The summer camp experience that set Carly Simon on a path to glory
As a songwriter, Carly Simon is one of the most gifted of her generation. Known for her string of hits in the 1970s, including the classic ‘You’re So Vain’ and ‘Nobody Does It Better’, her theme for the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me, Simon has had a successful career spanning multiple decades. Reportedly, it all started at a summer camp in the late 1960s.
Although she later became known for tracks like ‘You Belong to Me’, ‘Anticipation’ and ‘You’re So Vain’, among others, Simon’s career began singing with her sister Lucy in the early 1960s. This early work saw a young Simon singing children’s songs and achieving some modest success, such as the single ‘Winkin’, Blinkin’, and Nod’, which broke into the top 100 singles chart in the US.
It was not until the beginning of the 1970s that Simon went out on her own, releasing her eponymous debut album in 1971. The album, though not her most successful, cemented her as part of a new generation of incredible singer-songwriters. A grand departure from her early ventures into children’s music, it covers topics of love, relationships, marriage and the trials and tribulations that come with those things.
One of the singles taken from her self-titled debut provided Simon with her first top ten hit in the form of ‘That’s the Way I’ve Always Heard It Should Be’. The track, which also gave Simon a Grammy nomination for ‘Best Female Pop Vocal Performance,’ centres around the unhappy marriage of her parents and the issues of marriage in general. Her record label, Elektra, were reportedly worried that Simon’s song would be too emotionally complex to be a hit, but seemingly, the American public were quick to relate to a track about the despair that comes with marital breakdown.
The track was co-written by Carly Simon and the journalist Jacob Brackman. The pair had collaborated on tracks a few times. In fact, it was Brackman’s influence that set Simon on a path to future glory. While working as counsellors at a summer camp in 1967, Brackman and Simon first met and began writing songs together. The writer, journalist and Harvard graduate amazed a young Simon with his ability to easily fit lyrics to a melody without resorting to clichés.
In their early days at summer camp, the duo wrote various songs together, and this writing partnership continued throughout much of Simon’s career, producing several hits, including ‘Haven’t Got Time for the Pain’ and ‘All I Want is You’. Although it is difficult to imagine ‘That’s the Way I’ve Always Heard It Should Be’ being written, or even partially written, by a man given the overt female voice within the lyrics, the song was reportedly born out of a conversation Brackman and Simon had had about their own individual relationship issues.
Musical history is full of interesting coincidences and unlikely pairings, but whichever stars aligned for Simon and Brackman to be counsellors at the same summer camp certainly have a lot to answer for. Their fantastic writing partnership has won Simon some of her biggest tracks, allowing her to become a household name and icon of the 1960s and 1970s singer-songwriter boom.
