Discover The ‘Lost’ Duet Of Mick Jagger and Carly Simon

Mick Jagger’s involvement with Carly Simon’s music became apparent when he supplied backing vocals to her classic cut, “You’re So Vain”. Since this was Simon’s crowning moment, people actually thought that the song was about the Stones frontman when it actually wasn’t.

The two have worked together on several occasions as well, with one song being recorded on the same day as “You’re So Vain”. However, the track hadn’t seen the light of day, seemingly lost in its own accord, and the two parties wondering where it had wound up to.

Jagger and Simon’s relationship was just as ambiguous, although there are hints that the two shared something deep and strong. Simon wrote in her 2015 memoir, Boys In The Trees, about their past relationship, saying: “If Mick could have his way, it would be Romeo and Juliet tragic. We couldn’t have each other.” She didn’t go into detail on what went between them, but she did share that she received a call from Jagger’s new wife, Bianca, on the night before she and James Taylor were to be married.

Simon wrote: “James and I were in bed, getting ready for the big day, when the phone rang and James answered. It was Bianca Jagger,. She told James that he shouldn’t marry me because her husband and I were having an affair. She muttered some things I couldn’t believe she was saying. Then James said, ‘I’m sure that’s not true. Carly has told me about it and it’s not what you think. I trust my wife-to-be. I trust Carly.’”

She also shared how the song came to be, saying: “We sat down at the piano and I started playing these chords – Mick asked me how I knew them all. I played the chord sequence from the line [in ‘Vain’] that goes, ‘You gave away the things you loved,’ and he started singing. We had this little back and forth at the piano for about an hour.”

Simon then sang a line in a Rolling Stone interview one year later but admitted that she didn’t know what happened to the recording, saying that “[Producer] Richard Perry has been looking for that tape for years. Someone from Warner Brothers must have it.”

Then in 2018, a Rolling Stones collector named Matt Lee surfaced and said that he had a copy of the song in his private collection, but had no idea how it ended up in his hands. “I’m not doing it for the money. I’m a collector. My motive for sending it to Rolling Stone was to pass it to Carly,” he said. There have been no updates if the lost track made its way back to Simon, however.

https://youtu.be/VsNjCSM1pms