Linda Ronstadt Totally Explained

Everything about Linda Ronstadt totally explained

Linda Maria Ronstadt (born July 15, 1946 in Tucson, Arizona) is an American popular vocalist and entertainer who has earned multiple Grammy Awards, an Emmy Award, numerous United States and internationally certified gold, platinum and multiplatinum albums, a Tony Award and Golden Globe nominations. A singer-songwriter and record producer, she's better known as a definitive interpreter of songs. Ronstadt has recorded over 30 studio solo albums, and has made guest appearances on over 100 other albums. She became the first female artist in music history to have highly anticipated arena and stadium tours - coinciding with a string of blockbuster albums, thus making her able to command sell-out concerts.. Solidifying her role as one of rock and pop's most successful solo female acts of all time, and for a time, the highest paid woman in rock.
Ronstadt has recorded studio albums in many genres outside the rock field and is known throughout the music industry as one of the most versatile, durable, and commercially successful female pop singers of all time. Branching out, she's recorded Traditional Pop, mariachi, jazz, folk, Broadway and opera. However, her most commercially successful period was during the 1970s and 1980s. As she moved on to other genres in the 1980s she maintained her consistent commercial success and remained one of the best-selling solo album artists of this decade. From the 1990s on till the 2000s Ronstadt has continued her success, releasing many Grammy winning recordings and remaining one of the most celebrated recording artist to date. Ronstadt has charted over 30 albums on the Billboard 200 pop album chart, 10 of which have reached top 10, and three of those have peaked at No. 1. She also has 21 Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, 10 of which have reached the top 10, three peaking at No. 2, and the No. 1 hit, "You're No Good."

Career overview

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 became the lead singer of a successful folk rock group, 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, in the mid 1970s, Ronstadt was successful with chart-topping albums such as Heart Like A Wheel, Simple Dreams, and Living In The USA. Coupled with her chart success, Ronstadt became the first female "arena class" rock star, setting records as one of the top-grossing concert artists of the decade, and the most successful female rock singer of her era. Labeled the First Lady of Rock, 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 artist in US History. A consummate American artist, Ronstadt opened many doors for women in rock and roll and in music by achieving success 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 (1914-1982), a homemaker with a gift for science. She was raised along with her brothers Peter (served as Tucson's chief of police from 1981-1992) and Michael and her sister Gretchen (Suzy), on the family's 10-acre ranch. The family was featured in Family Circle Magazine in 1953.
   Her father, Gilbert, came from a leading and pioneering Arizona ranching family
   The Ronstadt Family 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, her alma mater.
   Her mother, Ruthmary, was of Anglo-American descent with German, English and Dutch heritage. Ruthmary was the daughter of the prolific American inventor Lloyd Groff Copeman, and was raised in Michigan. 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.
   Ronstadt's early life was filled with music and tradition, which influenced her musical choices. A product of the American radio of the 1950s and 1960s with its eclectic broadcasting. Growing up she listened to all types of music, and credits her mother for her appreciation of Gilbert and Sullivan and the Traditional Pop music that she herself would in turn help reintroduce to an entire generation.

Personal life

In the 1970s her private life was given publicity because of a relationship with then-Governor Jerry Brown of California, a Democratic presidential candidate. They shared a Newsweek magazine cover in April 1979. Ronstadt and Brown also took a trip to Africa which became fodder for the media.
   In the mid-1980s, Ronstadt was engaged ("ring on the finger and all") to Star Wars director George Lucas.
   In the early 1980s, Ronstadt was criticized by some (mainly rock critics) for playing two concerts in what was then apartheid South Africa, at a time when artists like Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, Shirley Bassey, Stevie Wonder, and Cher were also performing there. Rolling Stone magazine covered the trip. The controversy eventually died out and apartheid ended.
   Ronstadt is a major supporter and admirer of sustainable agriculture pioneer Wes Jackson, of Salina, Kansas, saying in 2000 "the work he's doing right now is the most important work there's in the (United States)", and dedicating the rock anthem Desperado to him at an August, 2007 Kansas City, Kansas concert of hers.
   She has two adopted children, Mary and Carlos. Her daughter has made her a fan of musician Pink. Her son, who prefers death metal, has introduced her to the music of Rob Zombie. Of his work, Ronstadt says "There's real power and energy (to his music)", and on 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.
   Ronstadt says her favourite female vocalist is Maria Callas, saying "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". Ronstadt defines her voice as a coloratura soprano.
   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 some Tucsonians by observing 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 an August 14, 2007, interview she commented on all her well publicized outspoken views, in particular her, Aladdin Theatre for the Performing Arts incident (see Political controversy below), by noting, "If I'd it to do over I'd be much more gracious to everyone... you can be as outspoken as you want if you're very, very respectful. Show some grace".
   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.

