| Artist: | Carly Simon |
| Studio: | 23 |
| Live: | 2 |
| Compilation: | 10 |
| 1Option Name: | Christmas albums |
| 1Option: | 1 |
| 2Option Name: | Audiobooks |
| 2Option: | 2 |
| Singles: | 41 |
| Music Videos: | 36 |
| Soundtrack: | 4 |
| Video: | 4 |
| Option: | 2 |
| Option Name: | No. 1 singles |
The discography of Carly Simon, an American singer and songwriter, consists of 23 studio albums (which includes one Christmas album), two live albums, 10 compilation albums, four soundtrack albums, two audiobooks, and 41 singles, on Elektra Records, Warner Bros. Records, Epic Records, Arista Records, Rhino Entertainment, Columbia Records, Hear Music, and Iris Records, with special releases on Qwest Records, Angel Records, Walt Disney Records, and Macmillan Audio. These lists include all live and studio albums, and the motion picture soundtracks list includes albums containing more than 50% of music by Simon.
In the United States, Simon has five Platinum albums and three Gold albums. In the United Kingdom, she has three Gold albums and two Silver albums. All but three of her studio albums have charted on the U.S. Billboard 200, with 12 charting in the Top 40, and five in the Top 10. Two of her compilation albums have also charted in the Top 40. Simon also has amassed 24 Billboard Hot 100 singles, with 13 of them hitting the Top 40, and 28 Billboard Adult Contemporary chart singles, all charting in the Top 40. Four of her singles have been certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA): "You're So Vain", "Mockingbird" (with James Taylor), "Nobody Does It Better", and "Jesse". "You're So Vain" was certified Platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), while "Nobody Does It Better" and "Coming Around Again" were certified Silver.
Simon was signed by Jac Holzman to Elektra Records in 1970.[1] She released her self-titled debut album in February 1971, and it won her the Grammy Award for Best New Artist.[2] The album spawned her first Top 10 single, "That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be" (No. 10), which also earned her a Grammy Award nomination for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female.[2] Her second album, Anticipation, followed in November 1971 and yielded the successful singles "Anticipation" and "Legend in Your Own Time". Anticipation earned Simon another Grammy nomination in 1973 and was later certified Gold by the RIAA. In 1972, Simon achieved international fame following the release of her third album, No Secrets; it sat firmly at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for five weeks, was certified Platinum, and spawned the No. 1 worldwide hit "You're So Vain", which went Gold, and the Top 20 hit "The Right Thing to Do". No Secrets earned four Grammy nominations in 1974, including three for "You're So Vain".
Simon's fourth album, Hotcakes, was released that same year and became an instant hit; it went Gold and spawned the Top 10 singles "Mockingbird" (with James Taylor) and "Haven't Got Time for the Pain". Simon's fifth album, Playing Possum, appeared in 1975 and hit the Top 10. Its lead single, "Attitude Dancing", hit the Top 40, and the second single, "Waterfall", quickly followed. Later that year, Simon released her first greatest hits collection, The Best of Carly Simon, which achieved Triple Platinum status in the United States and remains her best-selling album to date. In 1976, Simon released for sixth album, Another Passenger, to critical acclaim.[3] The album spawned two singles: "It Keeps You Runnin'" and "Half a Chance".
