Carly Simon No Secrets CD

Personnel: Carly Simon (vocals, acoustic guitar, piano); Mick Jagger, Paul & Linda McCartney, James Taylor (vocals); Paul Keough (acoustic guitar); Lowell George (slide guitar); Bobby Keyes (tenor saxophone); Peter Robinson (acoustic piano); Bill Payne (organ); Kirby Johnson (electric piano); Dave Henshaw (synthesizer); Klaus Voorman (bass); Andy Newmark, Jim Gordon (drums); Ray Cooper (congas); Richard Perry (percussion); Liza Strike, Vicki Johnson, Bonnie Bramlett, Doris Troy (background vocals).
Recorded at Trident Studios, London, England from September to October 1972.
All tracks have been digitally remastered using HDCD technology.
Carly Simon's best album, No Secrets was also her commercial breakthrough, topping the charts and going gold, along with its leadoff single, "You're So Vain." That song set the album's saucy tone, with its air of sexually frank autobiography ("You had me several years ago/When I was still quite naďve") and its reflections on the jet-set lifestyle. But Simon's honesty meant that her lyrical knife was double-edged; now that she felt she had found true love ("The Right Thing to Do," another Top Ten hit, was her celebration of her relationship with James Taylor), she was as willing to acknowledge her own mistakes and regrets as she was to point fingers. But it wasn't only Simon's forthrightness that made the album work; it was also Richard Perry's simple, elegant pop/rock production, which gave Simon's music a buoyancy it previously lacked. And Perry paid particular attention to Simon's vocals in a way that made her more engaging (or at least less grating) to listen to. ~ William Ruhlmann
Carly Simon's third album, 1972's NO SECRETS, was her best-selling release ever, thanks to the inclusion of the huge hit single "You're So Vain." Speculation persists over the identity of the person so deftly skewered in this song (Simon's been quoted as saying that while there are elements of various people in the lyrics, "there's nothing there that isn't true of Warren Beatty"), to such an extent that the excellence of the rest of the album is often overlooked.
Besides the gospel-tinged hit "The Right Thing to Do," there's a moving tribute to the Carter Family (an early country music trio of the 1930s). "We Have No Secrets" is a confessional delight, and "Waited So Long" and James Taylor's "Night Owl" are two of the most rocking songs Simon ever recorded. Exquisitely produced and smartly sequenced, NO SECRETS has just the right balance of slick studio polish and soulful rough edges to make this a classic of '70s singer-songwriter pop.Rolling Stone (1/4/73, p.64) - "...intelligence and forthrightness... radiant vocal personality...what finally makes NO SECRETS so refreshing is her singing..."