When WCBS-FM in New York City went oldies in the early 1970s, they'd still play some current songs; this was one of them, and this is how I first heard it. I even had my brand-new tape recorder recording it at the time, since it was preceded by an Elvis song or something.

Backing vocals included the voice of Mick Jagger; when, years later, Carly Simon was going to perform the song on Saturday Night Live, Jagger, the New Yorker, couldn't make it to the show to sing his part, for some reason. So Ms. Simon's friend Chevy Chase became Mick for a Day, in order to help her out with her stage fright.

During the solar eclipse that occurred around 1970, I think, I didn't quite grasp the meaning of it; I thought something dire was happening. My mother had gone to the store for something, and I worried that she wouldn't come back, due to some eclipse-related calamity. I cowered in my closet, with one of its folding doors cracked open, so I could watch the eclipse coverage on TV. Maybe they would have some news about my mother.

A few minutes later, I could hear, in the distance, the apartment door opening, and my mother's footsteps, and the rustling of the paper bags of groceries. She was back. I cracked the closet door open a little more, and watched a live shot of the total eclipse of the sun, as it was happening in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

This song is about Warren Beatty, IIRC.