Political controversy

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. Towards the end of her performance, as she'd done across the country, Ronstadt spoke to the audience, praising Michael Moore's documentary film Fahrenheit 9/11, a movie discussing the Iraq War, and dedicated the song "Desperado" to Michael 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". Ronstadt claimed she wasn't physically taken off stage but was ordered by Aladdin staff to wait to speak with Aladdin President Bill Timmins. She claims to have refused to wait and to have left, and later remarked that while Aladdin staff attempted to detain her, she thought, "Or they were going to make me start writing on a chalkboard or read me my Miranda rights?" Later she said, "Apparently..(the Aladdin)... called up one of the people that was traveling with us and went, 'She's talking about Michael Moore, and this is a place for entertainment, not politics'."
   Ronstadt's comments, as well as some audience members and the hotel reactions, became a topic of discussion nationwide, as Timmons and Michael Moore all 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. The Aladdin Incident made the editorial section of the New York Times.
   Following the incident, many friends of Ronstadt's, including The Eagles, immediately cancelled their engagement at the Aladdin.
   As Peter Asher noted, "Linda is an extremely determined woman, in every area".

Career biography

At 14, Ronstadt formed a folk trio with 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 around coffeehouses, fraternity houses, and small joints and supposedly had a 45 single pressed with two of their songs which they sold at their gigs. 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 in 1964, at 17, she decided to move on to Los Angeles.

The Stone Poneys

While Ronstadt was a student at Arizona State University, she met guitarist Bob Kimmel. Together they moved to Los Angeles. In 1964, guitarist-songwriter Kenny Edwards joined the pair, co-writing several folk-rock songs with Kimmel. They recorded "So Fine" for Curb Records. The record company wanted them to change the group's name to "The Signets" and sing surf music, which the trio chose not to do. The Stone Poneys were discovered and signed with Nik Venet and Capitol Records, recording their first album in 1966, The Stone Poneys (released in January 1967). Ronstadt was the lead singer, although she performed only a handful of solos on the album. They became a leading attraction on California's folk circuit, and also acted as a supporting act for The Doors on tour. "The Lizard King" didn't endear himself to Ronstadt who remarked, "We thought they were a good band, but we didn't like the singer".
   A second album followed in June 1967, Evergreen, Volume 2. The album cover is notable for showing all three Stone Poney members clearly (the two male bandmembers were in the background on the first album cover). Evergreen was significant for the group's hit single "Different Drum", which reached #13 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was written by Monkees member Michael Nesmith, along with notable songs, "Back on the Street Again" (Steve Gillette) and "One for One" (Al Silverman and Austin DeLone).
   The beginning of the end for the Stone Poneys occurred when their then-manager announced at The Troubadour one night, Well, I can get your chick singer recorded, but I don't know about the rest of the group. Capitol Records released The Stone Poneys in January 1968, although Kenny Edwards recorded and toured with Ronstadt for many years thereafter.
   A third album with only a photograph of Ronstadt on the cover, Linda Ronstadt, Stone Poneys and Friends, Vol. III – consisting mostly of outtakes and other unreleased material – was issued in April 1968 and included the single "Up To My Neck In High Muddy Water". The album stalled at No. 93, but at that stage the group had already disbanded, and Ronstadt went solo.

