Jazz singer on ‘elite’ Saratoga section of her ‘You’re So Vain’ cover
Jazz singer Stephanie Spruill tells author Will Levith what the feminist anthem meant to Black women when she sang a soulful version of it on David Axelrod’s 1974 album ‘Heavy Axe.’
Stephanie Spruill was just 24 or 25 when she stepped into the recording studio to belt out Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain” for David Axelrod’s 1974 album, Heavy Axe.
“I really didn’t understand everything [about the song], because I had never been on a private jet — I didn’t get on a G4 until I was singing with Julio Iglesias, you know?” she tells author Will Levith, in an interview he released earlier today about what it was like for a young Spruill to sing about the “elite” — as Spruill calls Simon and her rich and famous friends and boyfriends.
“Uncovering the Forgotten Soul Jazz Cover of Carly Simon’s ‘You’re So Vain’” is part of Levith’s reporting for his upcoming book, Spa Rock City. The music history deep-dive digs into Saratoga’s moments in the limelight, including the famous Saratoga line “I hear you went up to Saratoga / And your horse naturally won” in “You’re So Vain.”
The verse meant nothing to Spruill when she was tapped to sing it.
But then she was deeply moved after learning the intent of the song.
“I think I did it in one take,” she says.
The breakup anthem became a defining feminist moment decrying male entitlement, and Levith asks Spruill, “Do you feel that revolution extended to African-American women, too?”
“No, not really,” she says. “Carly Simon is [the daughter of the co-founder of] Simon & Schuster…it’s all about the elite…So, it wasn’t like Gloria Steinem. However, she was speaking her truth, now that I reflect on it. It was good for her, because that’s where she was. She wasn’t where African Americans were at that time. The ’70s, ’60s, we were just still fighting for our rights, and many of our leaders were assassinated. So, that song didn’t affect me as far as for my liberation as an African American; it may have been for Caucasian women. But for me, personally, no.”
Will Levith, who grew up in Saratoga Springs, publishes overflow interviews and unfinished excerpts on Drafts + Cuts. His interview with Spruill took place by phone in October 2023.