It was just a few weeks ago that Carly Simon went to London on a promo tour for her “Never Been Gone” album. Remember all that hoopla about “You’re So Vain” being about David Geffen? (It wasn’t.)
A lot happened to Simon in Blighty as we find out now. For one thing, today 2 million copies of “Never Been Gone” are bundled into The Mail on Sunday and its subsidiary papers. The Mail’s parent company licensed the album from Carly and printed up the massive number for its readers. All the UK will be humming Simon songs this week.
And there was more: one afternoon at her London hotel, Simon got a surprise visitor.
“I’d just gotten back from a day of publicity,” Carly told me. “I had mascara all over my face. And they said Yusuf Islam is here to see you.”
Yusuf Islam, of course, is the former Cat Stevens. The pair dated in 1969-70, and Stevens was responsible for helping Simon with her breakthrough second album, “Anticipation.”
“I hadn’t seen him since 1976,” Carly said. “My son Ben played “How Can I Tell You” for him”– a popular Stevens song from his heyday–”Ben does a wonderful version of it. We sang a song together, too. I cannot tell you how good it was to see him. He hasn’t changed. He’s just remarkable.”
Indeed, the two singer songwriter stars of the 1970s had not seen each other since ‘76. But Carly says they’d talked on the phone a few times. She named one of her recent albums after Stevens’ song, “Into White.”
And “You’re So Vain”? Even though we know (wink wink) it’s about Warren Beatty, the secret remains safe. And later this week, Simon will hear, more importantly, whether her lawsuit against Starbucks’ Hear Music record label is going forward. Hear Music released Simon’s “This Kind Of Love” album in 2007 without telling her they were going out out business on the same day.
This put some clouds in her coffee, but Simon is a survivor. Next up: she’s recording a surprise album for this fall. Details to come…
