Linda Ronstadt

Linda Ronstadt

Linda Ronstadt (born July 15, 1946) is an American popular music vocalist and entertainer. Her many vocal styles in a variety of genres have resonated with the general public over the course of her four-decade career. As a result, she has earned multiple Grammy Awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, an Emmy Award, an ALMA Award, numerous United States and internationally certified gold, platinum and multiplatinum albums, in addition to Tony Award and Golden Globe nominations.

A singer-songwriter and record producer, she is recognized as a definitive interpreter of songs. Being one of music's most versatile, and commercially successful female singers in U.S. history, she is recognized for her many public stages of self-reinvention and public incarnations.

With a one time standing as the Queen of Rock where she was bestowed the title of "highest paid woman in rock", and known as the First Lady of Rock, she has more recently emerged as music matriarch and international arts advocate. Ronstadt has collaborated with more artists from a diverse spectrum of genres – including Billy Eckstine, Frank Zappa, Rosemary Clooney, Flaco Jiménez, Philip Glass, The Chieftains, Gram Parsons - than perhaps any popular music vocalist in modern U.S. history, lending her voice to over 120 albums around the world.

In total, she has released over 30 solo albums, more than 15 compilations or greatest hits albums. Ronstadt has charted thirty-eight Billboard Hot 100 singles, twenty-one of which have reached the top 40, ten of which have reached the top 10, three peaking at No. 2, the No. 1 hit, "You're No Good." In the UK, her single "Blue Bayou" reached the UK Top 40 and the duet with Aaron Neville, "Don't Know Much", peaked at #2 in November 1989. In addition, she has charted thirty-six albums, ten Top 10 albums, and three No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 Pop Album Charts.

Career overview

"Everybody has their own level of doing their music....Mine just happened to resonate over the years, in one way and another, with a significant enough number of people so that I could do it professionally."

Linda Ronstadt

Establishing her professional career in the mid-1960s at the forefront of California's emerging folk rock and country rock movements, genres which later defined post-60s rock music, Linda Ronstadt joined forces with Bob Kimmel and Kenny Edwards and became the lead singer of a successful folk rock trio, The Stone Poneys. Later, as a solo artist, she released Hand Sown ... Home Grown in 1969, considered the first alternative country record by a female recording artist. During these years as greater fame eluded her, Ronstadt actively toured with Jackson Browne, The Doors, Neil Young and others, made television show appearances, and began to contribute her voice to a variety of albums such as Carla Bley's jazz opera Escalator Over the Hill. However, with the successful release of chart-topping albums such as Heart Like A Wheel, Simple Dreams, and Living In The USA, coupled with the fact that Ronstadt became the first female "arena class" rock star, setting records as one of the top-grossing concert artists of the decade, Ronstadt became a star of the highest magnitude and the most successful female artist of her era. Recognized as the "First Lady of Rock" and the "Queen of Rock", Ronstadt was voted the Top Female Pop Singer of the 1970s. Her rock and roll image was equally as famous as her music, appearing six times on the cover of Rolling Stone, Newsweek and Time. In the early 1980s Ronstadt went to Broadway, garnered a Tony nomination, teamed with composer Phillip Glass, recorded traditional music, and collaborated with famed conductor Nelson Riddle, an event at that time viewed as an original and unorthodox move for a rock and roll artist. This venture paid off, and Ronstadt remained one of the best-selling vocalists throughout the 1980s with multi-platinum selling albums such as: What's New, Canciones de Mi Padre and Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind. Ronstadt has continued to successfully tour, collaborate, and record celebrated albums, such as Winter Light, Hummin' to Myself, and Adieu False Heart. Ronstadt's thirty-plus album catalog continue to be best-sellers, with a majority of them certified gold, platinum and multiplatinum. Selling in excess of 100 million records worldwide and setting records as one of the top-grossing concert performers for over a decade, Linda Ronstadt was the most successful female rock singer of the '70s and one of the most successful female recording artists in U.S. history. A consummate American artist, Ronstadt opened many doors for women in rock and roll and in music by championing songwriters and musicians, pioneering her chart success onto the concert circuit, and being at the vanguard of many musical movements.

Private life

Early life

Linda Ronstadt was born in Tucson, Arizona in 1946 to Gilbert Ronstadt (1911–1995), a prosperous machinery merchant who ran the F. Ronstadt Co., and Ruthmary Copeman Ronstadt (1917–1982), a homemaker with a gift for science.

Ronstadt was raised along with her brothers Peter (who served as Tucson's Chief of Police from 1981–1992) and Michael and her sister Gretchen (Suzy), on the family's 10-acre (4.0 ha) ranch. The family was featured in Family Circle magazine in 1953.

Her father, Gilbert, came from a leading and pioneering Arizona ranching family and was of Mexican-American descent (with some German ancestry), that has contributed much to arts and culture in the American Southwest. So great are their contributions to Arizona that their history and influence, including wagon making, commerce, pharmacies and music, is chronicled in the library of the University of Arizona, Linda's alma mater. Linda Ronstadt's great grandfather, engineer Friedrich August Ronstadt (who went by the name Federico Augusto Ronstadt) immigrated to the West (then a part of Mexico) in the 1840s from Hanover, Germany, and married a Mexican citizen, and eventually settled in Tucson.

Her mother, Ruthmary, was of German, English, and Dutch descent. Ruthmary was the daughter of Lloyd Groff Copeman (one of America's prominent prolific patent making inventors) and was raised in the Flint, Michigan area where the family owned a farm on Sashabaw Road. Coincidentally, it was down the road from Pine Knob where Linda would perform nearly every summer throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Lloyd, with nearly 700 patents to his name, invented an early form of the toaster, many refrigerator devices, the grease gun, the first electric stove, and an early form of the microwave oven. His flexible rubber ice cube tray earned him millions of dollars in royalties. He once told his grandson that he could walk into any store or home and find one of his inventions.

Personal life

Beginning in the mid-1970s, Linda Ronstadt's private life was given major publicity. It was fueled by a relationship with then-Governor of California Jerry Brown, a Democratic presidential candidate. They shared a Newsweek magazine cover in April 1979. They also made the cover of US magazine. Ronstadt and Brown took a trip to Africa which became fodder for the international press, and they made the cover of People magazine. In the mid-1980s, Ronstadt was engaged ("ring on the finger and all") to Star Wars director George Lucas. She has two adopted children, Mary and Carlos. Her daughter has made her a fan of musician Pink. Her son, who prefers heavier music, has introduced her to the music of Rob Zombie, AC/DC, Metallica, Rage Against the Machine, and Cradle of Filth among others. Of Zombie, Ronstadt says, "There's real power and energy (to his music)", and of AC/DC she says "I really love Back in Black. I appreciate it musically (and) how good the rhythm guitar player is." Ronstadt is a big fan of J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels, and even persuaded friend and noted New York Times book critic Michiko Kakutani to start reading them.

In the early 1980s, Ronstadt was criticized by some (mainly rock critics) for playing two concerts, as a replacement for Frank Sinatra, in South Africa under apartheid, at a time when artists like Ray Charles, The Beach Boys, Tina Turner, Sinatra, Shirley Bassey and Cher were also performing there. Rolling Stone magazine covered the trip.

Ronstadt has been outspoken on environmental and community issues. Ronstadt is a major supporter and admirer of sustainable agriculture pioneer Wes Jackson, saying in 2000 that "the work he's doing right now is the most important work there is in the (United States)", and dedicating the rock anthem "Desperado" to him at an August 2007 concert in Kansas City, Kansas . In 2007 Ronstadt resided in the San Francisco area, while also maintaining her home in Tucson, Arizona. That same year she drew criticism and praise from Tucsonans for commenting that the local city council's failings, developers' strip mall mentality, greed and growing dust problem had rendered the city unrecognizable and poorly developed.

In 2009, in honor of Linda Ronstadt, the Martin Guitar Company has made a 12-fret, 00-42 model "Linda Ronstadt Limited Edition" acoustic guitar. Ronstadt has appointed the Land Institute as recipient of all proceeds from her signature guitar.

Political Activism

Major criticism and praise involving Ronstadt's politics arose during a July 17, 2004 performance at the Aladdin Theatre for the Performing Arts in Las Vegas. Toward the end of her performance, as she had done across the country, Ronstadt spoke to the audience, praising Fahrenheit 9/11, Michael Moore's documentary film about the Iraq War, and dedicated the song "Desperado" to Moore.

Accounts say the crowd's initial reaction was mixed, with "half the crowd heartily applauding her praise for Moore, (and) the other half booing". Following the concert, news accounts reported that Ronstadt was "evicted" from the hotel premises.

Ronstadt's comments, as well as the reactions of some audience members and the hotel, became a topic of discussion nationwide. Aladdin casino president Bill Timmins and Michael Moore each made public statements on the controversy. The incident prompted international headlines and debate on an entertainer's right to express a political opinion from the stage, and made the editorial section of the New York Times.

