James Taylor And Carly Simon's 1977 Live Duet Of You Can Close Your Eyes Is A Time-Stopper

Carly Simon and James Taylor's sweet 1977 duet of the song "You Can Close Your Eyes" captured one of those moments that seem to make time stand still. In this particular live version, the couple is at their Martha's Vineyard home sitting in a lived-in room and dressed in everyday clothes, yet delivering this gorgeously harmonized song accompanied by Taylor's distinctive acoustic guitar playing. That pared-down simplicity feels more cozy than the types of settings we usually see performers in, and the way Simon looks at Taylor throughout the song creates even more intimacy for viewers. 

By then, the couple had been married for five years and had two children born in 1974 and 1977, though when they met, they were both early in their careers as individual singer-songwriters. While Simon had only released her debut album around the time when the pair started dating, Taylor had already put out three albums, including 1971's "Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon," which included his No. 1 hit "You've Got a Friend" and "You Can Close Your Eyes." Simon's first No. 1 hit, "You're So Vain," topped the chart in December 1972, just a month after the two married. 

Clearly, they were an "it" couple of the time. However, even though Taylor and Simon sang "You Can Close Your Eyes" beautifully together, Taylor wrote it for another singer-songwriter girlfriend. 

James Taylor wrote "You Can Close Your Eyes" in 1970 for his then-girlfriend, Joni Mitchell, and they first performed it together that year in Vancouver, per Mitchell's website. With lyrics like, "I don't know no love songs / And I can't sing the blues anymore / But I can sing this song / And you can sing this song / When I'm gone," the song seems Taylor-made (pun intended) to be a love song for singer-songwriter couples who will eventually break up. 

Carly Simon and Taylor divorced in 1983, and in more recent years, he's sung the song with Bonnie Raitt, an acclaimed singer-songwriter and guitarist in her own right who has known Taylor for decades but never had a romantic relationship with him. He's also performed the song with his son, Henry, from Taylor's third marriage, Carole King, and Shawn Colvin, and he's even done it solo, but none of those videos on YouTube have nearly the number of views as the version with Carly Simon, which at the time of this writing sits at 6.2 million. While Taylor and Simon's marriage came to an end, there is something about their stripped-down 1977 duet that still seems to make time stand still nearly five decades later.