Spy is the eighth studio album by American singer-songwriter Carly Simon, released in 1979. It is also her last album for Elektra Records. The title of the album is a tribute to Anaïs Nin, whose quote "I am an international spy in the house of love", is written across the top on the inside jacket. Simon dedicated the album to producer Arif Mardin, in which she wrote in the liner notes, "Dedicated to Arif who is himself fantastic."
Although Spy did not yield any major hit singles, "Vengeance" (which features actor Tim Curry on backing vocals) earned Simon a Grammy Award nomination for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female in early 1980, the first year to feature this new category.[3] The song peaked at No. 48 on the Billboard Pop singles chart, and Simon later included it on her Anthology album in 2002. Simon made a music video for the song,[4] and MTV later used a clip from it in a commercial that enticed viewers to get stereo sound on their TV sets.[5] The promotional clip was also chosen by Pioneer Electronics to be part of their first demo disc for its then-new Laserdisc player.
The title song was released as the second single from the album, and reached No. 34 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary singles chart. The album also features the songs "Never Been Gone" and "We're So Close" which have become fan favorites and stand among Simon's personal favorites of her own songs.[6] In 2009, Simon released Never Been Gone, an album which includes a newly recorded version of the song.
Jonathan Abramowitz, Lamar Alsop, Julien Barber, Phil Bodner, James Buffington, Frederick Buldrini, Jean R. Dane, Eddie Daniels, Peter Dimitriades, Lewis Eley, Gerald Tarack, Paul Gershman, Ted Hoyle, Regis Iandiorio, Teddy Israel, Harold Kohon, Jesse Levy, Guy Lumia, Joseph Malin, Richard Maximoff, Kermit Moore, Eugene J. Moye, Gene Orloff, Tony Posk, Alan Shulman and Mitsue Takayama – strings