Following the incident, many friends of Ronstadt's, including the Eagles, immediately canceled their engagements at the Aladdin. Ronstadt also received telegrams of support from her rock 'n' roll friends around the world, such as The Rolling Stones, The Eagles, and Elton John.

Amid reports of mixed public response, Ronstadt continued in her praise of Moore and his film throughout her 2004 and 2006 summer concerts across North America. At a 2006 concert in Canada, Ronstadt told the Calgary Sun that she was "embarrassed George Bush (was) from the United States.... He's an idiot.... He's enormously incompetent on both the domestic and international scenes.... Now the fact that we were lied to about the reasons for entering into war against Iraq and thousands of people have died — it's just as immoral as racism." Her remarks drew international headlines.

In an August 14, 2007, interview she commented on all her well-publicized, outspoken views, in particular the Aladdin incident by noting, "If I had it to do over I would be much more gracious to everyone... you can be as outspoken as you want if you are very, very respectful. Show some grace".

On January 16, 2010, Ronstadt converged with thousands of other activist in a "National Day of Action." Ronstadt stated that her “dog in the fight” was - as a native Arizonan and coming from a law enforcement family – the treatment of the undocumented, Arizona's prison industrial complex and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's immigration efforts. . A number of "anarchists" were arrested after attacking police in support of Ronstadt's position.

National arts advocate

"In the United States we spend millions of dollars on sports because it promotes teamwork, discipline, and the experience of learning to make great progress in small increments. Learning to play music together does all this and more."

Congressional testimony from Linda Ronstadt

Recently, Linda Ronstadt has emerged as a major arts advocate in the United States. In 2008, Ronstadt was appointed Artistic Director of the San José Mariachi and Mexican Heritage Festival.. On March 31, 2009, in testimony that the LA Times viewed as "remarkable", Ronstadt testified to the United States Congress' House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment & Related Agencies, attempting to convince lawmakers to budget $200 million in the 2010 fiscal year for the National Endowment of the Arts.

Ronstadt has also been honored for her contribution to the American arts. On September 23, 2007, Ronstadt was inducted into the Arizona Music & Entertainment Hall of Fame. Among other inductees were Stevie Nicks, Buck Owens and filmmaker Steven Spielberg. On August 17, 2008 Ronstadt received a tribute by various artists including BeBe Winans and Wynonna Judd, when she was honored with the Trailblazer Award, presented to her by Plácido Domingo at the 2008 ALMA Awards, a ceremony later televised on ABC in the U.S.A.

In May 2009, Ronstadt received an honorary doctorate of music degree from the prestigious Berklee College of Music for her achievements and influence in music, and her contributions to American and international culture.

One of the world's leading magazines for commercial and project studio recording, MIX Magazine, stated, "Linda Ronstadt (has) left her mark on more than the record business; her devotion to the craft of singing influenced many audio professionals.... (and is) intensely knowledgeable about the mechanics of singing and the cultural contexts of every genre she passes". In 2004 Ronstadt wrote the Forward Introduction to the book titled The NPR Curious Listener's Guide To American folk music, and in 2005 she wrote the Introduction to the book titled Classic Ferrington Guitars, about guitar-maker and luthier Danny Ferrington and his custom guitars that have been created for various musicians from Ronstadt, Elvis Costello, and Ry Cooder to Kurt Cobain.

Career biography

Early Influences

" I don't record (any type of genre or music) that I didn't hear in my family's living room by the time I was 10. It just is my rule that I don't break because..... I can't do it authentically....I really think that you're just hardwiring (synapses) in your brain up until the age of maybe 12 or 10, and there are certain things you can't learn in an authentic way after that"

Linda Ronstadt

Linda Ronstadt's early family life was filled with music and tradition, which influenced the stylistic and musical choices she later made in her career. Growing up, she listened to many types of music, including Mexican music, which was sung by her entire family and was a staple in her childhood. Ronstadt has remarked that everything she has recorded on her own records — rock 'n' roll, jazz, rhythm and blues, gospel, opera, country, choral, and mariachi — is all music she heard her family sing in their living room, or heard played on the radio, by the age of 10. She credits her mother for her appreciation of Gilbert and Sullivan and her father for introducing her to the traditional pop and Great American Songbook repertoire that she would, in turn, help reintroduce to an entire generation. Early on, her singing style had been influenced by singers such as Lola Beltran and Édith Piaf; she has called their singing and rhythms "more like Greek music...It's sort of like 6/8 time signature...very hard driving and very intense" She also drew influence from country singer Hank Williams. She has said that "all girl singers" eventually "have to curtsy to Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday". Of Maria Callas, Ronstadt says, "There's no one in her league. That's it. Period. I learn more...about singing rock n roll from listening to Maria Callas records than I ever would from listening to pop music for a month of Sundays...She's the greatest chick singer ever". She admires Callas for her musicianship and her attempts to push 20th-century singing, particularly opera, back into the Bel Canto "natural style of singing". A self-described product of American radio of the 1950s and '60s, she was a fan of its eclectic and diverse music programming.

Beginning of professional career

At 14, Ronstadt formed a folk trio with her brother Peter and sister Suzy. They billed themselves as "The New Union Ramblers", "The Union City Ramblers", and "The Three Ronstadts", and the trio played coffeehouses, fraternity houses, and other small venues. Their repertoire included the music they grew up on — folk, country, bluegrass, and Mexican. But increasingly, Ronstadt wanted to make a union of folk music and rock 'n' roll, and at the end of 1964 after a semester at Tucson's University Of Arizona, at the age of 18, she decided to move to Los Angeles.

The Stone Poneys

Main article: Stone Poneys

The cover of the Stone Poneys' 1967 LP, Evergreen, Volume 2.

In the Spring of 1964, Linda Ronstadt moved to Los Angeles to form a band with Bob Kimmel, who had already begun co-writing several folk-rock songs with guitarist-songwriter Kenny Edwards. As The Stone Poneys, the band was signed by Nik Venet to Capitol and released three albums in a 15-month period in 1967-68: The Stone Poneys; Evergreen, Volume 2; and Linda Ronstadt, Stone Poneys and Friends, Vol. III. The band is best known for their hit single "Different Drum" (written by Michael Nesmith prior to his joining the Monkees), which reached No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song remains one of Linda Ronstadt's most popular recordings. While Stone Poneys broke up before the release of their third album, Kenny Edwards recorded and toured with Ronstadt from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s.

Besides recording what may become her most enduring song, Linda Ronstadt was already showcasing her highly expressive performance of an eclectic mix of songs, often from under-appreciated songwriters, requiring a wide array of backing musicians. Additionally, many of her songs, including "Different Drum" were written by male songwriters and had minimal lyric changes, allowing Linda Ronstadt to toy with gender roles that were in ferment in the 1960s and 1970s.

As a testament to the continuing popularity of her early work with this band, in 2008 – more than 40 years after the recording of the first Stone Poneys album – Raven released a "two-fer" compilation CD called The Stone Poneys featuring all tracks from the first two Stone Poneys albums and four tracks from the third album.

Solo career

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Linda Ronstadt, ca. 1970, on the back cover of the album Silk Purse.

Still contractually obligated to Capitol Records, Ronstadt released her first solo album, Hand Sown...Home Grown, in 1969. It is considered the first alternative country record by a female recording artist. During this same period, she contributed to the Music From Free Creek "super session" project.

Ronstadt vocalized in some commercials during this period, including one for Remington electric razors, in which a multitracked Ronstadt and Frank Zappa said that the electric razor "cleans you, thrills you...may even keep you from getting busted".

Ronstadt's second solo album, Silk Purse, was released in March 1970. Her studio album recorded entirely in Nashville, it was produced by Elliot Mazer, whom Ronstadt picked on the advice of Janis Joplin, who had worked with him on her Cheap Thrills album. The Silk Purse album cover showed Ronstadt in a muddy pigpen, while the back and inside cover depicted her onstage wearing bright red. Ronstadt has stated that she wasn't pleased with the album, although it provided her with her first solo hit, the multi-format single "Long Long Time", and earned her her first Grammy nomination (for Best Contemporary Vocal Performance–Female).

Touring

"Judy Henske, who was the then reigning queen of folk music, said to me at The Troubadour "Honey, in this town there are four sexes. Men, women, homosexuals, and girl singers."

Linda Ronstadt

In a 1976 interview with Cameron Crowe in Rolling Stone, Ronstadt explained that "they haven't invented a word for that loneliness that everybody goes through on the road. The world is tearing by you, real fast, and all these people are looking at you.... People see me in my 'girl-singer' suit".

Several years before Ronstadt became what author Gerri Hirshey called the first "arena-class rock diva", with "hugely anticipated tours", she began her solo career touring the North American concert circuit. Being on the road took its toll both emotionally and professionally. There were few solo "girl singers" on the country rock circuit at the time, and those that were, were relegated to "groupie level when in a crowd of a bunch of rock and roll guys"—a status Ronstadt avoided. Relating to men on a professional level as fellow musicians led to competition, insecurity, bad romances, and a series of boyfriend-managers. At the time, she admired singers like Maria Muldaur for not sacrificing their femininity but says she felt enormous self-imposed pressure to compete with "the boys" at every level She noted in a 1969 interview in Fusion magazine that it was difficult being a single "chick singer" with an all-male backup band. According to her, it was difficult to get a band of backing musicians because of their ego problem of being labeled sidemen for a female singer.

