That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be

"That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be"
Single by Carly Simon
from the album Carly Simon
B-side "Alone"
Released April 1971
Format Vinyl, 7", 45 RPM
Recorded Summer 1970
Genre Pop rock
Length 4:15
Label Elektra
Writer(s) Carly Simon Jacob Brackman
Producer(s) Eddie Kramer
Carly Simon singles chronology
"That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be"
(1971)		 "Anticipation"
(1971)

"That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be" is a 1971 song performed by Carly Simon. Her friend and frequent collaborator Jacob Brackman wrote the lyrics and Simon wrote the music. The song was released as the lead single from her self-titled debut album, Carly Simon, and it reached peak positions of number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and 6 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart.[1]

It was an art song with a semiclassical melody in the style of Gabriel Fauré,[2] and Elektra staffers were worried the single was too emotionally complex to be released as Simon's first single. With subject matter that includes "the parents' bad marriage; the friends' unhappy lives; the boyfriend's enthusiasm for marriage but controlling nature; the woman's initial resistance and ultimate capitulation."[3]

Simon was quoted as saying, "When I first wrote it I thought it was an unusual thing for people to break up, and now all my friends are divorced."[4]

Recognition

The success of the song propelled Simon into the limelight. Apart from being a Top 10 hit, Simon also received her first Grammy Award nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. She also was nominated for and won Best New Artist.

"That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be" has been included on several compilations of Simon's work, including The Best of Carly Simon (1975), Clouds in My Coffee (1995), The Very Best of Carly Simon: Nobody Does It Better (1999), Anthology (2002), and Reflections: Carly Simon's Greatest Hits (2004).[5]

No music video existed for this song.

Chart performance

Weekly charts

Chart (1971) Peak
Position
Australia (Kent Music Report) 62
Canada (RPM) 15
US Billboard Pop Singles (Hot 100) 10
US Billboard Adult Contemporary 6
US Cash Box Top 100[6] 9

Year-end charts

Chart (1971) Rank
US Billboard Hot 100[7] 47
US Cash Box Top 100[8] 82

References

  1. ↑ Whitburn, Joel (2002). Top Adult Contemporary: 1961-2001. Record Research. p. 221.
  2. ↑ Holden, Stephen (2008-05-13). "Trailblazers, but Selling a Romantic Kind of Love". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-06-08.
  3. ↑ Weller, Sheila (2009). Girls Like Us. p. 344.
  4. ↑ Walsh, Ben (2010-03-11). "Vanity case: Will Carly Simon reveal the identity of the mystery man in her Seventies hit You're So Vain?". The Independent. London. Retrieved 2010-06-08.
  5. ↑ "Carly Simon Official Website - That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be lyrics". Web.archive.org. Archived from the original on March 16, 2005. Retrieved 2015-02-07.
  6. ↑
  7. ↑ "Top 100 Hits of 1971/Top 100 Songs of 1971". Musicoutfitters.com. Retrieved 2016-10-05.
  8. ↑
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