Carly Simon, especially for those who live on or visit Martha’s Vineyard, is a bold-faced name. In fact, she has been famous for so long it is as if she were born famous; biding her time in the womb, say, by humming the first bars of Anticipation. Such is the price of fame, this distorted view by those on the outside looking in. We see only the finished product, the glamorous stage presence, so natural, again as if she had rocked her own delivery room with a chorus of You’re So Vain. But this is a false picture, one that does not include the shy stutterer who achieved her success the old-fashioned way, with a lot of very hard work.

TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALL GAME. By Carly Simon (performer, author), Jack Norworth (author) and Amiko Hirao (illustrator). Imagine, a Charlesbridge Imprint. April 2011. 26 pages, hardcover. $17.95.

Imagine a 1908 Tin Pan Alley ditty that continues to be heard by tens of millions of Americans on a daily basis — at least during baseball season. Yes, the incredibly catchy Take Me Out to the Ballgame (by Jack Norworth), is the unofficial baseball anthem, and it gets the crowds roaring to the immortal lyrics:

Even when filtered through telephone lines, Carly Simon’s voice is distinctive; those warm, husky tones laid over bright backgrounds cause a listener to leap immediately to her songs, her albums — you know that voice.

Just in time for the holidays, there is closure to the long-standing
discussion over how to dispense a $16,500 gift to Martha's
Vineyard Community Services workers.

The gift - from singer Carly Simon and author Norman Bridwell
- funded a one-time bonus to nonmanagerial employees of the health
service agency; the money was divided equally among more than 100 of
them, amounting to something above $100 each.

Something happened to Carly Simon the moment she stepped onstage at the Chilmark concert. The performance she worried so about was riveting; the crowds she expected to be rowdy welcomed her warmly.

Backstage, she had mingled among the carefully screened (and tagged) collection of people, accepting hugs of encouragement, words of support.

“There was so much paranoia before the event, about what might happen, what it might turn into that I was really quite scared,” she recalled some days later.