Here’s another of those songs I wouldn’t be rushing to put on my own personal Best of 1973 album but it’s is as near to a standard as you can get. Everybody knows You’re So Vain. It’s beyond loving or hating, it just IS. It’s there.

Listening to it again, trying to put aside the over-familiarity of half a century of ubiquity, it’s kinda perfect. It’s got one of those inventive intros unlike any other: the rattling of Klaus Voorman’s bass, the whispered “Son of a gun!” then the strum of Carly’s guitar.

But it’s all about those vicious lyrics that seduce and bemuse as they amuse, with their accusation against an anonymous lover: “You’re so vain. I bet you’ll think this song is about you.”

For decades people have speculated over who his identity, studying Simon’s romantic past in search of an answer. Was it her husband James Taylor? Warren Beatty? Mick Jagger (who sings the backing vocals)? Others have even suggested David Bowie (according to his ex-wife Linda), Cat Stevens and David Cassidy.

Sensibly, Simon has never settled the matter, only revealing after many years of silence that the answer is a composite of three men, of whom Beatty is one – the second verse – and ruling out her husband Taylor.

She has recently revealed the identity to several people including the broadcaster Howard Stern and Taylor Swift (with whom she sang a duet) but only on condition that they keep it to themselves.

She actually wrote the song years earlier (under the title Bless You Ben) and revived it when she was at a party where a Famous Man walked in and a friend observed that he had entered the room “like he was walking on to a yacht”. And bingo! A hit was born!