Did You Know That Mick Jagger (Allegedly) and Carly Simon Wrote Two Fantastic Songs About Each Other in 1972 and 1976?

It’s always fun to speculate on the true-life identities of characters depicted in popular songs. Carly Simon and Mick Jagger gave fans plenty of fodder in this department with a couple of songs spread a few years apart.

Simon recorded a song that many thought was about Mick, and then Jagger recorded a song with The Stones that many thought was about Carly. Let’s examine the evidence and see if there was indeed a kind of mutual inspiration thing going on between the two.

“Vain” Glory

“You’re So Vain”, released by Carly Simon in 1972, is sheer perfection as both a pop song and as a singer-songwriter confessional. Producer Richard Perry gave it just the right amount of sheen, including Paul Buckmaster’s sneaky string arrangement. The guitar solo by Jimmy Ryan is a stinger.

But more than all that, Simon’s song is a wonder. She uses ornate language throughout (rhyming “apricot” with “gavotte,” for example) to suggest the haughtiness of the person she’s addressing. But the hurt she feels is genuine, as evidenced by the all-time line “I had some dreams, they were clouds in my coffee.”

Almost immediately, people began speculating on the identity of Simon’s target. She had been romantically linked to some famous men by that time. One of them, Mick Jagger, even sang backup on “You’re So Vain”. Wouldn’t that be the ultimate playboy move, to contribute to a song that’s subtly castigating your womanizing ways?

A Haunting “Memory”

Fast forward to 1976. The Rolling Stones released the album Black And Blue. It’s a fascinating record, in large part because the Stones used it as not just another album in the discography. Instead, it also served a purpose, allowing them to audition guitar players as potential replacements for Mick Taylor. (Ron Wood got the job.)

The record’s standout track is “Memory Motel”. It’s a bittersweet ballad that features a main section written by Mick Jagger and a bridge contributed by Keith Richards. Jagger and Richards both trade off on lead vocals and sing gorgeous harmonies throughout the song.

“Memory Motel” spends much of its time lamenting the time spent on the road, with the titular establishment the place where the narrator goes to lick his wounds. But it also speaks of a girl named Hannah whose “eyes were hazel and teeth were slightly curved.” Could Jagger have been returning the favor and referring to Carly Simon in song?

Identity Crisis

The bottom line is that we’ll probably never be sure about the exact inspiration for these songs. People have been trying to get the answer about “You’re So Vain” out of Simon for years. She’s admitted that the character is a composite of several men, naming only actor Warren Beatty out of that group.

Meanwhile, Jagger went only so far as to admit that “Memory Motel” was based on a real girl, not a figment of his imagination. As that song wasn’t the big hit that “You’re So Vain” was, it’s not the subject of nearly as much speculation.

In any case, we can probably say with some degree of confidence that Mick Jagger and Carly Simon left quite the impression on each other, for better or worse. If their brief fling even had a little something to do with these two marvelous songs, it was certainly worth it.

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