Soon after she went solo in the late 1960s, one of her first backing bands was the pioneering country-rock band Swampwater, famous for synthesizing Cajun and swamp-rock elements into their music. Its members included Cajun fiddler Gib Guilbeau and John Beland, who later joined The Flying Burrito Brothers, as well as Stan Pratt, Thad Maxwell and Eric White, brother of Clarence White of The Byrds. Swampwater went on to back Ronstadt during TV appearances on the The Johnny Cash Show and The Mike Douglas Show and at the Big Sur Folk Festival.

Another backing band featured players Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Bernie Leadon and Randy Meisner, who went on to form the Eagles. They toured with her for a short period in 1971 and played on Linda Ronstadt, her self-titled third album. At this stage, Ronstadt began working with producer and boyfriend John Boylan. She said, "As soon as I started working with John Boylan, I started co-producing myself. I was always a part of my productions. But I always needed a producer who would carry out my whims"

Collaborating with Peter Asher

"in general when you fall in love with an artist and their music, the plan is a fairly simple one...get people to go and see them, and make a record that you think properly presents their music to the public and some of which you can get on the radio."

Peter Asher on collaborating with Ronstadt

Ronstadt began her fourth solo album, Don't Cry Now, in 1973, with Boylan, who had negotiated her contract with Asylum Records. Most tracks were produced by J.D. Souther and Boylan. She asked Peter Asher to help her produce two tracks, "Sail Away" and "I Believe in You", not the entire album. The album featured her first country hit, "Silver Threads and Golden Needles", which she had first recorded on Hand Sown...Home Grown album; this time it hit the Top 20.

Ronstadt's professional relationship with Asher forced her to realize she had to take command and effectively delegate responsibilities. Asher was musically more on the same page with her than any producer she had worked with before, and he worked with her collaboratively. Although hesitant at first to work with her because she had a reputation for being a "woman of strong opinions (who) knew what she wanted to do (with her career)", he agreed nonetheless to become her producer, and their professional relationship continued through the late 1980s. He went on to produce and manage numerous other artists, such as Courtney Love and Pamela Anderson, but has stated that Linda Ronstadt remains his "favorite female singer of all time".

With the release of Don't Cry Now, Ronstadt took on her biggest gig to date, touring as the opening act for Neil Young's Time Fades Away tour. On this tour, she played for a larger crowd than ever before. Backstage at a concert in Texas, Chris Hillman introduced her to Emmylou Harris, telling them, "You two could be good friends". She and Harris did become friends, and collaborated frequently in the years that followed.

Vocal styles

"I grew up singing Mexican music, and that's based on indigenous Mexican rhythms. Mexican music also has an overlay of West African music, based on huapango drums, and it's kind of like a 6/8 time signature, but it really is a very syncopated 6/8. And that's how I attack vocals. "

Linda Ronstadt, on reconciling her musical instincts with rock ‘n’ roll

Ronstadt captured the sounds of country music and the rhythms of ranchero music—which she likened in 1968 to "Mexican bluegrass"—and redirected them into her rock 'n' roll and some of her pop music. Many of these rhythms and sounds were part of her Southwestern roots. Likewise, a country sound and style, a fusing of country music and rock 'n' roll called Country rock, started to exert its influence on mainstream pop music around the late 1960s, and it became an emerging movement Ronstadt helped form and commercialize. However, as early as 1970 Ronstadt was being criticised by music "purists" for her "brand of music" which crossed many genres. Country Western Stars magazine wrote in 1970 that "Rock people thought she was too gentle, folk people thought she was too pop and pop people didn't quite understand where she was at but Country people really loved Linda". She never categorized herself and stuck to her genre-crossing brand of music.

Interpretive singer

Ronstadt's natural vocal range spans several octaves from contralto to soprano, and occasionally she will showcase this entire range within a single work. Ronstadt is considered an "interpreter of her times". Some have criticized her for a decision to interpret cover songs, although history has praised her for her courage as an interpreter of many of these songs. More importantly, Linda Ronstadt became a highly successful "Albums Artist" of unprecedented success, with albums to her credit that contained original material, some of it written by her. Ronstadt was the first female artist in popular music history to accumulate four consecutive platinum albums (fourteen certified million selling, to date). As for the singles, Rolling Stone Magazine pointed out that a whole generation, "but for her, might never have heard the work of" artists such as Buddy Holly, Elvis Costello, and Chuck Berry".

""Music is meant to lighten your load. By singing it.. you release (the sadness). And release yourself.. an exercise in exorcism.....You exorcise that emotion..and diminish sadness and feel joy. "

Linda Ronstadt

Others have argued that Ronstadt had the same generational effect with her Great American Songbook music, exposing a whole new generation to the music of the 1920s and '30s—music which, ironically, was pushed aside because of the advent of rock 'n' roll. When interpreting, Ronstadt said she "sticks to what the music demands", in terms of lyrics. Explaining that rock ‘n’ roll music is part of her culture, she says that the songs she sang after her rock 'n' roll hits were part of her soul. "The (Mariachi music) was my father's side of the soul. My mother's side of my soul was the Nelson Riddle stuff. And I had to do them both in order to reestablish who I was".

In the 1974 book Rock'n'Roll Woman, author Katherine Orloff wrote that Ronstadt's "own musical preferences run strongly to rhythm and blues, the type of music she most frequently chooses to listen to...(and) her goal is to... be soulful too. With this in mind, Ronstadt fuses country and rock into a special union".

By this stage of her career Ronstadt had established her niche in the field of country-rock. Along with other musicians such as The Flying Burrito Brothers, Emmylou Harris, Gram Parsons, Swampwater, Neil Young, and The Eagles, she helped free country music from stereotypes and showed rockers that country was OK. However, she stated that she was being pushed hard into singing more Rock & Roll.

Most successful female rock singer of her era

Author Andrew Greeley in his book God in Popular Culture, described Ronstadt as "the most successful and certainly the most durable and most gifted woman Rock singer of her era". Signaling her wide popularity as a concert artist, outside of the singles charts and the recording studio, Dirty Linen magazine describes her as the "first true woman rock 'n' roll superstar.....(selling) out stadiums with a string of mega-successful albums". Amazon.com, defines her as the American female rock superstar of the decade. Cash Box gave Ronstadt a Special Decade Award, as the top selling female singer of the 1970s. Coupled with the fact that her album covers, posters, magazine covers - basically her entire rock n roll image conveyed - was just as famous as her music. That by the end of the decade, the singer whom the Chicago Sun Times described as the "Dean of the 1970s school of female rock singers" became what Redbook called, "the most successful female rock star in the world","Female" being the important qualifier, according to Time Magazine, labeling her "a rarity .. to (have survived).... in the shark-infested deeps of rock"

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Linda Ronstadt, ca. 1974, on the cover of the Grammy winning album and 2x platinum certified studio disc, Heart Like a Wheel.

Having been a cult favorite on the music scene for several years, 1975 was "remembered in the music biz as the year when 29 year old Linda Ronstadt belatedly happened". With the release of Heart Like A Wheel, Ronstadt reached No. 1 on the Billboard Album Chart (it was also the first of four No. 1 Country Albums for Ronstadt) and the disc was certified Double-Platinum (over 2 million copies sold). In many instances, her own interpretations were more successful than the original recordings and many times new songwriters were discovered by a larger audience as a result of Ronstadt interpreting and recording their songs. Interestingly, Ronstadt had major success interpreting songs from a diverse spectrum of artists. This skill would eventually serve her later in her career, as a noted master song interpreter.

Heart Like a Wheel's first single release was "You're No Good", - a rootsy rockified version of a song written by Clint Ballard, Jr. that Ronstadt had initially resisted including on the album because it sounded too much like a "Beatles song" to her - climbed to No. 1 on the Pop singles chart. The album's second single release was "When Will I Be Loved", - an uptempo country rock version of a song written by Phil Everly - climbed to the No. 2 on the Pop singles chart and the No. 1 slot on the Country singles chart

The album showed a physically attractive Ronstadt on the cover but, more importantly, its critical and commercial success was due to a fine presentation of country and rock with Heart Like A Wheel her first of many major commercial successes that would put her on the path as one of the best-selling female artists of all time. Ronstadt won her first Grammy Award for Best Country Vocal Performance/Female for "I Can't Help It (If I'm Still In Love With You)" - originally recorded and written by Hank Williams - with Ronstadt interpretation, peaking at No. 2 on the Country charts. The album was nominated for Album of the Year.

