An Academy Award-nominated documentary director and a Grammy Award-winning recording artist, she is known for her eclectic tastes in the material she records (which has included folk music, country, show tunes, pop music, rock and roll and standards), for her social activism, and for the clarity of her voice.

Collins' debut studio album, A Maid of Constant Sorrow, was released in 1961 and consisted of traditional folk songs.

Collins experienced the biggest success of her career with her recording of Stephen Sondheim's "Send in the Clowns" from her tenth studio album Judith (1975).

[5] In 2017, Collins' rendition of the song "Amazing Grace" was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

[6] That same year, she received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Folk Album for Silver Skies Blue with Ari Hest.

Her father, Chuck Collins (a blind singer, pianist, and radio show host) took a job in Denver in 1949 and the family moved there.

[13] Brico took a dim view of her developing interest in folk music, which led her to the difficult decision to discontinue her piano lessons.

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).

[14] 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.

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.

[19] 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".

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.

She was also known for her broad range of material: her songs from this period include 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.[23]), a recording of Joan Baez's "A Song for David", and her own compositions, such as "Born to the Breed".

Judith produced her biggest hit single with her mournful version of Stephen Sondheim's "Send in the Clowns", and it would become 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.

Collins guest starred on The Muppet Show in an episode broadcast in January 1978,[25] singing "Leather-Winged Bat", "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly", "Do-Re-Mi", and "Send in the Clowns".

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.

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.

[28] In 1989, Collins released two albums: a live disc titled Sanity and Grace,[29] and a collaboration with clarinetist Richard Stoltzman, Innervoices.

[34] Collins performed at President Bill Clinton's first inauguration in 1993, singing "Amazing Grace" and "Chelsea Morning".

[40] In 1998, Collins published her third book, Singing Lessons: A Memoir of Love, Loss, Hope and Healing,[28] which focused on her struggles with alcoholism, depression, and the emotional trauma of her son's death.

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,[42] and 2011's Bohemian,[43] all of which focused on her continued strength as an interpretive vocalist.

Various artists, including Shawn Colvin, Rufus Wainwright, and Chrissie Hynde, covered Collins's compositions for the tribute album Born to the Breed in 2008.

[47] Another memoir from Collins, Sweet Judy Blue Eyes: My Life in Music,[28] appeared the following year and put its focus on her career as an artist.

In 2019, she released the album Winter Stories, a collaboration with Norwegian singer Jonas Fjeld and the North Carolina country-folk quartet Chatham County Line.

She wrote at length of her years of addiction to alcohol, the damage it did to her personal and musical life and how it contributed to her feelings of depression.

She entered a rehabilitation program in Pennsylvania in 1978 and has maintained her sobriety ever since, even through such traumatic events as the death of her only child, Clark, by suicide in 1992 at age 33 after a long bout with clinical depression and substance abuse.