The Best of Carly Simon

The Best of Carly Simon is singer-songwriter Carly Simon's first greatest-hits album, released in 1975. Covering the first five years of her career, 1971 to 1975, the compilation includes eight top twenty hit singles from her first five albums, as well as two album cuts from No Secrets (1972), "Night Owl" and "We Have No Secrets", the latter of which was released as the B-side to the single "The Right Thing to Do".

The Best of Carly Simon
Greatest hits album by Carly Simon
Released	November 24, 1975
Recorded	1970–1975
Genre	Rock
Length	38:18
Label	Elektra
Producer	Eddie Kramer, Richard Perry, Paul Samwell-Smith
Carly Simon chronology
Playing Possum (1975) The Best of Carly Simon (1975) Another Passenger (1976)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]
Christgau's Record Guide	C+[2]

For many years, this was Simon's only greatest hits collection, and, as a result, it became her bestselling album. In the late 1990s, sales in the United States alone stood at over three million copies.[3] 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", "Coming Around Again" and "Let the River Run". The fact that Simon had changed record labels several times (moving from Elektra to Warner Bros. to Epic to Arista) made a more 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), which went on to become a great commercial success, and was certified Gold by the RIAA in 2007.

Track listing

Credits adapted from the album's liner notes[4]

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Original album	Length
1.	"That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be"	Carly Simon Jacob Brackman	Carly Simon (1971)	4:15
2.	"The Right Thing to Do"	Simon	No Secrets (1972)	2:57
3.	"Mockingbird"	Inez Foxx Charlie Foxx James Taylor	Hotcakes (1974)	4:11
4.	"Legend in Your Own Time"	Simon	Anticipation (1971)	3:45
5.	"Haven't Got Time for the Pain"	Simon Brackman	Hotcakes (1974)	3:50
6.	"You're So Vain"	Simon	No Secrets (1972)	4:17
7.	"(We Have) No Secrets"	Simon	No Secrets (1972)	3:57
8.	"Night Owl"	Taylor	No Secrets (1972)	3:47
9.	"Anticipation"	Simon	Anticipation (1971)	3:19
10.	"Attitude Dancing"	Simon Brackman	Playing Possum (1975)	4:00
Total length:				38:18

Personnel

Credits adapted from the album's liner notes[4]

• Carly Simon – lead vocals (all tracks), piano (tracks 1, 2, 4–6, 9, 10), background vocals (tracks 2, 10), acoustic guitar (tracks 4, 7, 9), string arrangement (track 6)
• Jim Ryan – electric guitar (tracks 3, 4, 8, 9), bass (tracks 2, 4, 9), acoustic guitar (tracks 4, 5, 9), guitar (tracks 6, 7)
• Richard Perry – production (tracks 2, 3, 5–8, 10), percussion (track 6)
• Kirby Johnson – string conducting & string arrangement (tracks 2, 7), horn conducting & horn arrangement (track 2), electric piano (track 7)
• Paul Buckmaster – string conducting, string arrangement, woodwind conducting & woodwind arrangement (track 5), string orchestration (track 6)
• Klaus Voorman – bass (tracks 3, 5–7)
• Andy Newmark – percussion (tracks 4, 9), drums (track 2)
• Jim Keltner – drums (tracks 3, 5, 8)
• Jim Gordon – drums (tracks 6, 7, 10)
• Ray Cooper – congas (tracks 2, 8)
• Dr. John – piano & organ (track 3)
• Ralph MacDonald – percussion (tracks 3, 5)
• James Taylor – vocals (track 3), acoustic guitar (track 5)
• Bobby Keys – baritone saxophone (track 3), tenor saxophone (track 8)
• Paul Samwell-Smith – production (tracks 4, 9)
• John Ryan – acoustic bass (tracks 4, 9)
• Paul Glanz – piano (tracks 4, 9)
• Paul Riser – string arrangement & horn arrangement (track 10)
• Eddie Kramer – production (track 1)
• Paul Griffin – piano (track 1)
• Tony Levin – bass (track 1)
• Jimmy Johnson – drums (track 1)
• Ed Freeman – string arrangement (track 1)
• Liza Strike – background vocals (track 2)
• Vicki Brown – background vocals (track 2)
• Robbie Robertson – electric guitar (track 3)
• Michael Brecker – tenor saxophone (track 3)
• Carl Hall – background vocals (track 5)
• Tasha Thomas – background vocals (track 5)
• Lani Groves – background vocals (track 5)
• Paul Keough – acoustic guitar (track 7)
• Nicky Hopkins – piano (track 8)
• Bonnie Bramlett – background vocals (track 8)
• Doris Troy – background vocals (track 8)
• Paul McCartney – background vocals (track 8)
• Linda McCartney – background vocals (track 8)
• Willie Weeks – bass (track 10)
• Andrew Gold – guitar (track 10)
• Eddie Bongo – congas (track 10)
• Carole King – background vocals (track 10)
• Abigale Haness – background vocals (track 10)
• Kenny Moore – background vocals (track 10)

Credits

• WCI Record Group – CDD pre-mastering
• Arlyne Rothberg, Inc. – management
• Glenn Christensen – art direction
• Albert Mackenzie Watson – photo

Charts

Album – Billboard (North America)

Year	Chart	Position
1976	Pop Albums	17[5]

Album – International

Year	Country	Position
1975	Australia	42[6]
1975	Canada	40[7]

References

1. https://www.allmusic.com/album/r17973
2. Christgau, Robert (1981). "Carly Simon". Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies. Ticknor & Fields. ISBN 0-89919-025-1. Retrieved January 4, 2019.
3. "Carly Simon certifications". RIAA.com. Retrieved January 4, 2020.
4. The Best of Carly Simon (booklet). Carly Simon. Elektra. 1975.CS1 maint: others (link)
5. "Carly Simon – Chart history | Billboard". Billboard.com. Retrieved January 4, 2020.
6. David Kent (1993). Australian Charts Book 1970–1992. Australian Chart Book Pty Ltd, Turramurra, N.S.W. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
7. "CAN Charts > Carly Simon". RPM. Archived from the original on January 4, 2015. Retrieved January 4, 2015.

External links

• Carly Simon's Official Website