Immediately, Rolling Stone magazine put her on its cover in March 1975, for the first time. The cover was the first of six Rolling Stone magazine covers and photographed by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz. It also included her as featured artist with a full photo layout and an article by Ben Fong-Torres, discussing her many struggling years in rock n roll, home life and what it meant to be a women on tour in a decidedly all-male environment.

Later this same year, 1975, her album Prisoner in Disguise was released. It climbed to No. 4 on the Billboard Album Chart and sold over a million copies. It became her second in a row to go platinum, "a grand slam" in the same year (Ronstadt would eventually be the first female artist in popular music history to have three consecutive platinum albums and would go on to have eight consecutive platinum albums and then another six between 1983 and 1990). The disc's first single release was "Love Is A Rose". It was climbing the Pop and Country charts but Heat Wave, a rockified version of the 1963 hit by Martha and the Vandellas, was receiving considerable airplay. Asylum pulled the "Love Is A Rose" single and issued "Heat Wave" with "Love Is A Rose" on the B-side. "Heat Wave" hit the Top Five on Billboard's Hot 100 while "Love Is A Rose" hit the Top Five on Billboard's Country chart.

Linda Ronstadt, ca. 1977, on the cover of the Grammy winning album design and 3x platinum certified studio disc, Simple Dreams.

In 1976, Ronstadt reached the Top 3 of Billboard's Album Chart and won her second career Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female for her third consecutive platinum album Hasten Down the Wind. The album showcased Ronstadt the singer-songwriter, composing two songs, "Try Me Again" and "Lo Siento, Mi Vida". It also included interpretation of Willie Nelson's classic "Crazy", which became a Top 10 Country hit for Ronstadt in early 1977.

In late 1977, Ronstadt surpassed the success of Heart Like A Wheel with her album Simple Dreams, which held the No. 1 position for five consecutive weeks on the Billboard Album Chart. The album has been certified triple platinum (over 3 million US copies sold). The album was released in September 1977, and by December, it had replaced Fleetwood Mac's long running No. 1 album Rumours in the top spot. Simple Dreams spawned hit singles on both the pop and country singles charts as well. It included the RIAA platinum-certified single "Blue Bayou" - a Country Rock interpretation of a Roy Orbison written song - as well as "It's So Easy" previously sung by Buddy Holly - and "Poor Poor Pitiful Me" a song written for the album, by Warren Zevon, an up and coming songwriter of the time whom Ronstadt elected to highlight and record. The album, garnered several Grammy Award nominations - including Record of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female for "Blue Bayou" - and won its art director, Kosh a Grammy Award for Best Album Cover, the first of three Grammy Awards he would win for designing Ronstadt album covers.

Simple Dreams became one of the singer's most successful international selling albums as well, reaching No. 1 on the Australian and Canadian pop and country album charts. Simple Dreams also made Ronstadt the most successful international female touring artist as well. The same year, she completed a highly successful concert tour around Europe. As, Country Music Magazine, wrote in October 1978, Simple Dreams solidified Ronstadt's role as "easily the most successful female rock and roll and country star at this time."

Also in 1977, she was asked by the Los Angeles Dodgers to sing the U.S. National Anthem at game three of the World Series against the New York Yankees.

Time magazine and Image

Ronstadt has remarked that she felt as though she was "artificially encouraged to kinda cop a really tough attitude (and be tough) because Rock & Roll is kind of a tough (business)" which she felt wasn't worn quite authentically. Female rock artists like her and Janis Joplin, whom she described as lovely, shy and very literate in real life and the antithesis of the "red hot mamma" routine she was artificially encouraged to project, went through an identity crisis. In 1974, Ronstadt surmised that "women in rock and roll... have to compete with the boys... (which is) to talk as dirty and (to) have just as callous an attitude" and competing with the boys was part of her upbringing, remarking that "even as a kid hunting with her father and brother she "wanted to (be tough) and just like my brother, carry my .22, which was bigger than I was".

Linda Ronstadt, on the cover of the February 28, 1977 issue of Time.

Eventually, Ronstadt's Rock & Roll image became just as famous as her music by the mid 1970s. The 1977 appearance on the cover of Time magazine under the banner "Torchy Rock", especially for the most famous woman singer of the 1970s, was controversial for Ronstadt, considering what the image appeared to project about the most famous woman in rock. At a time in the industry when men still told women what to sing and what to wear, Ronstadt hated the image of her that was projected to the world, on the cover of Time magazine no less, and she noted recently how the photographer kept forcing her to wear a dress, which was an image she did not want to project, (although she wore a rather revealing dress for the cover of Hasten Down the Wind which projected an image of her not all that different from the Time magazine cover). In 2004, she was interviewed for CBS This Morning and stated that this image was not her because she didn't sit like that. The Time magazine cover did not deter critics and they regarded it as affirming their claim that Ronstadt was her producer's puppet. It also encouraged them to belittle her music along with her image. Asher noted this irony, "anyone who's met Linda for 10 seconds will know that I couldn't possibly have been her Svengali. She's an extremely determined woman, in every area. To me, she was everything that feminism's about." Qualities, which Asher has stated, were considered a "negative (in a woman), whereas in a man they were perceived as being masterful and bold". As noted, since her solo career began, Ronstadt has fought hard to be recognized as a solo female singer in the world of rock, and her portrayal on the Time cover didn't appear to help the situation. As evidence of how troublesome this cover was to her, Ronstadt later refused to acknowledge that she was reclining and insisted that she was "sitting down... looking stupid" .

It was in 1976 that Rolling Stone magazine published for its cover an alluring collection of photographs taken by Annie Leibovitz, which helped to further the image that Ronstadt later said she wasn't pleased with. Ronstadt and Asher claim to have viewed the photos prior to publication and, when asked that they be removed and the request was denied, they unceremoniously threw Leibovitz out of the house.

In 1978, Rolling Stone magazine declared Ronstadt, "by far America's best-known female rock singer". She had a third No. 1 album on the Billboard Album Chart, with Living In The USA. She achieved a major hit single with "Ooh Baby Baby", with her rendition hitting all four major singles charts (Pop, AC, Country and R&B). Another achievement, was her straightforward interpretation of a Warren Zevon penned song, "Mohammed's Radio", in which Godot turns out to be rock & roll and Mohammed's radio is the grail. Living In The USA was the first album by any recording act, in music history, to ship double-platinum (over 2 million advanced copies). The album eventually sold 3 million US copies.

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Linda Ronstadt's promotional poster, for the 1978 Living In The USA album and concert

Billboard magazine crowned Linda Ronstadt with Four No.1 Awards for the Year: No.1 Pop Female Singles Artist of the Year; No.1 Pop Female Album Artist of the Year; No.1 Female Record Artist of the Year; and the No.1 Female Vocalist of the Year.

Living In The USA showed the singer on roller skates with a newly short haircut on the album cover. Ronstadt continued this theme on concert tour promotional posters with photos of her on roller skates in a dramatic pose with a large American flag in the background. By this stage of her career, she was promoting every album released, with posters and concerts - which at the time were recorded live on radio and/or TV. Ronstadt was also featured in the 1978 film FM, where the plot involved disc jockeys attempting to broadcast live, a Linda Ronstadt concertbwithout a competing stations knowledge. The movie also showed Ronstadt in concert singing the hit song Tumbling Dice. Ronstadt was persuaded to record "Tumbling Dice" after Mick Jagger told her backstage after a 1976 concert of hers, that she sang too many ballads in concert. She appeared to heed the advice. In FM she also performed Poor Poor Pitiful Me and Love Me Tender.

Following the success of Living in the USA, Ronstadt not only conducted successful disc promotional tours and concerts but in one concert in 1978, Ronstadt made a guest appearance onstage with The Rolling Stones at the Tucson Community Center on July 21, 1978 in her hometown of Tucson, where Ronstadt and Mick Jagger vocalized on "Tumbling Dice".

Highest paid woman in rock

"Rock is the thumping heart of Linda's music, and the rock world is dominated by males. The biggest stars are male, and so are the back-up musicians...rock beats are.. phallic, and lyrics ..masculine.....Janis Joplin, the first great white woman rocker, rattled the bars..but she died....Joni Mitchell..stylish (but can’t) compete in drawing power with men..(however) Linda Ronstadt .. has made herself one of the biggest individual rock draws in the world. "

Time Magazine, 1977

By the end of 1978, Ronstadt had solidified her role as one of rock and pop's most successful solo female acts, and owing to her consistent platinum album success and the first-ever woman able to command sell-out concerts in arenas and stadiums hosting tens of thousands of fans., Ronstadt became the "highest paid woman in rock", She had six platinum certified albums, three of which went to No. 1 on the Billboard album chart, and numerous charted Pop singles. In 1978 alone, she made over $12 million (equivalent to $38,000,000 in today's dollars) and in the same year her albums sales were reported at being 17 million - grossing over $60 million (equivalent to a gross of over $170,000,000, in today's dollars).