"Nobody Does It Better", from the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me, became a worldwide hit in 1977. The single hit No. 1 on the Billboard Easy Listening chart, where it stayed for seven weeks, eventually becoming the No. 1 Adult Contemporary hit of the year.[4] It went Gold and earned two Grammy nominations. Simon's seventh album, Boys in the Trees, was released the following year and spawned the hit singles "You Belong to Me" (which earned Simon another Grammy nomination) and "Devoted to You" (with James Taylor). The album was certified Platinum and won the Grammy Award for Best Album Package. Simon's eighth album and her last for Elektra Records, Spy, was released in 1979. Its lead single, "Vengeance", earned Simon a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female in 1980, the first year to feature this category.[5]
Simon signed with Warner Bros. Records in 1980 and released her ninth studio album, Come Upstairs. The lead single, "Jesse", became a major hit; it remained on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for six months, peaking at No. 11, and went Gold. Also in 1980, Simon appeared in the documentary and concert film No Nukes, and it accompanying soundtrack album of the same name. The standards album Torch followed in 1981, and Hello Big Man followed in 1983, both to critical acclaim.[6] [7] In 1982, she hit the Top 10 in the U.K. with the Nile Rodgers & Bernard Edwards-produced single "Why", from the soundtrack album to the film Soup for One.[8] She had another UK success (No. 17) with the single "Kissing with Confidence", a song from the 1983 album Dancing For Mental Health by Will Powers (a pseudonym for photographer Lynn Goldsmith). Simon was the uncredited lead singer.[9]
After her contract with Warner Bros. had ended, she signed with Epic Records and released Spoiled Girl in 1985. The album yielded two singles, "Tired of Being Blonde" and "My New Boyfriend", with only the former charting. The album was commercially unsuccessful and her contract with Epic was cancelled. In later years, Spoiled Girl has gone on to become a cult favorite within Simon's back catalogue.[10]
In 1986, Simon signed with Arista Records and released Coming Around Again the following year. The album became a great success, and spawned four Top 10 Adult Contemporary singles: "Coming Around Again" (written for the film Heartburn), "Give Me All Night", "The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of", and "All I Want Is You". It was certified Platinum and earned Simon two Grammy nominations.[2] Live from Martha's Vineyard was broadcast as an HBO special in 1987, and featured Simon performing a majority of the just released Coming Around Again album, as well as some of her classic hits. The concert was released on CD and Vinyl the following year as Greatest Hits Live and went Platinum as well. "Let the River Run" was written for the film Working Girl in 1988, and Simon won the Academy Award for Best Original Song[11] and the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song in 1989,[12] and the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media in 1990.[2] This made Simon the first artist in history to win this trio of awards for a song composed and written, as well as performed, entirely by a single artist.[13] The Working Girl soundtrack album was released in August 1989 and featured more music from Simon.
In 1990, Simon released her second standards album My Romance, which was followed by the HBO special Carly in Concert – My Romance. Later that year, she released Have You Seen Me Lately, which yielded the major Top 10 Adult Contemporary hit "Better Not Tell Her", her biggest hit of the 1990s. She scored another Adult Contemporary hit in 1992 with "Love of My Life" (No. 16), written for the film This Is My Life, and featured on the soundtrack album, which includes more music from Simon. She was jointly commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera Association and the Kennedy Center in 1993 to write a contemporary opera that would appeal to younger people; was the result, and was released on Angel Records that year. In December 2014, the Nashville Opera Association premiered a new performance edition of the opera.[14] [15]
