The 5 Best Carly Simon Songs That Aren't You're So Vain

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In 1971, the world was introduced to the distinctive voice and storytelling of Carly Simon. In 2026, at the age of 83, she was still making music, releasing the single "Howl" in the summer, ahead of the album "Comes in Waves" in August. The voice may be deeper and richer, but Simon's trademark smarts and mordant wit are all front and center. In July, she revealed in a statement that she worked on the album while dealing with the twin diagnoses of Parkinson's disease and skin cancer but, far from being at death's door, she declared: "I have not stopped living, and I have not stopped working," per People.

Anyone who has followed Simon's career and loves her music knows she is no stranger to adversity; from the end of her marriage to James Taylor, her son's health issues when he was young, and her paralyzing stage fright. But Simon turned those slings and arrows into art and shared them with the world. Her back catalogue is a treasure trove of elegant lyricism that goes so much further than her biggest hit "You're So Vain." We've chosen just a few of our favorites that we think capture why Carly Simon is truly one of the greats.

Compared to some of Carly Simon's songs, "Anticipation," the title track of her second album, released in 1971, might seem whimsical — but we think it's some of her finest work. She wrote it in around 15 minutes while waiting to go on a date with then-squeeze Cat Stevens. "That's only one of three times that that's ever happened to me. That I just sat down and wrote the whole song in just one stretch," she told Steve Baltin in his book "Anthems We Love" (via American Songwriter). The result is lovely.

You can hear Stevens' musical influence in "Anticipation," but their romance didn't last, and perhaps Simon knew it, writing in the third and final verse: "And tomorrow we might not be together / I'm no prophet / Lord, I don't know nature's way." The song got another lease of life when it was used in a ketchup ad, so when she recorded a reworked version for the 2009 album "Never Been Gone," "Anticipation" finally seemed to come into its own.

Time gave those lyrics a deeper meaning — less about impatiently wondering about what's happening in the here and now, and more about the preciousness of love as we get older. Simon admitted in a 2010 interview that playing the song live made her cry, explaining: "It made me think that not only was the hourglass tipped over on its other side, but there was more sand at the bottom of the hourglass than the top," per HuffPost.

The 1988 rom-com "Working Girl" charmed many critics, but it wowed Carly Simon fans, thanks to her  uncredited song that bookends the movie. It was one of several collaborations she enjoyed with director Mike Nichols, and Simon took the story for the film, inspired by "that young, striving girl energy, that empowerment, that you know you have to not only get past the empire of men, but you've gotta get past the women who are your immediate bosses ... ," per the BBC.

In 2012, Simon told the audience at the ASCAP "I Create Music" Expo that she wanted the song to have a "jungle" quality, but it needed to be a "hymn" as well, while the title came from the novel "Finnegans Wake" by James Joyce. "Let the River Run" brings all those elements together in a song that wasn't just perfect for "Working Girl," it became an anthem for empowerment. With its tribal drumbeat leading the way, Simon's lyrics draw us in: "Silver cities rise / The morning lights / The streets that meet them / And sirens call them on / With a song."

As the melody builds, the whole thing becomes an infectious swell, and before we know it, we're bellowing out the chorus to the skies and wishing we had Joan Cusack's enormous hair. As well as giving a generation of commuters and activists an emotional boost, Simon's song made music history, becoming the first written by a single artist to scoop the Academy Award, Golden Globe, and Grammy.

Carly Simon's 2026 revelation that she'd had treatment for basal cell carcinoma on her face came as a shock to her fans, especially considering it wasn't her first experience of the disease. In 1997, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and spent several months undergoing chemotherapy — while also grappling with writer's block. As she recovered from that devastating blow, Simon began work on songs that would eventually coalesce to become "The Bedroom Tapes" album, released in 2000. Most listeners make a beeline for the song "Scar," which explores her treatment for cancer, and they'd be right to do so. But we think "Actress" is an overlooked gem.

The lyrics are both self-deprecating and scathing, taking swipes at the entertainment industry: "Standards of beauty / Will be redefined because of me." The "actress" in the song isn't threatened by competition, no matter who the media pits her against: "I'll be gracious to the lesser stars / And generous to the unknowns / And if another actress threatens / My position on the throne / Well, I don't know exactly what I'll do."

If "Scar" reveals a woman coming to terms with the physical aftermath of illness, "Actress" offers insights into how self-aware she is as an artist. Simon proves she's under no illusions about the dividing line between a celebrity's authentic self and the show that's put on for the cameras, and happily embraces the latter's fleeting ridiculousness.

If we had to choose one word to describe Carly Simon, it would probably be "resilient." She quipped in a 2015 interview: "I'm constantly re-emerging in my life," via NPR, and her 1987 single "Coming Around Again" is a gorgeous exploration of that concept. Penned for the Mike Nichols movie "Heartburn," at first listen, it sounds like middle-of-the-road, mid-80s mush-o-rama. But the smooth sound belies lyrical spikes that reveal the harsh truth about marriage, relationships, and raising a family: They can become grindingly, soul-crushingly dull.

The gentle, almost lullaby-like melody supports lyrics that juxtapose the humdrum with the alarming: "You pay the grocer / Fix the toaster / You kiss the host goodbye / Then you break a window / Burn the souffle / Scream a lullaby." Many think the song reflects aspects of her own life, and it's easy to see why. Her marriage to James Taylor crumbled in the early 1980s, and they finally went their separate ways in 1983. The effort of holding all that together while raising two children and being in the entertainment spotlight must have been unbearable.

Simon's view of love in "Coming Around Again" is more mature as a wife and a parent, but it's all the more harrowing because she knows the stakes are so much higher. Like anyone else whose relationship has foundered, her heart is broken, but for her kids' sake, she can't allow herself to fall apart. She has to embrace it and carry on. Like we said. Resilience.

For years, the mystery of Carly Simon's "You're So Vain" swirled. The world and his wife wanted to know who it was about, and in 2015, the singer-songwriter confirmed at least one verse was about former beau Warren Beatty, but remained tight-lipped about other potential sources of inspo. While there's no denying "You're So Vain" slaps as much as it did when it was released in 1972, it's not the only track among Simon's archive that's about a significant other. "Legend in Your Own Time" is a funky, melodic homage to her former husband, James Taylor, though that was only confirmed in her 2016 memoir "Boys in the Trees," squelching the long-held rumors it was about Cat Stevens.

"Legend in Your Own Time" offers a thumbnail portrait of an artist who is a big man on stage, but his mother is oblivious. The assessment is delivered in the killer lines: "A hero in the footlights / Playin' tunes to fit your rhyme / But a legend's only a lonely boy / When he goes home alone."

In "You're So Vain," Simon is both imperious and vaguely amused by the men in her cross-hairs, but "Legend in Your Own Time" is sadder and more sympathetic. Played for someone we didn't like, it would be like a blade between the ribs, delivered with gorgeous harmonies and a toe-tapping melody. Knowing now that it's about Taylor, her validation of his talent (even if his mother didn't see it) so early in their relationship gives the song a subtle shading and depth that we think makes it one of Carly Simon's best.