As Rolling Stone magazine dubbed her "Rock's Venus", her record sales continued to multiply and set records themselves. By 1979, Ronstadt had collected eight gold, six platinum and four multi-platinum certifications for her albums, an unprecedented feat at the time. Her 1976 Greatest Hits album would sell consistently for the next 25 years and in 2001 was certified by the RIAA for 7 times platinum (over 7 million US copies sold). In 1980 Greatest Hits Volume II was released and certified platinum) (over 1 million copies sold).

In 1979, Ronstadt went on a successful international tour, playing in arenas across Australia to Japan, including the Olympic Park Stadium in Melbourne, Australia and the Budokan in Tokyo, Japan. She also participated in benefit concert for her friend Lowell George, held at the The Forum, in Los Angeles, California.

By the end of the decade, Ronstadt had outsold her female competition, no other female artist to date had five straight platinum LPs: Hasten Down the Wind, and Heart Like a Wheel among them. US Magazine reported in 1978, that Linda Ronstadt, Stevie Nicks, Carly Simon and Joni Mitchell had become "The Queens of Rock" and 'Rock is no longer exclusively male. There is a new royalty ruling today's record charts'.

She would go on to parlay her mass commercial appeal with major success in interpreting The Great American Songbook, made famous a generation prior by Frank Sinatra, and Ella Fitzgerald and later the Mexican folk songs of her childhood.

From rock to Broadway

In 1980, Ronstadt recorded Mad Love, her seventh consecutive platinum selling album. Mad Love is a straightforward Rock & Roll album with strong post-punk, new wave influences, including tracks by songwriters such as Elvis Costello, The Cretones, and musician Mark Goldenberg who played on the record himself. This same year she also made the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine for a record-setting sixth time. Mad Love entered the Billboard 200 in the Top Five its first week (a record at that time) and climbed to the No. 3 position. In 1980, she continued her streak of Top 10 hits with "How Do I Make You?", originally recorded by Billy Thermal, "Hurt So Bad", originally recorded by Little Anthony & the Imperials, and the Top 40 hit I Can't Let Go — an updated rockified version of a song recorded by The Hollies. The album earned Ronstadt a 1980 Grammy Award nomination for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female (but she lost to Pat Benatar for "Crimes of Passion"). However, this same year Benatar praised Linda Ronstadt by stating, How can I be the best (female) rock singer, Ronstadt is still alive!.

Rex Smith, Linda Ronstadt and Kevin Kline, ca. 1980, from the The Pirates of Penzance Central Park production.

In the summer of 1980, Ronstadt began rehearsals for the first of several leads in Broadway musicals. Joseph Papp cast her as the lead in the New York Shakespeare Festival production of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance, alongside Kevin Kline. However, this endeavor wasn't, to Ronstadt, as far a left field endeavor as it might have appeared to Ronstadt's popular music audience. She recounts that singing Gilbert and Sullivan was a natural choice for her, since Grandfather Fred Ronstadt is credited with creating Tucson's first orchestra, the Club Filarmonico Tucsonense and had once created an arrangement of Pirates of Penzance, likewise, her mother, Ruthmary Copeman Ronstadt, owned a large Gilbert and Sullivan collection.

The Pirates of Penzance revival turned out to be a major hit on Broadway. The musical opened for a limited engagement in New York City's Central Park and moved its production to Broadway where it ran from January 8, 1981 to November 28, 1982. Newsweek was effusive in its praise: "...she has not dodged the coloratura demands of her role (and Mabel is one of the most demanding parts in the G&S canon): from her entrance trilling 'Poor Wand'ring One,' it is clear that she is prepared to scale whatever soprano peaks stand in her way".

A DVD of the Central Park production was released in October 2002, but there is no recording of the Broadway run which followed. The "Central Park" disc has somewhat mediocre videotaping and sound quality, both a result of the outdoor location. Ronstadt also co-starred with Kline and Angela Lansbury in the 1983 motion picture version of the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta. Ronstadt received a Golden Globe nomination for the role in the movie version. The two versions (stage and for-film) are distinguishable by cover art.

For her effort on Broadway, she garnered a Tony Award nomination for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical and The Pirates of Penzance won several Tony Awards, including a Tony Award for Best Revival.

In 1984, Ronstadt had discovered La bohème through the silent movie with Lillian Gish and was determined to play the part of Mimi. When she mentioned it to her friend, opera superstar Beverly Sills, she was told, "My dear...every soprano in the world wants to play Mimi!" Ronstadt was later cast in the role of Mimi at Joseph Papp's Public Theatre.

In 1988, Ronstadt returned to Broadway, for a limited run engagement in the musical show adaptation of her 1988 album of Mexican folk songs, Canciones de Mi Padre - "My Father's Songs".

After her stint on Broadway, Ronstadt went back to the studio to record more rock 'n' roll music. In 1982, Ronstadt released Get Closer a primarily rock album with some country and pop music as well. It is her only album from 1975 (Heart Like A Wheel) to 1990 (Cry Like A Rainstorm, Howl Like The Wind) that wasn't officially certified Platinum. It peaked at #31 on the Billboard Album Chart. In 1982, she continued her streak of Top 40 hits with "Get Closer", and "I Knew You When" - a 1965 hit by Billy Joe Royal, and the Jimmy Webb song "Easy For You To Say" which was a Top 10 AC hit. "Sometimes You Just Can't Win" was released to country radio, and made the top 30. The album earned Ronstadt two Grammy Award nominations for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female as well as Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female. The album won its art director, Kosh his second Grammy Award for Best Album Package.

Along with the release of her Get Closer album, Ronstadt also embarked on a very successful North American tour, remaining one of the top rock concert draws that summer and fall. One famous concert was her November 25, 1982 Happy Thanksgiving Day concert held at Dallas, Texas's Reunion Arena and broadcast live via satellite on radio stations across the United States.

Branching out

Ronstadt has remarked that in the beginning of her career "(she)..was so focused on folk, rock and country that..(she) got a bit bored and started to branch out, and..(has) been doing that ever since". By 1983, Linda Ronstadt's estimated worth was over $40 million (equivalent to over $86,000,000 in today's dollars) mostly from successful Rock & Roll records, concerts and tours.

Ronstadt eventually became tired of playing arenas. She didn't feel that arenas, where people milled around lighting joints and buying beer, were "approriate places for music". She wanted "angels in the architecture" - a reference to a lyric in the Paul Simon song You Can Call Me Al. Likewise, she has noted that she wanted to sing in places similar to the Theatre of ancient Greece, where the attention is focused on the stage and performer.

Ronstadt's recording career in the 1980s proved to be just as commercially and critically successful as her 1970s recordings. Between 1983 and 1990 Ronstadt scored six additional platinum albums: two of which have been certified triple platinum (each with over 3 million US copies sold); one which as been certified double platinum (over two million copies sold); and one Gold (over 500,000 US copies sold) double disc album.

By recording Traditional pop, Traditional country, Traditional Latin roots, and Adult Contemporary, Ronstadt resonated with a different fan base and diversified her appeal.

What's New

Linda Ronstadt, ca. 1983, from the disc What's New.

In 1981, Linda Ronstadt produced and recorded an album of jazz and pop standards (later marketed in bootleg form) titled "Keeping out of Mischief" with the assistance of producer Jerry Wexler. However, Ronstadt's displeasure with the final result led her to regretfully scrap the project. "Doing that killed me", she said in a Time magazine interview. But the appeal of the album's music had seduced Ronstadt, as she told Downbeat magazine in April 1985, crediting Wexler for encouraging her. Nonetheless, Ronstadt had to somehow convince her reticent record company, Elektra Records, to greenlight this type of album under her contract.

By 1983, Ronstadt had enlisted the help of the 62-year-old conductor and master of pop orchestration, Nelson Riddle. The two embarked on an unorthodox and original approach to rehabilitating the Great American Songbook, recording a trilogy of highly successful traditional pop albums: What's New (1983); Lush Life (1985); and For Sentimental Reasons (1986). The three have a combined sales of over 8 million copies in the U.S.

"I now realize I was taking a tremendous risk, and that Joe Smith (the head of Elektra Records, and strongly opposed) was looking out for himself, and for me. When it became apparent I wouldn't change my mind, he said: 'I love Nelson so much! Can I please come to the sessions. I said 'Yes.' "When the albums...were successful, Joe congratulated me, and I never said 'I told you so.'"

Linda Ronstadt

The album design for What's New by designer Kosh was unlike any of her previous disc covers. But in keeping with the themes of her other discs it was bold, colorful and memorable. The cover seemed to playfully suggest what's new? It showed Ronstadt in a vintage dress lying on shimmering satin sheets with a Walkman headset. At the time, Ronstadt received a lot of ridicule for both the album cover and her venture into what was then considered "elevator music" by cynics. In a 1984 Saturday Night Live sketch, comedienne Julia Louis-Dreyfus parodied Ronstadt by dressing and posing in a copy of the What's New cover while the title track played in the background,and Louis-Dreyfus singing "I sing old songs for you, ‘Cause I can’t do what's new!", referring to the fact that these 1920's and 30's written songs that Ronstadt chose and elected to perform were too old to cover, un-hip, not rock 'n' roll and therefore, unmarketable. Ronstadt remained determined to record with Nelson Riddle and What's New became a hit. The album was released in September 1983, it spent 81 weeks on the Billboard Album Chart and climbed to the No. 3 position (held out of the top spot by Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' and Lionel Richie's 'Can't Slow Down') and the RIAA certified it triple platinum (over 3 million US copies sold alone). The album earned Ronstadt another Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, and critical raves, with Time Magazine calling it "one of the gutsiest, most unorthodox and unexpected albums of the year".

