Now Available: Carly Simon, The Studio Album Collection 1971-1983

If you’re a regular visitor to our website, then you know that we generally offer an installment of our Digital Roundup column on Wednesdays, but you’re caught us on a slow week: we’ve only got a single item joining our digital catalog. As such, we’re bypassing the column in favor of shining a solo spotlight on this item, but to our way of thinking, it more than deserves the individual attention, given that this one release actually includes 11 – count ‘em – 11 albums.

Even if Carly Simon had never recorded a single song beyond her time on Elektra and Warner Brothers in the ‘70s and early ‘80s, she’d likely still be on most music fans’ radar, as it’s that era which not only served to define her sound but also provided her with her most substantial chart success. That’s certainly not to suggest that she didn’t have any beyond that: “Coming Around Again” was a top-20 pop hit, and it was just one of a half-dozen tracks to hit the Adult Contemporary top 10, including “Let the River Run,” from the soundtrack to Working Girl. Still, if you ask people to name a Carly Simon song, odds are that a significant number of those polled would answer with “You’re So Vain” or, if they’re a particularly big James Bond fan, “Nobody Does It Better.”

Unfortunately, as it was recorded for the soundtrack of The Spy Who Loved Me, “Nobody Does It Better” is not actually part of this set, so we’re sorry that we just sent the tune running through your head. (Clearly, we are not the best.) But on the other hand – and forgive us for sounding so unabashedly like a commercial – in addition to “You’re So Vain,” you’ll also get such signature Simon singles as “Anticipation,” “That’s the Way I’ve Always Heard It Should Be,” “The Right Thing to Do,” “Haven’t Got Time for the Pain,” “You Belong to Me,” and “Jesse,” as well as the classic duets Simon performed with then-husband James Taylor, “Mockingbird” and “Devoted to You.”

Here’s a full listing of the albums you’ll find in the set, along with their original years of release:

Carly Simon (February 1971)
Anticipation (November 1971)
No Secrets (1972)
Hotcakes (1974)
Playing Possum (1975)
Another Passenger (1976)
Boys in the Trees (1978)
Spy (1979)
Come Upstairs (1980)
Torch (1981)
Hello Big Man (1983)

That last album, by the way, makes for a particularly interesting listen, as it features Simon collaborating with Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare on several tracks. You may or may not have wanted to imagine her covering Bob Marley’s “Is This Love?” but now’s your chance to hear what it sounds like anyway.