Solo career

Still contractually obligated to Capitol Records, Ronstadt released her first solo album, Hand Sown ... Home Grown in 1969, considered the first alternative country record by a female recording artist.
   Ronstadt also vocalized in some commercials. A notable one was the famous late 1960s commercial for Remington electric razors, with a multi-tracked Ronstadt and Frank Zappa saying that the electric razor "cleans you, thrills you... may even keep you from getting busted".
   Ronstadt released her second solo album titled Silk Purse in March 1970. It was the only one of her studio discs that was recorded entirely in Nashville. She hired Elliot Mazer to produce the album. He had been recommended by her friend Janis Joplin, who had worked with him on her Cheap Thrills album. The Silk Purse album cover was the first to establish a trend in many other Ronstadt album covers - bold, colorful and memorable. It showed Ronstadt in a muddy pig pen, with the back and inside cover showed Ronstadt in bold red, on stage. Ronstadt has stated that she wasn't pleased with this album although it provided her with her first solo hit, the multi-format single, "Long Long Time". Also Silk Purse is notable for earning Ronstadt a Grammy Award nomination for Best Contemporary Vocal Performance - Female, the first of her 27 Grammy nominations.
   Ronstadt began incorporating new sounds into her stage gigs, with the help of various backing bands. However, she noted in a 1969 interview for Fusion Magazine, that it was difficult being a single chick singer with a decidedly all-male backup band. According to her, it was difficult for a single woman to get a band of backing musicians because of their ego problem of being labeled a sideman for a female singer. For example, the guitar player would hurry to the microphone and say "thank you" before she could even get to the mic after their set. Or she'd find that musicians felt their masculinity was threatened being sidemen to a girl 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 incorporating cajun and swamp-rock elements into their music. Its members included cajun fiddler Gib Guilbeau and John Beland, before either of them joined The Flying Burrito Brothers, Stan Pratt, Thad Maxwell and Eric White, brother ofClarence White of The Byrds. Swampwater went on to back Ronstadt on TV in the The Johnny Cash Show, The Mike Douglas Show and The Big Sur Folk Festival. Another backing band featured players Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Bernie Leadon and Randy Meisner who later formed The Eagles, who became one of the best-selling American group ever in the US. Their relationship continued through the late 1980s. Asher went on to produce numerous other artists and win two Grammy Awards for Producer of the Year. He later remarked that Linda Ronstadt remains his "favorite female singer of all time. Her voice is just astounding and ... (with) very clear ideas herself about what she (wants) to do, but also she could just sing the shit out of anything".
   Ronstadt released her fourth solo album in 1973, Don't Cry Now, the first of her studio releases for Asylum Records. The album covers continued her theme of bold, colorful and memorable. It featured her first 'Country' hit with the 1950s song, "Silver Threads and Golden Needles," which she'd first recorded on her 1969 Hand Sewn... Home Grown album, which this time hit the Top 20.
   In 1973, Ronstadt toured as the opening act for Neil Young's Time Fades Away tour. This tour was significant in that she was introduced to Emmylou Harris. Backstage at a concert in Texas, Chris Hillman put the newcomer Harris together with Ronstadt, telling them, "You two could be good friends".
   In the 1974 book Rock'n'Roll Woman, author Katherine Orloff interviewed Ronstadt stating, "her 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. She, along with other notable musicians such as The Flying Burrito Brothers, Emmylou Harris, Gram Parsons, Swampwater, Neil Young, and The Eagles, 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 n roll. Author Gerri Hirshey explains in her book We Gotta Get Out of This Place: The True, Tough Story of Women in Rock, Linda Ronstadt became the first "arena-class rock diva", with "hugely anticipated tours", By the end of the 1970s, Cashbox gave Ronstadt a Special Decade Award, as the top female pop singer of the decade. By the end of the decade, Redbook defined her as, "the most successful female rock star in the world... (who) has survived in the mostly male world of rock".
   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). Ronstadt also got a knack for picking good songs, finding obscure songs, and shining a light on up and coming songwriters. In many instances, her own interpretions 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 artist. This skill would eventually serve her later in her career, as a noted master song interpreter. Rolling Stone Magazine stated, that considering Ronstadt's mass appeal and mass audience, a whole generation "but for her, might never have heard the work of Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, or Elvis Costello ." Heart Like a Wheels first single release was "You're No Good," - a rootsy rockified version of a song written by Clint Ballard, Jr. - 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 for Best Country Vocal Performance/Female for "I Can't Help It (If I'm Still In Love With You)" - a Hank Williams cover - which had peaked 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. 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. Eventually, Ronstadt's rock n roll image became just as famous as her music in 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 notable and 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, and stated that this image was not her because she didn't sit like that. The Time magazine cover didn't 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." 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" She had a third No. 1 album on the Billboard Album Chart, with Living In The USA - a Chuck Berry song - and a major hit single with Smokey Robinson and The Miracles' "Ooh Baby Baby", which hit all four major singles charts (Pop, AC, Country and R&B). Another notable song is Warren Zevon's, "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). 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
   As Rolling Stone magazine dubbed her "Rock's Venus", US Magazine reported in 1978, that Linda Ronstadt, Stevie Nicks, Carly Simon and Joni Mitchell had become "The Queens of Rock" 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 hasn't 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's clear that she's prepared to scale whatever soprano peaks stand in her way".
   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. The album is notable as it's her only album from 1975 (Heart Like A Wheel) to 1990 (Cry Like A Rainstorm, Howl Like The Wind) that wasn't offically 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 notable Jimmy Webb song "Easy For You To Say" which was a Top 10 AC hit. 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 notable and famous concert being 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 this stage of her career, Linda Ronstadt was reportedly worth over $40 million (equivalent to $81,000,000 today), mostly from successful rock n roll records and concerts.
   Ronstadt eventually became tired of playing arenas.
What's New
In 1983, a then 37-year old Ronstadt embarked on an unorthodox and original approach in rehabilitating the Great American Songbook when she recorded the first of what would be a trilogy of highly successful traditional pop albums alongside, the then 62-year-old grand master of pop orchestration, conductor Nelson Riddle: What's New (1983); Lush Life (1985); and For Sentimental Reasons (1986). The three have a combined sales of over 8 million copies sold in the U.S. alone.
   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 skit, 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. Louis-Dreyfus sang things like "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 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. Nonetheless, Ronstadt remained determined to record with Riddle, despite an ill-fated attempt in 1981 to create an album of Jazz standards with famed producer Jerry Wexler. The project titled "Keeping Out Of Mischief" was never released because of Ronstadt's disappointment with the final product, although ten tracks were recorded and the album cover was finalized. Ronstadt went on to call them her most "expensive rehearsal sessions". What's New was released in September of 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 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. What's New is notable for being the first album by a rock singer to have major commercial success in rehabilitating the Great American Songbook.
The Trio recordings
In 1978, Ronstadt, with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris, began recording a Trio album. The attempt wasn't successful. Ronstadt later remarked that not too many people were focused at the time and everyone was too involved with their own careers. This concept album was put on the back burner for almost ten years.
   In 1987, the three eventually did make their way into the recording studio and released the album Trio, which they first had conceived of ten years earlier. 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 two million 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 1999, Ronstadt reunited with Parton and Harris for the Trio 2 album, the long-anticipated follow up to their 1987 Trio album. It included "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.
Canciones - songs of her family
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'd learned, transcribed and published were some of the ones he'd brought with him from Sonora. Ronstadt researched and extracted from the favorites she'd 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's a fairly good command of the Spanish language, allowing her to sing Latin American songs without any accent; Ronstadt has often identified herself as Mexican-American. Her formative years were spent with her father's side of the family. 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
   Ronstadt continues to be original and explore different manners in which to introduce classic music, in a new and unorthodox fashion. For example, in 1996, 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 Album for Children.
   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.
A return to roots music
One of the world's leading magazines for commercial and project studio recording, MIX Magazine, stated that "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. 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. 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 saw the release of Dedicated To The One I Love, an ethereal disc of children's lullabies which earned Ronstadt her ninth Grammy Award. 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 cover is notable for its 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 notable rock producer, Glyn Johns. The album is notable for being one of Ronstadt's few albums to not hit the Top 100 on the Billboard album chart. We Ran also didn't 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 Lucious 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.
   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 notable for having different covers, one showing artistic farm art and the other prominently showing Ronstadt and Savoy (international cover) - primarily in Australia and Japan. 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. On the heels of Adieu False Heart''s critical success, commencing 2007, Ronstadt has been in the studio with Ann Savoy recording a follow-up album.
   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."
Career achievements