Ronstadt faced considerable pressure not to record What's New or record with Riddle. According to jazz historian Peter Levinson, author of the book September In The Rain - a Biography on Nelson Riddle, Joe Smith, president of Elektra Records, was terrified that the Nelson Riddle album would turn off Ronstadt's rock audience. Linda did not completely turn her back on her rock and roll past, however; the video for the title track featured Danny Kortchmar as the old beau that she bumped into during a rainstorm.

What's New brought Nelson Riddle to a younger audience. According to Levinson "the younger audience hated what Riddle had done with Frank Sinatra, which in 1983 was considered "Vintage Pop". Working with Ronstadt, Riddle brought his career back into focus in the last three years of his life. Stephen Holden of the New York Times wrote, What's New "isn't the first album by a rock singer to pay tribute to the golden age of the pop, but is ... the best and most serious attempt to rehabilitate an idea of pop that Beatlemania and the mass marketing of rock LPs for teen-agers undid in the mid-60s ... In the decade prior to Beatlemania, most of the great band singers and crooners of the 40s and 50s codified a half-century of American pop standards on dozens of albums ... many of them now long out-of-print". What's New is the first album by a rock singer to have major commercial success in rehabilitating the Great American Songbook.

In 1984, Ronstadt and Nelson Riddle performed these songs live, in concert halls around Australia, Japan and the United States, including Carnegie Hall.

In 2004, Ronstadt released Hummin' to Myself, her first and ironically her only album for Verve Records. It was her first foray into traditional jazz since her sessions with Jerry Wexler and her records with the Nelson Riddle Orchestra, but this time with a smaller jazz combo. The album was a quieter affair for Ronstadt, receiving few interviews and only one television performance as promotion. The album debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard Top Jazz Albums Chart, and not having the mass distribution Warner Music gave her, Hummin' To Myself has sold 75,000 copies in the US which is quite successful for a small record label like Verve Records and it did achieve critical acclaim from the jazz cognoscenti.

The Trio recordings

"When (we) sang, it was a beautiful and different sound I've never heard before. We (recorded the vocals) as individual parts, because we didn't have the luxury of spending a lot of time together on a tour bus...and knowing each other's (vocal) moves...takes years."

Linda Ronstadt

In 1978, Ronstadt, with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris, began recording a Trio album. The attempt was not successful. Ronstadt later remarked that not too many people were focused at the time and everyone was too involved with their own careers. (Though the efforts to complete the album were abandoned, a number of the more successful recordings were included on the singers' respective solo recordings over the next few years.) This concept album was put on the back burner for almost ten years.

In January 1986, the three eventually did make their way into the recording studio, where they spent the next several months working. The result, Trio, which they had conceived ten years earlier, was released in March 1987. It was a considerable hit, holding the No. 1 position on Billboard's Country Albums chart for five weeks running and hitting the Top 10 on the Pop side also. Selling over three million US copies and winning them a Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, it produced four top-ten country singles including "To Know Him Is To Love Him" which hit No. 1. The album was also a nominee for overall Album of the Year, in the company of Michael Jackson, U2, Prince, and Whitney Houston.

In 1994, the three performers attempted to record, a follow-up to Trio with Ronstadt and George Massenburg serving as producers. As was the case with their aborted 1978 effort, conflicting schedules and competing priorities delayed the album's release indefinitely. Ronstadt, who had already paid for studio time, and owing her record company a finished album, removed, per Parton's request, Dolly's individual tracks, kept Emmylou Harris' vocals on, and produced a number of the recordings which she subsequently put on her 1995 Feels Like Home cd.

However, in 1999, Ronstadt, Parton and Harris agreed to release the Trio 2 album, as was originally recorded in 1994. Again, with Ronstadt and Massenburg producing. It included a cover of Neil Young's "After The Gold Rush" which became a popular music video. The effort was certified Gold (over 500,000 copies sold) and won them a Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals for the track. Ronstadt co-produced the album with George Massenburg and both received a Grammy Nomination for Best Country Album.

Canciones - songs of her family

Linda Ronstadt, ca. 1987, on the cover of the Grammy winning album and 2x platinum certified Canciones de Mi Padre - "My Father's Songs".

At the end of 1987, Ronstadt released an album of traditional Mexican folk songs, or what she describes as "world class songs", titled Canciones de Mi Padre - "My Father's Songs". Keeping with the Ronstadt theme, her cover art was dramatic, bold, and colorful. For Canciones De Mi Padre Ronstadt was in full Mexican regalia and her musical arranger was famed Mariachi musician Rubén Fuentes.

These canciones were a big part of Ronstadt's family tradition and musical roots. For example, the history of this album goes back half a century. In January, 1946, the University of Arizona published a booklet by Luisa Espinel entitled Canciones de mi Padre. Luisa Espinel was Linda Ronstadt's aunt and an international singer in the 1920s. Ms. Espinel's father was Fred Ronstadt (Linda Ronstadt's grandfather), and the songs she had learned, transcribed and published were some of the ones he had brought with him from Sonora. Ronstadt researched and extracted from the favorites she had learned from her father Gilbert and she called her album by the same name as her aunt's booklet and as a tribute to her father and his family. Though not fully bilingual, she has a fairly good command of the Spanish language, allowing her to sing Latin American songs with little discernible accent; Ronstadt has often identified herself as Mexican-American. Her formative years were spent with her father's side of the family. In fact, in 1976 Ronstadt co-wrote, along with her father, a Traditional Mexican folk ballad, titled "Lo siento mi vida", a song that she included in her Grammy winning album - Hasten Down the Wind. Also, Ronstadt has credited Mexican singer Lola Beltran as an influence in her own singing style, and she recalls how a frequent guest to the Ronstadt home, Eduardo "Lalo" Guerrero, father of Chicano music, would often serenade her as a child.

This album won Ronstadt a Grammy Award for Best Mexican-American Performance. The real achievement however is the disc's RIAA double-platinum (over 2 million US copies sold) certification - making it the biggest-selling non-English language album in US music history. Another achievement is that the album and later theatrical stage show, served as a benchmark of Latin cultural renaissance in North America.

"(I obtained) enough clout and....after years and years of making commercial records, I was entitled to experiment..the success of the (Nelson Riddle albums).. entitled me to try the Mexican stuff."

Linda Ronstadt

Ronstadt produced and performed a theatrical stage show in concert halls across the United States and Latin America to both Hispanic and non-Hispanic audiences, including on the Great White Way. She called the stage show by the same name Canciones de mi Padre. These performances were released on DVD. Ronstadt elected to return to the Broadway stage, 4 years after she performed La Bohème, for a limited run engagement. PBS Great Performances aired the celebrated stage show during its annual fund drives and the show was a hit with audiences, earning Ronstadt an Emmy Award for Individual Performance In A Variety Or Music Program.

She recorded two additional discs of Latin music in the early 1990s. Although their promotion, like all her albums in the 1990s, was a quieter affair for Ronstadt, where she appeared to do the "bare minimum" to promote. They were not as successful in terms of sales as Canciones De Mi Padre, but were critically acclaimed. The first one she recorded was Mas Canciones, a follow up to the first Canciones. For this effort she won a Grammy award for Best Mexican/Mexican-American Album. The same year she stepped outside of Mariachi genre and decided to record well known "afro-Cuban" songs. This disc was titled Frenesí. Like her second Latin recording venture, this third Latin album won Ronstadt another Grammy award, this time for Best Traditional Tropical Latin Album.

In 1991, Ronstadt participated in La Pastorela, a musical filmed at San Juan Bautista. It was written and directed by Luis Valdez, of Canciones de Mi Padre fame, and like Canciones, the production was part of the PBS "Great Performances" series. It currently exists on VHS format but has not been released on DVD.

Redefining adult contemporary pop

Still enjoying the success of her traditional pop collaborations with Nelson Riddle and the sleeper hit success of her Mariachi recordings, by the late 1980s Linda Ronstadt elected to record mainstream pop music once again, a decision that ended up producing a couple of hit singles and one highly successful pop album titled Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind. (1989) Of the album, Amazon.com wrote that Ronstadt recorded "an album that defines virtually everything that is right about adult contemporary pop." .