Simon's 16th studio album, Letters Never Sent, was released in 1994. The album featured "Like a River" in honor of her mother, Andrea Simon, and "Touched By The Sun" for her dear friend, Jackie Onassis, both of whom died from cancer in 1994.[16] Live at Grand Central was an unannounced concert recorded for Lifetime in 1995 and was broadcast later that year. It featured Simon performing a majority of the just released Letters Never Sent album, as well as some of her classic hits. The three-disc career retrospective Clouds in My Coffee was released that same year. Simon's third standards album, Film Noir, was released in 1997. It featured duets with Jimmy Webb and John Travolta, and earned two Grammy nominations in 1998.[2] That same year, the single-disc UK import was released. Simon's 20th studio album and her last for Arista Records, The Bedroom Tapes, was released on May 16, 2000, to near unanimous critical acclaim.[17] [18]
In 2001, Simon performed on "Son of a Gun" with Janet Jackson on Jackson's album All for You. The song was released as a single and peaked at No. 28 on the Billboard Hot 100. In 2002, Simon released her first Christmas album Christmas Is Almost Here, and the two-disc career retrospective Anthology. The single-disc was released in 2004 to great commercial success; it peaked at No. 22 on the Billboard 200, remained on the chart for 19 weeks, and went Gold. In 2005, Simon signed with Columbia Records and released her fourth album of standards, Moonlight Serenade, which reached No. 7 on the Billboard 200, and earned Simon her 14th Grammy nomination the following year.[2] In the fall of 2005, Simon performed two concerts on board the RMS Queen Mary 2. A Moonlight Serenade on the Queen Mary 2 was broadcast on various PBS stations that December and released on DVD. Simon performed with Andreas Vollenweider on four tracks for his 2006 holiday album, Midnight Clear.[19]
Simon's fifth collection of covers, Into White, was released to critical acclaim in January 2007 and became Billboard's Hot Shot Debut, entering the chart at No. 15 and peaking at No. 13 in its second week. In April 2008, Simon released This Kind of Love, which debuted at No. 15 on the Billboard 200. It was her first album of original material since The Bedroom Tapes eight years earlier and was released on the Starbucks label, Hear Music. In October 2009, Simon released Never Been Gone, an album of acoustic reworkings of some of her classic songs, which is her most recent studio album to date. In 2015, Songs From The Trees (A Musical Memoir Collection) was simultaneously released as a tie-in to Simon's autobiography, Boys in the Trees: A Memoir. The two-disc set contained two previously unreleased songs, "Showdown" (originally recorded during the sessions for her 1978 album Boys in the Trees) and "I Can't Thank You Enough", a brand new song written and performed with her son Ben Taylor.[20]
On January 27, 2023, Live at Grand Central was re-released on Blu-ray, CD and Vinyl.[21] It was announced on July 12, 2023, that the compilation album would be released on CD and Vinyl on September 15, 2023. The collection features a mix of hits and deep cuts selected from Simon's first three albums, chosen and sequenced by Holzman.[22]
| Year | Album | Peak chart positions | Certifications | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US [23] | AUS [24] [25] | CAN [26] | GER [27] | JPN [28] | -- | access-date=October 2, 2012--> | NZ [29] | UK [30] | |||||||
| 1971 | Carly Simon | 30 | 55 | 17 | — | — | — | — | |||||||
Anticipation
| 30 | 12 | 36 | — | — | — | — | ||||||||
| 1972 | No Secrets
| 1 | 1 | 1 | 39 | 3 | — | 3 | |||||||
| 1974 | Hotcakes
| 3 | 9 | 7 | — | 39 | — | 19 |
| ||||||
| 1975 | Playing Possum
| 10 | 25 | 22 | — | 70 | 32 | — | |||||||
| 1976 | Another Passenger
| 29 | 44 | 44 | — | — | — | — | |||||||
| 1978 | Boys in the Trees
| 10 | 27 | 4 | — | — | — | — |
| ||||||
| 1979 | Spy
| 45 | 33 | 56 | — | — | — | — | |||||||
| 1980 | Come Upstairs
| 36 | 43 | 86 | — | — | — | — | |||||||
| 1981 | Torch
| 50 | 77 | 50 | — | 56 | 40 | — | |||||||
| 1983 | Hello Big Man
| 69 | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||
| 1985 | Spoiled Girl
| 88 | 97 | 96 | — | — | — | — | |||||||
| 1987 | Coming Around Again
| 25 | 24 | 57 | 32 | — | — | 25 | |||||||
| 1990 | My Romance
| 46 | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||
Have You Seen Me Lately
| 60 | 160 | 64 | — | — | — | — | ||||||||
| 1994 | Letters Never Sent
| 129 | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||
| 1997 | Film Noir
| 84 | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||
