The Best of Carly Simon

The Best of Carly Simon is singer-songwriter Carly Simon's sixth album, and her first greatest-hits compilation of previously released songs. Covering the first five years of her career, 1971 to 1975, the compilation includes six top ten hit singles, two minor hits ("Legend In Your Own Time", "Attitude Dancing") and two album cuts that were never released as singles ("Night Owl", "We Have No Secrets").

For many years, this was Simon's only greatest hits collection, and, as a result, it became by far her best selling album. In the late 1990s, sales in the United States alone stood at over three million copies. However, in later years the collection could not be considered a complete or definitive representation of Simon's best or most popular work because it did not include her major hits from the mid-1970s onward, such as "Nobody Does It Better", "You Belong to Me", "Jesse" and "Coming Around Again". The fact that Simon had changed record labels several times (moving from Elektra to Warner Brothers to Epic to Arista) made a more a wide-ranging collection a difficult proposition. A live album, Greatest Hits Live (1988), went some way to rectifying this issue, but the original recorded versions were eventually collected on the three-disc boxed-set Clouds in My Coffee (1995), the two-disc set Anthology (2003) and the single disc compilation Reflections: Carly Simon's Greatest Hits (2004).

Track listing

1. "That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be" (C. Simon/J. Brackman) – 4:15
2. "The Right Thing to Do" (C. Simon) – 2:57
3. "Mockingbird" (C. Foxx/I. Foxx/additional lyrics by J. Taylor) – 4:11
4. "Legend in Your Own Time" (C. Simon) – 3:45
5. "Haven't Got Time for the Pain" (C. Simon/J. Brackman) – 3:36
6. "You're So Vain" (C. Simon) – 4:17
7. "We Have No Secrets" (C. Simon) – 3:57
8. "Night Owl" (J. Taylor) – 3:47
9. "Anticipation" (C. Simon) – 3:19
10. "Attitude Dancing" (C. Simon/J. Brackman) – 4:00

Personnel

• Carly Simon — Acoustic guitar, guitar, piano, vocals, background vocals, arrangements
• Eddie Bongo — Conductor, conga
• Bonnie Bramlett — Vocals, background vocals
• Michael Brecker — Saxophone, tenor saxophone
• Vicki Brown — Vocals, background vocals
• Ray Cooper — Percussion, conga
• Dr. John — Organ, guitar, piano, keyboards
• Paul Glanz — Piano
• Andrew Gold — Guitar, drums
• Jim Gordon — Drums
• Paul Griffin — Piano
• Lani Groves — Vocals, background vocals
• Carl Hall — Vocals, background vocals
• Abigale Haness — Vocals, background vocals
• Nicky Hopkins — Piano
• Mick Jagger — Vocals
• Jimmy Johnson, Jr. — Drums
• Jim Keltner — Drums
• Paul Keough — acoustic guitar
• Bobby Keys — Saxophone, Sax (Baritone), tenor saxophone
• Carole King — Vocals, background vocals
• Tony Levin — Bass
• Ralph MacDonald — Percussion
• Linda McCartney — Vocals
• Paul McCartney — Vocals
• Ken Moore — Vocals, background vocals
• Andy Newmark — Percussion, drums
• Richard Perry — Percussion
• Robbie Robertson — Guitar, electric guitar
• Jim Ryan — Acoustic guitar, Bass, guitar, electric guitar
• John Ryan — Bass
• Liza Strike — Background vocals
• James Taylor — Acoustic guitar, guitar, vocals
• Tasha Thomas — Vocals, background vocals
• Doris Troy — Vocals, background vocals
• Klaus Voormann — Bass
• Willie Weeks — Bass

Charts

Album - Billboard (North America)

References