Beginning in 1987, Ronstadt made a return to the top of Billboard Hot 100 singles charts with "Somewhere Out There", which peaked at No. 2 on 14 March 1987 - being a sentimental duet with James Ingram and featured in the animated film An American Tail. The song was nominated for several Grammy Awards, eventually winning the Song Of The Year category. It also received an Academy Award nomination for Motion Picture song and achieved high sales, earning a million-selling Gold single in the US - one of the last 45s ever to do so. On the heels of this success, Steven Spielberg asked Ronstadt again to record the title song, for the sequel to An Americal Tail, titled An American Tail: Fievel Goes West. The song she recorded was "Dreams To Dream". Although it failed to achieve the same success as its predecessor, the song did give Ronstadt an Adult Contemporary hit in 1991. 1992

Ronstadt made a full return to the mainstream pop charts in 1989, releasing both an album and several popular singles. This effort titled Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind became one of the singers all-time biggest albums, in terms of production, arrangements, chart sales, and critical acclaim. The album returned Ronstadt, as a solo artist, back to the Top 10 of the Billboard Album Chart, reaching the #7 position and being certified triple-platinum (over 3 million US copies sold). The album also received critical acclaim, being nominated for numerous Grammy awards. She even featured American soul singer Aaron Neville on four of the twelve disc cuts.

Ronstadt incorporated the sounds of the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir, Tower of Power horns, the Skywalker Symphony and numerous musicians. It had duets including "Don't Know Much" (Billboard Hot 100 No. 2 hit - Christmas 1989) and "All My Life" (Billboard Hot 100 #11 hit), both long-running No. 1 Adult Contemporary hits. These duets with singer Aaron Neville received much critical acclaim, garnering several Grammy nominations and won both 1989's and 1990's Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal award, shared with Aaron Neville. Her last live Grammy Award appearance was in February 1990 when she and Neville performed the song for the public for the first time since it became a hit the previous year. "Whenever I sing with a different artist, I can get things out of my voice that I can't do by myself, " Ronstadt said in 2007. "I can do things with Aaron that I can't do alone." .

In December 1990, Linda Ronstadt participated in a concert to commemorate John Lennon's 50th birthday, and to raise awareness of environmental issues, held in Tokyo at the Tokyo Dome. Other participants included Miles Davis, Lenny Kravitz, Hall & Oates, Natalie Cole, Japanese artists, Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon. A CD resulted, titled Happy Birthday, John.

A return to roots music

Linda Ronstadt, ca. 1998, from the disc We Ran.

Continuing with her crafted approach to more mainstream-oriented material, Ronstadt released the highly acclaimed Winter Light album at the end of 1993. It included New Age arrangements such as the lead single "Heartbeats Accelerating" as well as the self-penned title track and featured the unique glass armonica instrument. 1995's Feels Like Home was Ronstadt's much heralded return to Country-Rock and included her version of Tom Petty's classic hit "The Waiting".

The following year Ronstadt produced Dedicated to the One I Love, an album of rock 'n roll songs reinvented as children's music. This effort won her and longtime collaborator, recording engineer George Massenburg, Grammys for Best Musical Album for Children.

Recent Ronstadt albums have been much quieter promotional affairs for Ronstadt, receiving few interviews - mostly print interviews, and only one or two television performances on selective shows as promotion. During this period, Ronstadt raised her two children, and she only agreed to do the "bare minimum" to promote her albums.

In 1998, Ronstadt recorded We Ran. The disc has a non-dramatic photo, unlike previous covers that over the years had won three Grammy Awards for artist Kosh. Although inside the disc, the music harkens back to Ronstadt's country-rock and folk-rock heyday. She returned to her rock 'n' roll roots with vivid interpretations of songs by Bruce Springsteen, Doc Pomus, Bob Dylan and John Hiatt. The disc was produced by Glyn Johns. A commercial failure, the album is one of Ronstadt's few albums to not hit the Top 100 on the Billboard album chart. We Ran also did not chart any hit singles on either the Pop or Adult Contemporary charts. The album however was well received by critics. Her vocal performance on the track "Cry 'till My Tears Run Dry" is particularly worthy of note, and demonstrated how much her voice had grown, since her early, somewhat raw, country music performances.

Despite the limited success of We Ran, Ronstadt kept towards this adult rock exploration. She released Western Wall — The Tucson Sessions (1999), a folk-rock oriented project with EmmyLou Harris. It earned a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Folk Album, and made the Top 10 of Billboard's Country Albums chart and the Top 100 of the Billboard album charts, debuting at No. 73. They had a modest alternative rock hit with Sweet Spot, a song that was written with and recorded with Jill Cunniff of Luscious Jackson.

Also in 1999, Ronstadt went back to her concert roots, when she performed with The Eagles and Jackson Browne at Staples Center's 1999 New Year's Eve celebration kicking off the December 31 end-of-the-millennium festivities. As Staples Center Senior Vice President and General Manager Bobby Goldwater said, "It was our goal to present a spectacular event as a sendoff to the 20th century", and "The Eagles, Jackson Browne, and Linda Ronstadt are three of the most popular acts of the century. Their performances will constitute a singular and historic night of entertainment for New Year's Eve in Los Angeles.

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Japanese and Australian cover of the disc Adieu False Heart. Linda Ronstadt with Ann Savoy, ca. 2006.

On November 16, 1999, Elektra/Wea released The Linda Ronstadt Box Set. The Box Set includes a total of four discs arranged thematically rather than chronologically with five hours of eighty-six songs that highlight Ronstadt's eclectic career. There are two CDs that essentially serve as best-of sets. Disc three consists of duets with the likes of Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, Aaron Neville, and Frank Sinatra. Disc four offers rarities, including her contributions to Randy Newman's Faust and a contribution to Carla Bley's jazz opera Escalator Over the Hill and songs off 1978's Living in the USA and 1980's Mad Love period that didn’t make it onto the albums. In addition, some live contributions including "All I Have To Do Is Dream" with Kermit the Frog.

In 2000, Linda Ronstadt completed her long contractual relationship with Elektra/Asylum which had now become part of the Warner Music Group. The fulfillment of this contract was the release of A Merry Little Christmas, her first holiday collection, which included rare choral works, the song "River" by Joni Mitchell, and a rare recorded duet with Rosemary Clooney on her signature song, "White Christmas". Since leaving Warner Music, Ronstadt has gone on to work under the Verve and Vanguard Record labels.

"your musical soul is like facets of a jewel, and you stick out one facet at a time..(and) I tend to work real hard on whatever it is I do, to get it up to speed, up to a professional level. I tend to bury myself in one thing for years at a time "

Linda Ronstadt

In 2006, recording as the ZoZo Sisters, Ronstadt teamed with longtime friend, musician and musical scholar Ann Savoy to record Adieu False Heart, an album of roots music incorporating pop, Cajun, and early 20th century music on the Vanguard Records label. The album was released to an international market, and has different covers, one showing artistic farm art and the other prominently showing Ronstadt and Savoy (international cover) - primarily in Australia and Japan. The album was a commercial flop, peaking at #146 in the US.

Adieu False Heart, recorded in Louisiana, features a cast of local musicians, including Chas Justus, Eric Frey and Kevin Wimmer of the Red Stick Ramblers, Sam Broussard of The Mamou Playboys, Dirk Powell and Joel Savoy, as well as an array of Nashville musicians: fiddler Stuart Duncan, mandolinist Sam Bush and guitarist Bryan Sutton. The recording earned two Grammy nominations: Best Traditional Folk Album and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical.

In 2007 a UK compilation album was released, combining Linda Ronstadt Greatest Hits I & II on one disc. And in June 2007, Ronstadt could be heard on the compilation LP "We All Love Ella: Celebrating The First Lady of Song" on the track "Miss Otis Regrets." On August 3, 2007, Ronstadt headlined the Newport Folk Festival, making her debut at this prestigious event, where she incorporated jazz, rock and folk music into her repertoire.

