Beginnings '' Collins studied classical piano with
Antonia Brico, making her public debut at age 13 performing
Mozart's Concerto for Two Pianos. She also played
Chopin,
Debussy, and
Rachmaninoff as a child. Brico took a dim view of her developing interest in folk music, which led her to the difficult decision to discontinue her piano lessons. Years later, after she became known internationally, she invited Brico to one of her concerts in Denver. When they met after the performance, Brico took both of Collins' hands into hers, looked wistfully at her fingers and said, "Little Judy—you really could have gone places." Still later, she discovered that Brico herself had made a living when she was younger playing
jazz and
ragtime piano (
Singing Lessons, pp. 71–72). In her early life, Collins met many professional musicians through her father. It was the music of
Woody Guthrie and
Pete Seeger and the
traditional songs of the
folk revival of the early 1960s, however, that kindled Collins' interest and awoke in her a love for
lyrics. Three years after her debut as a piano
prodigy, she was playing guitar. Her first public appearances as a folk artist after her graduation from Denver's East High School were at Michael's Pub in
Boulder, Colorado and the folk club Exodus in Denver. Her music became popular at the
University of Connecticut, where her husband taught. She performed at parties and for the campus radio station along with
David Grisman and Tom Azarian.
1960s Collins eventually made her way to
Greenwich Village,
New York City where she played in clubs like Gerde's Folk City until she signed with
Elektra Records, a label she was associated with for 35 years. In 1961, she released her debut studio album,
A Maid of Constant Sorrow, at age 22. At first, Collins sang traditional folk songs or songs written by others–in particular the protest songwriters of the time, such as
Tom Paxton,
Phil Ochs, and
Bob Dylan. She recorded her own versions of important songs from the period, such as Dylan's "
Mr. Tambourine Man" and
Pete Seeger's "
Turn! Turn! Turn!". She was also instrumental in bringing little-known musicians to a wider public. For example, she recorded songs by Canadian poet
Leonard Cohen, who became a close friend over the years. She also recorded songs by singer-songwriters such as
Eric Andersen,
Fred Neil,
Ian Tyson,
Joni Mitchell,
Randy Newman,
Robin Williamson, and
Richard Fariña long before they gained national acclaim. Collins' first few studio albums consisted of straightforward guitar-based folk songs, but with her fifth studio album
In My Life (1966), she began branching out to include works from such diverse sources as
the Beatles,
Leonard Cohen,
Jacques Brel, and
Kurt Weill. With her sixth studio album
Wildflowers (1967), also produced by Abramson and arranged by Rifkin, Collins began to record her own compositions, beginning with "Since You Asked". The album also provided her with a major hit and a
Grammy Award in Mitchell's "
Both Sides, Now", which in December 1968 reached No. 8 on the
Billboard Hot 100, later (February 1970) reaching No. 14 on the
UK Singles Chart. Collins' seventh studio album
Who Knows Where the Time Goes (1968) was produced by
David Anderle, and featured back-up guitar by
Stephen Stills (of
Crosby, Stills & Nash), with whom she was romantically involved at the time. (She was the inspiration for Stills's CSN classic "
Suite: Judy Blue Eyes".)
Time Goes had a mellow
country sound and included
Ian Tyson's "
Someday Soon" and the title track, written by the UK singer-songwriter
Sandy Denny. The album also featured Collins' composition "My Father" and one of the first covers of Leonard Cohen's "
Bird on the Wire". '', 1968 Two of Collins' songs ("
Who Knows Where the Time Goes?" composed by Sandy Denny and "Albatross") were featured in the 1968 film
The Subject Was Roses.
1970s By the 1970s, Collins had a solid reputation as an
art song singer and folksinger and had begun to stand out for her own compositions. She also performed a broad range of material: her songs from this period included the traditional Christian
hymn "
Amazing Grace", the
Stephen Sondheim Broadway ballad "
Send in the Clowns" (both of which were top 20 hits as singles in both the U.S. and the U.K.), a recording of
Joan Baez's "
A Song for David", and her own compositions, such as "Born to the Breed". In 1971, Collins released her second live album,
Living and the compilation album
Colors of the Day: The Best of Judy Collins followed a year later. Collins' contemplative ninth studio album
True Stories and Other Dreams (1973) featured an original song about a friend who took his own life ("Song for Martin") and another about the life of Argentine
Marxist revolutionary
Che Guevara ("Che"). For her tenth studio album
Judith (1975), Collins collaborated with producer
Arif Mardin and produced her biggest hit single with her reflective version of Stephen Sondheim's "
Send in the Clowns". It became her best-selling record, eventually going platinum. As Collins stepped up to a higher level of stardom, the longtime activist put political themes at the forefront of her eleventh studio album
Bread and Roses (1976). Political statements like the title song, originally a poem by
James Oppenheim commonly associated with a 1912
garment workers strike in
Lawrence, Massachusetts, were balanced with such pop compositions as
Elton John's "Come Down in Time", but the album failed to achieve the commercial success of
Judith. Following the release of the album, Collins underwent treatment for damaged vocal cords, and after years of struggling with alcoholism, she sought medical help to give up drinking. Her compilation album
So Early in the Spring... The First 15 Years (1977) sold modestly. Collins guest starred on
The Muppet Show in an episode broadcast in January 1978, singing "
Leather-Winged Bat", "
There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly", "
Do-Re-Mi", and "Send in the Clowns". She also appeared several times on
Sesame Street, where she performed "Fishermen's Song" with a chorus of
Anything Muppet fishermen, sang a trio with
Biff and Sully using the word "yes", and starred in a modern musical fairy tale skit called "The Sad Princess". In 1979, Collins released her twelfth studio album
Hard Times for Lovers, a pop-oriented album in the same vein as
Judith; she gained some extra publicity with the cover sleeve photograph of her in the nude.
