Happy Anniversary: Carly Simon, “Anticipation”

48 years ago today, Carly Simon entered the Billboard Hot 100 with the title track from her sophomore album, a song which would quickly confirm that the LP in question was unlikely to leave her career in any semblance of a slump.

Written by Simon and produced by Paul Samwell-Smith at Morgan Studios in London, “Anticipation” reportedly took all of 15 minutes for her to compose, but the more interesting bit of trivia about the song involves why she had 15 minutes to kill: she was waiting for Yusuf, a.k.a. the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens, to pick her up for a date. Of course, this tidbit of trivia immediately provides every guy with an instant comeback if they’re running late, but all things considered, we probably wouldn’t recommend telling your significant other, “Carly Simon wrote a hit song when her beau was late picking her up. What did you do?” There’s just no way that ends well for you.

That said, the situation did end rather well for Carly Simon: “Anticipation” ultimately climbed to #13 on the Hot 100, and it did even better on the Adult Contemporary Singles chart, where it made it all the way to #3.

Oh, right, and it was also a very, very successful jingle for Heinz Ketchup. But you probably already knew that. (How could you ever forget it?)