"You walked into the party like you were walking on to a yacht!" CARLY SIMON: "YOU'RE SO VAIN" - Tempo analysis of minor key pop at a comfort speed

These are some speed charts from the original studio version of the Carly Simon classic You’re So Vain.
"You’re So Vain" falls at the slower end of lust. As you can see, the song was recorded without the use of any metronome or substitute therefore, so the speed of the measures vary from 100-110 1/2 beats per minute.


Like many songs at the speed of lust, the song is in a minor key. For those who don’t know, “minor” keys are have the dark, sad sound, as they are based on minor chords and minor scales. Songs as Riders On The Storm, The Sounds Of Silence, White Room, California Dreaming: all in a minor key. It is impossible to say why. It is easy to guess, though, that a lustful sound, sometimes pure desire, sometimes sexual sometimes just a [life wish], sounds more intense with the darker sound of a minor key. Minor keys: In The Air Tonight, White Room, Layla at the speed of Enthusiasm, Lust and foreboding, respectively—would sound absurd in D major rather than the dark D minor.

Also, it’s not fair to put that out about Layla without explaining part two: Db major, a part written by the drummer separately where Clapton convinced him to make it part two of the song. It is almost played out—in Goodfellas, it is played almost on a loop. The key is Db major—always a wet sounding dark key---with a bridge in Bb minor.

Meanspeed-Carlton Summary
sing title=You’re So Vain
composer=Carly Simon
standard tempo/mean speed=105.6 beats per minute
mean-emotion=Lustful
beat frequency=1.76 beats per second
average beat length=568 milliseconds per beat.
mean slow phase=1.76 cycles per second.
corresponding pitch=450.56 Hertz, 40 cents above A4=440.000 Hertz and 60 cents below A#4/Bb4=466.164 Hertz.

Ian Andrew Schneider