporary chart; it was also a major international hit. The second single 'The Right Thing to Do' reached number 17 on the Hot 100 and number 4 on the Adult Contemporary chart. The album quickly went Gold; it was certified Platinum by the RIAA on 12 December 1997. At the 16th Grammy Awards (1974), 'You're So Vain' was nominated for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance; the album received a nomination for Best Engineered Recording. Contemporary critical reception was mixed: Robert Christgau (Creem) offered a dismissive review. More recent critical assessments are strongly positive: AllMusic's William Ruhlmann awarded it four and a half stars, describing its 'saucy tone' and 'sexually frank autobiography'. 'You're So Vain' is ranked at number 72 on Billboard's Greatest Songs of All Time and at number 216 in the RIAA's Songs of the Century. The album is ranked number 997 in Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums (3rd edition, 2000). The identity of the song's subject -- long only partially revealed as including Warren Beatty -- has remained one of popular music's most enduring mysteries. The 2017 documentary Carly Simon: No Secrets further cemented the album's cultural significance.
Carly Simon
Carly Elisabeth Simon (born 25 June 1945, New York City, USA) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and author. She was born into a culturally prominent New York family: her father, Richard L. Simon, was co-founder of the publishing house Simon & Schuster; her mother was Andrea Louise Heinemann. She grew up in Stamford, Connecticut, and on Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. Her older sisters are Joanna Simon (opera singer) and Lucy Simon (composer). She co-wrote songs with her sister Lucy as teenagers and signed her first recording contract with Kapp Records in the mid-1960s, working briefly as a duo act (Simon Sisters). After a period of writer's block and anxiety, she returned as a solo artist, signing with Elektra Records. Her self-titled debut (1971) featured the top-ten hit 'That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be' and won her the Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 1972. Her second album Anticipation (1971) yielded the title track (number 13). No Secrets (1972) transformed her into a superstar. She married singer-songwriter James Taylor on 3 November 1972, during the making of the album; they divorced in 1983. Her 1977 single 'Nobody Does It Better' (theme to the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me) reached number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. Her 1988 'Let the River Run' (composed for the film Working Girl) won the Academy Award, the Golden Globe, and the Grammy for Best Song Written for Visual Media -- making her the first artist to win all three major awards for a single song. She has received four Grammy Awards in total and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. She received the PEN New England Award for her autobiography Boys in the Trees (2015). She has also published several illustrated children's books. She has battled a severe stutter since childhood -- a struggle that has informed her approach to performance and public life throughout her career.
This text was generated by Claude (Anthropic). It may contain errors or inaccuracies.