| 2000 | The Bedroom Tapes
| 90 | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||
| 2005 | Moonlight Serenade
| 7 | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||
| 2007 | Into White
| 13 | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||
| 2008 | This Kind of Love
| 15 | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||
| 2009 | Never Been Gone
| 134 | — | — | — | — | — | 45 | |||||||
| "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. | |||||||||||||||
| Year | Album | Peak chart positions | Certifications | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US | AUS | CAN | HUN [34] | IRE [35] | UK | ||||||||||
| 1975 | The Best of Carly Simon | 17 | 42 | 40 | - | - | - | ||||||||
| 1995 | Clouds in My Coffee
| - | - | - | - | - | - | ||||||||
| 1999 |
| - | - | - | - | - | 22 |
| |||||||
| 2002 | Anthology
| - | - | - | - | - | - | ||||||||
| 2004 |
| 22 | - | - | - | - | 25 |
| |||||||
| 2009 | Carly Simon Collector's Edition
| - | - | - | - | - | - | ||||||||
| 2011 | Original Album Series
| - | - | - | - | - | - | ||||||||
| 2014 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |||||||||
| 2015 | Songs from the Trees: A Musical Memoir Collection
| - | - | - | - | 68 | - | ||||||||
| 2023 |
| - | - | - | 34 | - | - | ||||||||
| "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. | |||||||||||||||
| Year | Album | Peak chart positions | Certifications | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US | UK | ||||||||||||||
| 1988 | Greatest Hits Live | 87 | 49 |
| |||||||||||
| 2023 | Live at Grand Central
| — | — | ||||||||||||
| "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. | |||||||||||||||
Notes
| Year | Album | Peak chart positions | |
|---|---|---|---|
| width=40 | US Holiday | ||
| 2002 | Christmas Is Almost Here | 14 |
| Year | Album | Peak chart positions | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US [37] | |||||||||||||||
| 1989 | Working Girl (Original Soundtrack Album) | 45 | |||||||||||||
| 1992 | This Is My Life (Music from the Motion Picture)
| — | |||||||||||||
| 2003 | Piglet's Big Movie (soundtrack)
| — | |||||||||||||
| 2005 | The Best of Pooh and Heffalumps, Too
| — | |||||||||||||
| "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. | |||||||||||||||
| Year | Album | Peak chart positions | Certifications | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US | |||||||||||||||
| 1979 | 14 |
| |||||||||||||
| 1980 | In Harmony: A Sesame Street Record
| 156 | |||||||||||||
| 1982 | In Harmony 2
| — | |||||||||||||
| 1993 |
| — | |||||||||||||
| "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. | |||||||||||||||
| Year | Album | |
|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Bells, Bears and Fishermen[39]
| |
| 2015 | Boys in the Trees: A Memoir[40]
|
| Year | Album | Bonus materials | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Spoiled Girl: Deluxe Edition[41]
| Four bonus tracks: "Black Honeymoon", the 7" single version of "Tired of Being Blonde", and two 12" remixes of "My New Boyfriend". | |
| 2015 | The Bedroom Tapes: Special Edition[42]
| Two bonus tracks: "Grandmother's House" and "When Manhattan Was a Maiden". | |
| 2017 | Coming Around Again: 30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition[43]
| Six bonus tracks, and a second disc consisting of Simon's Greatest Hits Live album, retitled for this set as Carly in Concert – Coming Around Again. |
| Year | Single | Peak chart positions | Certification | Album | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US | US CB Pop [44] | US A/C | AUS | CAN | GER | IRE [45] | UK | |||||||||
| 1971 | "That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be" | 10 | 9 | 6 | 62 | 15 | - | - | - | Carly Simon | ||||||
| "Anticipation" | 13 | 10 | 3 | 64 | 9 | - | - | - | Anticipation | |||||||
| 1972 | "Legend in Your Own Time" | 50 | 61 | 11 | 86 | 39 | - | - | - | |||||||
| "The Girl You Think You See" | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||||||||
| "I've Got to Have You" | - | - | - | 6 | - | - | - | - | ||||||||
| "You're So Vain" | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 4 | 3 |
| No Secrets | ||||||
| 1973 | "The Right Thing to Do"/"We Have No Secrets" | 17 | 10 | 4 | - | 20 | - | - | 17 | |||||||
| 1974 | "Mockingbird" (with James Taylor) | 5 | 3 | 10 | 8 | 3 | - | - | 34 |
| Hotcakes | |||||
| "Haven't Got Time for the Pain" | 14 | 7 | 2 | 74 | 5 | - | - | - | ||||||||
