Carly Simon Joins Taylor Swift To Perform “You’re So Vain”: Watch

Christina Lee | July 28, 2013 10:07 am

Carly Simon has never revealed all of who inspired her whip-smart “You’re So Vain,” but on July 27, when Simon joined Taylor Swift at Boston’s Gillette Stadium to perform that 1972 No. 1 hit, the two exchanged knowing glances as if Swift was in on her secret.

In one interview, Simon explained how one party guest inspired another lyric.”Someone walked in with this very debonair attitude, and there was conveniently this mirror in front of him,” the No Secrets singer said, before she showed how he whipped his scarf around his neck and prompted her to later write, “You walked into the party like you were walking onto a yacht.” 

However, not even Simon’s personal website reveals the inspiration behind the hook. Instead, it mentions how she had married James Taylor just before the song’s debut, and so “it stirred intense curiosity about which one of her previous lovers was the subject of this wry nod to the male ego. Was it Mick Jagger? Cat Stevens? Warren Beatty? Kris Kristofferson?”

Wait, what was that? Intense curiosity, eh? On second thought, Swift probably knew exactly how Simon felt.