Simon's major breakthrough was 1972's "No Secrets". The album spawned several successful singles, including Simon's biggest hit, "You're So Vain". Simon continued to produce successful albums though the 70s and early 80s, moving into film scores after she was dropped by her record label in 1985.

"You're So Vain" is a sarcastic profile of a self-absorbed lover. The song was a number-one hit (it topped the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks in early 1973, and also spent two weeks at the top of the Adult Contemporary chart, her first #1 song on either chart), and spawned what many fans consider to be the biggest musical mystery of the era. There has been much debate over who exactly the song is about. Popular guesses on the subject include Mick Jagger (who sang backing vocals on the song), Cat Stevens, Warren Beatty, Kris Kristofferson, unfaithful fiancé William Donaldson, and Simon's ex-husband, James Taylor. Later "clues" given by Carly Simon herself have all but excluded Stevens, Kristofferson and Donaldson from that list.

Carly Simon is also a member of the elite group of artists who have performed the main title song for a James Bond film. "Nobody Does It Better" was a worldwide hit in 1977, it being the theme song of "The Spy Who Loved Me".

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Carly Elisabeth Simon (born June 25, 1945) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and children's author. She rose to fame in the 1970s with a string of hit records, and has since been the recipient of two Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, and a Golden Globe Award for her work.

She is the former wife of another notable singer-songwriter, James Taylor, with whom she has two children: Sarah "Sally" Maria Taylor and Ben Taylor, who are also musicians.

A long respected and acclaimed artist, Simon was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1994.