| 1975 | "Attitude Dancing" | 21 | 25 | 18 | 70 | 21 | - | - | - | Playing Possum | ||||||
| "Waterfall" | 78 | 76 | 21 | - | - | - | - | - | ||||||||
| "More and More" | 94 | 90 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||||||||
| 1976 | "It Keeps You Runnin'" | 46 | 49 | 27 | - | 47 | - | - | - | Another Passenger | ||||||
| "Half a Chance" | - | - | 39 | - | - | - | - | - | ||||||||
| 1977 | "Nobody Does It Better" | 2 | 2 | 1 | 8 | 2 | 31 | 1 | 7 |
| The Spy Who Loved Me (soundtrack) | |||||
| 1978 | "You Belong to Me" | 6 | 9 | 4 | 47 | 5 | - | - | - | Boys in the Trees | ||||||
| "Devoted to You" (with James Taylor) | 36 | 48 | 2 | - | 50 | - | - | - | ||||||||
| "Tranquillo (Melt My Heart)" | - | 86 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||||||||
| 1979 | "Vengeance" | 48 | 52 | - | 90 | 94 | - | - | - | Spy | ||||||
| "Spy" | - | - | 34 | - | - | - | - | - | ||||||||
| 1980 | "Jesse" | 11 | 9 | 8 | 4 | 12 | - | - | - |
| Come Upstairs | |||||
| "Take Me as I Am" | 102 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||||||||
| "Come Upstairs" | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||||||||
| 1981 | "Hurt" | 106 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | Torch | ||||||
| "I Get Along Without You Very Well" | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||||||||
| 1982 | "Why" | 74 | 73 | - | - | - | - | 15 | 10 | Soup for One (soundtrack) | ||||||
| 1983 | "You Know What to Do" | 83 | - | 36 | - | - | - | - | - | Hello Big Man | ||||||
| "Hello Big Man" | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||||||||
| "Kissing with Confidence" (with Will Powers) | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 17 | Dancing for Mental Health (by Will Powers) | |||||||
| 1985 | "Tired of Being Blonde" | 70 | 63 | 34 | 95 | - | - | - | - | Spoiled Girl | ||||||
| "My New Boyfriend" | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||||||||
| 1986 | "Coming Around Again" | 18 | 30 | 5 | 29 | 38 | 21 | 5 | 10 |
| Coming Around Again | |||||
| 1987 | "Give Me All Night" | 61 | 70 | 5 | - | 87 | - | - | 98 | |||||||
| "The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of" | - | - | 8 | - | - | - | 28 | 99 | ||||||||
| "All I Want Is You" | 54 | 68 | 7 | - | - | - | - | - | ||||||||
| 1988 | "You're So Vain" (live version) | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 96 | Greatest Hits Live | ||||||
| 1989 | "Let the River Run" | 49 | 51 | 11 | 83 | 50 | - | - | 79 | Working Girl (Original Soundtrack Album) | ||||||
| "Why" (extended version) | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 56 | Single only | |||||||
| 1990 | "Better Not Tell Her" | - | 103 | 4 | 154 | 30 | - | - | - | Have You Seen Me Lately | ||||||
| 1991 | "Holding Me Tonight" | - | - | 36 | - | - | - | - | - | |||||||
| "You're So Vain" (re-release) | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 41 | No Secrets | |||||||
| 1992 | "Love of My Life" | - | - | 16 | - | 88 | - | - | - | This Is My Life (Music from the Motion Picture) | ||||||
| 2001 | "Son of a Gun (I Betcha Think This Song Is About You)" (with Janet Jackson featuring Missy Elliott) | 28 | - | - | 20 | - | 69 | 21 | 13 | All for You (by Janet Jackson) | ||||||
| 2003 | "White Christmas"/"Forgive" | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | Christmas Is Almost Here | ||||||
| 2005 | "Let It Snow" | - | - | 6 | - | - | - | - | - | Single only (recorded during Moonlight Serenade sessions) | ||||||
| 2006 | "Best of Friends" (with Livingston Taylor) | - | - | 39 | - | - | - | - | - | There You Are Again (by Livingston Taylor) | ||||||
| 2019 | "Touched by the Sun" (live version - newly mixed)[46] | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | Single only (from Live at Grand Central) | ||||||
| 2023 | "Angel from Montgomery" (2023 remaster)[47] | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | |||||||
| "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. | ||||||||||||||||
Notes
| Title | Album details | Peak positions |
|---|---|---|
| width=40 | Music Video Sales | |
| Live from Martha's Vineyard | 7 | |
| Carly in Concert – My Romance |
| 11 |
| Live at Grand Central |
| — |
| Live from Martha's Vineyard (re-release) |
| — |
| A Moonlight Serenade on the Queen Mary 2 |
| — |
| Live from Martha's Vineyard (re-release) |
| — |
| Live at Grand Central (re-release) |
| — |