This Mick Jagger Duet Was Lost For 46 Years
Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger is one of the biggest names in the history of rock-and-roll, with a career that has spanned over half a century. Any record that Jagger touches is likely to receive a huge bump in sales and notoriety, so it's astonishing to think that a Mick Jagger duet — with Carly Simon no less — could go missing for a few days, let alone four decades. Yet according to The Washington Post, that's exactly what happened, and the song was only recovered recently.
Mick Jagger and Carly Simon collaborated on the hit song "You're So Vain" in 1972. Simon wrote in her memoirs that another, shorter duet was recorded when Jagger started playing a tune on the piano and crooned out some impromptu lyrics. After some quick tweaking, the two music legends had a chorus figured out, which they harmonized on and recorded on a tape that would later be searched for but seemingly vanished until just a few years ago.
The recording turned up in a private collection
According to Far Out Magazine, Simon would recall some of the lyrics from their improvised duet, but in the years that followed no one could find where the recording went. How exactly the recording got lost is unknown, but in the days before digital media, misplacing the masters could have devastating effects. It was only in 2018 when a Rolling Stones collector named Matt Lee claimed to have discovered a tape of the recording, labeled "Fragile," that matched Simon's remembered lyrics.
Lee requested the tape be passed on to Simon but there's been no word as to whether Simon received it or if it was an authentic recording. The relationship between Jagger and Simon is shrouded in some mystique, and much speculation exists over whether the subject of "You're So Vain" is actually the Stones singer, although Simon has maintained that's not the case. Their secret duet is not completely lost, however, as a snippet appeared in an unreleased, unofficial documentary that now circles the internet.