1974 · Behind the Songs
James Taylor joins in — a duet that feels like home.
The recording in context
By 1974, Carly Simon and James Taylor were the singer-songwriter era’s golden couple — married since 1972, collaborators and confidants. “Mockingbird,” their remake of the 1963 Inez and Charlie Foxx call-and-response hit, was cut for Simon’s Hotcakes album and released as a single that spring. It raced into the top five, becoming the couple’s signature duet and a snapshot of a partnership at its sunniest, years before the marriage ended in 1983.
Listen closely
The joy here is structural: the original was a teasing back-and-forth between siblings, and Simon and Taylor keep that playful sparring while adding something the original never had — genuine affection. Listen to the way their voices chase each other through the verses, finishing each other’s musical sentences. Taylor’s laid-back baritone is the perfect foil for Simon’s brighter attack; when they collide on the chorus, it sounds less like a performance than a kitchen-table singalong that happened to be recorded.
Notice, too, the band’s looseness. The groove shuffles rather than drives, the horns punctuate like laughter, and nobody is trying to make a statement — which is precisely why the record endures. In a catalogue full of confession and mystery, “Mockingbird” is Simon at play, and the playfulness is the point.
It’s tempting to hear the song now with hindsight’s ache. Resist it — at least for three minutes. This is two extraordinary talents simply delighting in each other, and that delight is timeless.