![\"Carly](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Carly-Simon-1978-Musician-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jpg\")
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(Credits: Far Out \/ Elektra Records)<\/p>\n
Sun 11 January 2026 2:00, UK <\/p>\n
We\u2019re now over half a century on from Carly Simon<\/a>\u2018s famous hit, \u2018You\u2019re So Vain\u2019, and the subject of it stills turns people into a tailspin.<\/p>\n Such is the salacious nature of the human mind that, even despite the fact that Simon has semi-confirmed at least one of the inspirations\u00a0to be Warren Beatty, we still won\u2019t rest until we crack who the remaining subjects are. James Taylor, Mick Jagger, and Yusuf\/Cat Stevens have all been added to the shortlist as potential suitors, given their romantic history with Simon.<\/p>\n But the latter is unlikely, given how much of Vain\u2019s recollection of him eludes the sort of slanderous tone that laces her great hit. Simon did, in fact, confirm that Stevens was the source of inspiration for another song of hers,\u00a0\u2018Anticipation\u2019<\/a>, which was penned while waiting for the songwriter to turn up for a date.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI was already in love with his album,\u201d she confessed, adding she was \u201ccopying his songs and singing along with him on my reel-to-reel tape machine.\u201d She sat patiently waiting for him to arrive. Ever the rockstar, he was up to 40 minutes late, which for Simon was the perfect amount of time to write a track that she claimed was simply too designed to imitate his style. What was left was a song too good to forget and a bed of nerves appropriately settled, prior to his arrival.\u00a0<\/p>\n It proves that Simon\u2019s adoration for Stevens extends well beyond the realms of human interaction. Sure, there is a personal relationship that exists between the two, but Simon isn\u2019t scared to admit that it was built on the back of her own fandom for Stevens.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n She explained, \u201cIt\u2019s not an exaggeration to say that if it wasn\u2019t for Cat Stevens (as most of us knew his name as that), I would probably never have performed,\u201d adding, \u201cThe first time I heard his voice, which was on the radio earlier that year (1971), I had such an unusual reaction to it. It was brand new in every way except for one: it stirred my soul (up from the many), but like very few voices ever had. I had to hear it in person.\u201d<\/p>\n