Simon Announces ‘Vain’ Contest

A message posted on the singer’s Web site has the skinny, saying the best effort will become the song’s official video, and that it will be featured on AOL Music’s Spinner.com and screened at the Tribeca Film Festival in April.

Simon will choose the winner herself, and fans can pick one of two versions of the tune to work with – the original recording released in late 1972 or an acoustic version released last year.

To help out in the creation of the video, Simon has supplied elements that can be incorporated into the finished video, including recent green-screen film footage as well as photos and other content possibilities.

“You’re So Vain” had people guessing about the song’s main character almost as soon as it was released in December 1972. With lines describing a gent as traveling in a private jet to Nova Scotia for “the total eclipse of the sun,” and owning a racehorse that “naturally won,” the song’s refrain, “You’re so vain, you probably think this song is about you” led to speculation that Simon was singing about former boyfriends Warren Beatty, Kris Kristofferson or even James Taylor, who she had married only a month before the song was released.

Adding more confusion to the song’s subject matter were Mick Jagger’s backing vocals on the track, causing speculation that the Rolling Stones frontman was the person Simon was singing about.

But Simon has remained tight-lipped over the years, making her song’s main character one of pop music’s greatest mysteries for almost forty years.

However, in 2003 she offered details about the person in an auction for charity under the condition that the winner did not reveal the man’s identity. TV executive Dick Ebersole made the $50,000 winning bid and so far hasn’t said a word about who is really the vainest of them all.

Deadline for the contest is April 15. For more information, click here for Carly Simon’s Web site.