Everyone gets songs stuck in their heads that just won’t go away. They sneak into your subconscious. They are epic earworms that you find yourself humming uncontrollably, singing in the shower, or tapping the beat to with your foot or ballpoint pen when you should be working. Sometimes they even keep you awake at night. Whether they are current hits, one-hit wonders, movie soundtrack gems, holiday favorites, or songs from your youth, their catchy vocals, riffs, hooks, and choruses seem to linger for days.
Here, those songs find a home, no matter the genre. Here, those epic earworms are revisited, explained, and celebrated. Here, you may find the song that haunts you tomorrow. Here is today’s unescapable song of the day…and the story behind it.
Today’s Epic Earworm: Carly Simon — “You’re So Vain”
Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Carly Simon rose to fame with a string of 13 hits in the ’70s. One of her biggest hits was the epic earworm “You’re So Vain.” The song was Simon’s first Number One single, topping the charts in the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. It was nominated for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Female at the 1974 Grammy Awards. The song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2004.
The Name Game
The song that would become “You’re So Vain” actually started out with the title “Bless You, Ben. Simon spent a year on the song, eventually rewriting the lyrics to what they are today and changing the name. For years, people have wondered who the song was about. Simon played coy for a long time, but eventually let slip that the song was really about three different men.
Some speculated that one of the men was Mick Jagger, who contributed uncredited backing vocals on the song, but Simon denied that. She also ruled out ex-husband James Taylor. In 2015, Simon confirmed that Warren Beatty was one of the men while doing press for her memoirs. Beatty had publicly stated that he believed the song was about him for years, but Simon would only admit that the second verse was about the “Dick Tracy” actor.
Simon has yet to reveal the identities of the other two men publicly, though she has confided in a few people. In 2003, the President of NBC Sports, Dick Ebersol, bid $50,000 at a charity auction to hear the names. In 2013, Simon confided in Taylor Swift after the two teamed up to sing the song at one of Swift’s tour stops. Simon also revealed the names to shock jock Howard Stern after a 2014 interview on his radio show. So far, no one has spilled the beans on the final two names.
