It's a 70's lockdown...Putting this on the turntable today just seemed the right thing to do. It’s Carly Simon’s No Secrets released in November 1972. This was to be Carly's breakthrough album having released the critically acclaimed Anticipation a year earlier. No Secrets topped the Billboard album charts for five weeks.
Produced by top producer Richard Perry and recorded in London, No Secrets yielded the massive hit single 'You're So Vain' which topped the Billboard charts in America for three weeks. In the years since it's release people have been trying to established who the song was written about. Carly herself has said it's not about James Taylor or Mick Jagger, the rumour is it's Warren Beatty who was the target Carly's song lyrics.
You're So Vain set the tone for the No Secrets project which was one of the first albums from a female singer songwriter who was writing from a position of strength as an independent woman of the early seventies. Surrounded and assisted by world class musicians such as bassist Klaus Voormann, drummer Jim Keltner and trusted friend and guitarist Jimmy Ryan, she had backing vocals from the likes of Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger and husband at the time James Taylor which ensured that the album would be of the highest quality.
Carly Simon herself wasn't overly happy with the album at the time of it's release, she was more of a folk based musician and was unsure if Perry's slightly heavier production would be good enough to sell the record. She needn't have worried as it sold in bucketloads and proved to be her biggest selling album ever so I'm guessing she grew to love it. As for me I have to say that I prefer her earlier Anticipation album as a complete piece of work and That's The Way I've Always Heard It Should Be from her first album is also outstanding. However there's no denying that You're So Vain is a great song and there are some other tracks on the No Secrets album that also reach the same high levels.
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