At the end of 2007, Ronstadt's albums had earned her three No. 1 albums, 10 Top 10 pop albums and 27 Top 100 pop albums on the Billboard 200. On the Billboard's Country Album chart, she'd four No. 1 albums.
Also at the end of 2007, 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 Country Single chart, two No. 1 hits and on Billboard's Adult Contemporary charts she'd recorded 37 Top 40 hits.
She has recorded over 30 studio albums and has made guest appearances on over 100 other albums. Some notable 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 Simpsons: The Yellow Album. Ronstadt has also recorded on albums with artists as diverse as: Emmylou Harris,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,and Aaron Neville.
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, 14 Platinum and 8 Multi-Platinum albums. as well as 3 Gold and even 1 Platinum single release. In all, Ronstadt has been certified by the RIAA for sales in excess of 30 million albums sold in the U.S. alone, as of 2001.
She was the first female in music history to score four consecutive platinum albums and ultimately racked up a total of eight consecutive platinum albums.
Her album Living In The USA is notable for being the first album by any singer in U.S. music history, to ship double platinum (over 2 million advanced copies).
At the time of its release, Canciones de mi Padre became the best-selling non-English-language album in U.S. music history.
Ronstadt has served as record producer on various albums from musicians 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 "Winter Light" covered by Sarah Brightman, and "Try Me Again" covered by Trisha Yearwood.
Ronstadt's songwriting choices have come from artists as notable as: 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, and has rerecorded popular songs written and performed by artists such as 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.
According to Joe Smith, former CEO of Warner & Elektra Records, Ronstadt's has sold more than 100 millions records (combination of singles and albums) worldwide with Ron Goldstein, President and CEO of the Verve Music Group, stating that Ronstadt's worldwide Album sales at well over 60 million
"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.

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 Mexican-American Album, Mas Canciones
1992 - Best Tropical Latin Album, Frenesi
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 isn't 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
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
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

Further Information
Get more info on 'Linda Ronstadt'.

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