1980s Running for My Life (1980) and
Times of Our Lives (1982) were well-crafted exercises in adult pop and soft rock, but as tastes changed, Collins' sales were on the decline.
Home Again (1984) found her exploring some new musical avenues, including a synth-based cover of
Yaz's "Only You" and a duet with country star
T. G. Sheppard on the title cut. While the "Home Again" single was a minor hit, the album was not, and after 23 years, Collins and
Elektra parted ways. She performed the music for the 1983 animated television special
The Magic of Herself the Elf, as well as the theme song of the
Rankin/Bass Productions television film
The Wind in the Willows. Collins traveled to England in 1985 and struck a one-off deal with Telstar Records to record the studio album
Amazing Grace, in which she re-recorded several of her better-known songs with an inspirational bent. In 1987, she signed with the independent
Gold Castle label, and her first studio album for them,
Trust Your Heart, which collected seven tracks from
Amazing Grace and added three new selections. That same year, she released her first memoir,
Trust Your Heart. In 1989, Collins released two albums: a live disc titled
Sanity and Grace, and a collaboration with clarinetist
Richard Stoltzman,
Innervoices.
1990s In 1990, Collins released her eighteenth studio album
Fires of Eden on
Columbia Records. The album spawned one single – "Fires of Eden", written by
Kit Hain and
Mark Goldenberg. The single peaked at No. 31 on
Billboard's
Adult Contemporary chart. At the time of its release, Collins performed it live on several occasions, including on
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and
The Joan Rivers Show. A
music video promoting it and featuring her was also released. Later,
Cher recorded "Fires of Eden" for her 1991 studio album
Love Hurts. Other songs from
Fires of Eden include "The Blizzard", "Home Before Dark", and a cover of
the Hollies song – "
The Air That I Breathe". That same year saw the release of a pair of children's albums, ''Baby's Morningtime
and Baby's Bedtime''. Collins performed at President
Bill Clinton's first inauguration in 1993, singing "
Amazing Grace" and "
Chelsea Morning". (The Clintons have stated that they named their daughter,
Chelsea, after her recording of the song.) For her next studio album, Collins turned to a project that was both personal and familiar, a set of Bob Dylan covers titled
Judy Sings Dylan... Just Like a Woman. Released in 1993, the album was a commercial success and reminded fans she was still active and in fine voice. In 1994, she issued her first
Christmas album,
Come Rejoice! A Judy Collins Christmas. It would prove to be the first in a series, with other holiday releases soon following, the first being the live album
Christmas at the Biltmore Estate in 1997, followed by
All on a Wintry Night in 2000. Collins combined her interests in music and literature for her next project. In 1995, she published a novel,
Shameless, In 1998, Collins published her third book,
Singing Lessons: A Memoir of Love,
Loss, Hope and Healing, That same year, she and her manager
Katherine DePaul founded Wildflower Records.
2000s–2020s Collins maintained a busy release schedule via Wildflower, issuing numerous live albums and reissues as well as new material such as 2005's
Portrait of an American Girl, 2010's
Paradise, and 2011's
Bohemian, all of which focused on her continued strength as an interpretive vocalist. In 2006, she sang "
This Little Light of Mine" in a commercial for
Eliot Spitzer. In the same year, she received an honorary doctorate from
Pratt Institute. The tribute albums ''Tom Thumb's Blues: A Tribute to Judy Collins
and Born to the Breed: A Tribute to Judy Collins'' appeared in 2000 and 2008, respectively. In 2010, Collins sang "The Weight of the World" at the
Newport Folk Festival, a song by
Amy Speace. Another memoir from Collins,
Sweet Judy Blue Eyes: My Life in Music, She paid homage to some of her favorite songwriters as well as her favorite vocalists with the 2015 album
Strangers Again, which featured duets with
Willie Nelson,
Jackson Browne,
Jeff Bridges, and
Glen Hansard. The album also included a track with singer-songwriter
Ari Hest. Collins and Hest joined forces again in 2016 for a full studio album titled
Silver Skies Blue, which later earned them a Grammy Award nomination for
Best Folk Album. , in 2016 In 2017, Collins returned to the work of the songwriter who gave her "
Send in the Clowns" with
A Love Letter to Stephen Sondheim, and the same year, she and her longtime friend,
Stephen Stills, collaborated on an album,
Everybody Knows. In addition to the two albums, she bared her soul in another book,
Cravings: How I Conquered Food, 11th, 12th, 13th and 14th Annual Independent Music Awards. ==Activism==