List of career achievements

• As of 2010 Ronstadt has earned her three No. 1 albums, 10 Top 10 pop albums and 36 charting pop albums on the Billboard 200 Pop Album Charts. On Billboard's Top Country Albums chart, she has charted 15 albums including four No. 1 albums.
• Also - as of 2010 - Ronstadt's singles had earned her a No. 1 single and three No. 2 singles on the Billboard Hot 100, 10 Top 10 pop singles, 21 Top 40 pop singles, two No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, two No. 1 hits and on Billboard's Adult Contemporary charts she had recorded 37 Top 40 hits.
• She has recorded well over 30 studio albums and has made guest appearances on over 120 other albums. Her guest appearances included the classical minimalist Philip Glass's album Songs from Liquid Days, a hit Classical record with other major Pop stars either singing or writing lyrics, she also appeared on Glass's follow up recording; 1000 Airplanes on the Roof, an appearance on Paul Simon's Graceland, she voiced herself in The Simpsons episode "Mr. Plow" and sang a duet "Funny How Time Slips Away" with Homer Simpson on The Yellow Album. Ronstadt has also recorded on albums with artists as diverse as: Billy Eckstine, Emmylou Harris, The Chieftains, Dolly Parton, Neil Young, J. D. Souther, Gram Parsons, Bette Midler, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Earl Scruggs, The Eagles, Andrew Gold, Hoyt Axton, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Mark Goldenberg, Ann Savoy, Karla Bonoff, James Taylor, Warren Zevon, Maria Muldaur, Randy Newman, Nicolette Larson, the Seldom Scene, Rosemary Clooney, Aaron Neville, Rodney Crowell, Hearts and Flowers, Teresa, Laurie Lewis, Yanka Runpika and Flaco Jiménez.
• Some of her biggest-selling studio albums to date are her 1977 release Simple Dreams, 1983's What's New, and her 1989 release Cry Like A Rainstorm, Howl Like The Wind, each one certified by the Recording Industry Association of America for over 3 million copies sold. Her highest-selling album to date is the 1976 compilation, Greatest Hits, certified for over 7 million units sold as of 2001.
• Linda Ronstadt became music's first major touring female artist, selling out major venues, and she also became the top-grossing solo female concert artist for the 1970s. Ronstadt remained a highly successful touring artist throughout the 1980s.
• Cash Box named her the top female pop singer of the decade.
• Her RIAA certification (audits paid for by record companies or artist for promotion) tally as of 2001, now totals 19 Gold(17 "solo", 2 "group"), 14 Platinum(12 "solo", 2 "group") and 7 Multi-Platinum albums.
• Ronstadt's album sales have not been certified since 2001, and at the time, Ronstadt's US album sales were certified by the RIAA at over 30 million albums sold while Peter Asher, her producer, placed her total US album sales at over 45 million . Likewise, her worldwide albums sales are in excess of 60 million albums sold, according to Verve Music.
• She was the first female in music history to score three consecutive platinum albums and ultimately racked up a total of eight consecutive platinum albums.
• Her album Living In The USA is the first album by any recording act in US music history, to ship double platinum (over 2 million advanced copies).
• Linda's first Latin release, the all-Spanish 1987 album, Canciones De Mi Padre stands as the best-selling non-English-language album in U.S. music history. As of 2009, it had sold over 2 1/2 million US copies.
• Ronstadt has served as record producer on various albums from musicians such as her cousin David Lindley and Aaron Neville to singer-songwriter Jimmy Webb. She produced Cristal — Glass Music Through the Ages, an album of classical music using glass instruments with Dennis James, and Ronstadt singing on several of the arrangements. In 1999, Ronstadt also produced the Grammy Award winning 'Trio 2'.
• She has received a total of 27 Grammy Award nominations in various fields from Rock, Country, and Pop, to Tropical Latin, and has won 11 Grammy Awards in fields including Pop, Country, Tropical Latin, Musical Album for Children, and Mexican-American.
• Ronstadt was the first female solo artist to have two Top 40 singles simultaneously on Billboard magazine's Hot 100: "Blue Bayou" and "It's So Easy" (October 1977). By December, both "Blue Bayou" and "It's So Easy" had climbed into Billboard's Top 5 and remained there for the entire month.
• Ronstadt's run on the Billboard charts includes one single or album charted every year from 1970 to 2000.
• As a singer-songwriter Ronstadt has also written songs covered by several artists, such as "Try Me Again" covered by Trisha Yearwood and "Winter Light" which was co-written and composed with Zbigniew Preisner and Eric Kaz, and covered by Sarah Brightman.
• Ronstadt has elected to sing songs written by a diverse group of artist including: Lowell George, Zevon, Costello, Souther, Newman, Patty Griffin. Sinéad O'Connor, Julie Miller, Mel Tillis, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, John Hiatt, Joe Melson, Seldom Scene, Bruce Springsteen, George Jones, Tracy Nelson, the Flying Burrito Brothers, Little Feat, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Chuck Berry, the Everly Brothers, Brian Wilson, the Rolling Stones, the Miracles, Oscar Hammerstein II, Roy Orbison and Buddy Holly and the Crickets.
• Rolling Stone Magazine writes, a whole generation "but for her, might never have heard the work of Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, or Elvis Costello."
• "Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" included Heart Like A Wheel (1974) at #164 and The Very Best Of Linda Ronstadt (2002) at #324.
• In 1999, Ronstadt ranked #21 in VH1's 100 Greatest Women of Rock & Roll. Three years later, she ranked #40 in CMT's 40 Greatest Women in Country Music.

Awards

Grammy Awards

• 1975 - Best Country Vocal Performance, Female, "I Can't Help It (If I'm Still In Love With You)" from Heart Like a Wheel
• 1976 - Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female, Hasten Down the Wind
• 1980 - Best Musical Album for Children, In Harmony: A Sesame Street Record (multiple artist compilation w/ Linda Ronstadt)¹
• 1987 - Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, Trio (with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris)
• 1988 - Best Mexican-American Performance, Canciones de Mi Padre
• 1989 - Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, "Don't Know Much" from Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind with Aaron Neville
• 1990 - Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, "All My Life" from Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind with Aaron Neville
• 1992 - Best Tropical Latin Album, Frenesi
• 1993 - Best Mexican-American Album, Mas Canciones
• 1996 - Best Musical Album for Children, Dedicated to the One I Love
• 1999 - Best Country Collaboration with Vocals, "After the Gold Rush" from Trio II with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris

¹ "Best Musical Album for Children" Grammy - Linda Ronstadt is not recognised by the Grammy Awards as being a recipient of this particular Grammy, although she participated in the production. Therefore, the Grammy Award site shows Ronstadt the recipient of only 10 Awards, and 17 nominations. However, The official Grammy Awards site also shows Ronstadt as a recipient for the Grammy winning Musical Album for Children.

Grammy Award nominations

• 1970 - Best Contemporary Vocal Performance, Female, "Long, Long Time" from Silk Purse
• 1975 - Album of the Year, Heart Like a Wheel
• 1975 - Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female, Heart Like a Wheel
• 1977 - Record of the Year, "Blue Bayou" from Simple Dreams
• 1977 - Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female, "Blue Bayou" from Simple Dreams
• 1980 - Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female, "How Do I Make You" from Mad Love
• 1982 - Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female, "Get Closer" from the album Get Closer
• 1982 - Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female, "Get Closer" from the album Get Closer
• 1983 - Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female, What's New
• 1985 - Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female, Lush Life
• 1987 - Album of the Year, Trio with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris
• 1987 - Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, "Somewhere Out There" from the soundtrack to An American Tail with James Ingram
• 1989 - Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female, Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind
• 1999 - Best Country Album, Trio II with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris
• 1999 - Best Contemporary Folk Album, Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions with Emmylou Harris
• 2002 - Best Traditional Folk Album, Evangeline Made: A Tribute to Cajun Music, multiple artist compilation, with vocalist Ann Savoy
• 2006 - Best Traditional Folk Album, Adieu False Heart with Ann Savoy

Arizona Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame Inductee

• 2007 - For her significant impact and evolution and development of the entertainment culture in the state of Arizona.

ACM Music Award

• 1974 - Best New Female Artist
• 1987 - Best Album / 'TRIO' - Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris.

Emmy Award

• 1989 - Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program, Linda Ronstadt, Great Performances: Canciones de Mi Padre

ALMA Award

• 2008 - Trailblazer Award for Contribution to American Music

Tony Award nomination

• 1981 - Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical, Linda Ronstadt in The Pirates of Penzance as "Mabel"

Golden Globe Award nomination

• 1983 - Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical or Comedy, Linda Ronstadt in The Pirates of Penzance

Discography

Main article: Linda Ronstadt discography

Articles and Interviews

• Fusion, Linda Ronstadt: Female Rocker, (December 26, 1969), Courtesy of Unofficial Linda Ronstadt Homepage
• Creem Magazine, A Heart To Heart with Linda Ronstadt (December 1976), Courtesy of Unofficial Linda Ronstadt Homepage
• Linda Ronstadt: Melancholy Baby, Esquire, (October 1985), Courtesy of Unofficial Linda Ronstadt Homepage
• The Weekend Australian: Everlasting Linda, by Debbie Kruger, Courtesy of Debbie Kruger (July 19, 1998)
• Linda Ronstadt lets wisdom strike notes, The Honolulu Advertiser (March 31, 2006)
• San Diego Union-Tribune interview
• Tucson Citizen report of the Aladdin incident
• Edmonton Sun interview "Linda Ronstadt defends her politics" (August 10, 2006)
• Calgary Sun "Ronstadt still sings sweetly" (August 10, 2006)
• Linda Ronstadt's interview with Tavis Smiley (August 5, 2006)
• Kudos To Linda Ronstadt by James Donahue
• Linda Ronstadt rocks with jazz sophistication (August 4, 2007)
• Linda Ronstadt plays NPR's "WaitWait...Don't Tell Me!" (April 28, 2007)

External links

• The Definitive Linda Ronstadt Homepage (Unofficial but comprehensive)
• Please use a more specific IBDB template. See the documentation for available templates.
• Linda Ronstadt discography
• Tucson's Ronstadt Family History of the Ronstadt family
• VIRB.com site
• Linda Ronstadt was Inducted into the Hit Parade Hall of Fame (winners based on fan votes)
• Future Rock n Roll Hall of Fame Induction chances and Information