Linda Ronstadt - The Very Best of Linda Ronstadt
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Free Music Notes for The Very Best of Linda Ronstadt
Free Music Review: Well-chosen disc of Linda's biggest and best
Hit: 5 Stars
Just about every major hit Linda Ronstadt has recorded is included on this excellent one-disc collection. The biggest hit missing is 1980's #10 hit "How Do I Make You" (aggravatingly, available on the British version of this disc). Many of the smashes here were already well-known in their original form, such as the Motown classics "Heat Wave," "Tracks of My Tears," "Ooh Baby Baby," and '50's rock standards "That'll Be the Day," "When Will I Be Loved," and "Back In The U.S.A." In addition to these huge chart successes are some excellent lesser hits and album tracks. "Love Is A Rose" and "Just One Look" did not do as well on the charts as, for example, "Get Closer" or her version of "Tumbling Dice," but they are clearly the superior records. Ronstadt has been both praised and vilified for her many remakes (pretty much all her Top Tens). On one hand she was the first to bring songwriters like Warren Zevon, Karla Bonoff, Kate and Anna McGarrigle to the record-buying masses. On the other hand, some of her remakes are thought to lack emotional depth. Dave Marsh, in the good version of the Rolling Stone Record Guide, called Ronstadt a "horrid interpreter of...rock and soul material, frequently missing the essence...and never cutting below the surface." Scathing, and possibly accurate regarding "Tumbling Dice" (probably why it's not included here) and "Back In The U.S.A." I would side with Linda, however, on the hypnotically-beautiful "Ooh Baby Baby" and the uptempo hits "When Will I Be Loved," "That'll Be The Day," and the #1 "You're No Good." Of course, the duets with Aaron Neville are stunning--welcome comebacks for both singers--and I have always liked both "Somewhere Out There" and James Ingram. Although the song, an omnipresent #2 pop radio staple in 1986, made most people I know very, very ill.
I hope that Warner/Elektra/Asylum(?) issues a "Best of Volume 2," as they did with Rod Stewart (here, anyway). I'd still like to see a compilation of the remaining hits, even "Tumbling Dice," on disc, as well as the Nelson Riddle I-am-too-mature-for-rock-and-so-what-if-I-gained-a-few-pounds era songs "What's New" and "I've Got A Crush On You," and the gorgeous "Heartbeats Accelerating" from "Winter Light." In addition to "Get Closer," other fine singles from Ronstadt wanting to be anthologized include "I Knew You When," "Someone To Lay Down Beside Me," "Easy For You To Say," "It Doesn't Matter Anymore," "Alison" (yep, the Elvis Costello song, from "Back in the U.S.A."), "Silver Threads and Golden Needles," and "I Can't Let Go." O.K., one more: the non-single duet with James Taylor, "I Think It's Gonna Work Out Fine" from "Get Closer."
Regardless, this is the best collection ever likely to be assembled on one CD. Even a fussy completist like me recommends it highly.
Fans may note that the British version of this album omits "Love Is a Rose" and "Adios," the latter of which features background vocals by Brian Wilson, in favor of "How Do I Make You," "Love Has No Pride," "Desperado" (the Eagles' album-rock favorite), and "After the Gold Rush," a truet with Emmylou Harris and Valerie Carter. I'm pretty sure I made up that word; remember I invented it first. Lucky Brits.
Free Music Review: Perhaps the most gifted and versatile vocalist of her generation.
Hit: 5 Stars
When you pause to consider Linda Ronstadt's entire body of work over a period of four decades it it difficult not to come to the conclusion that Linda really is one of the great singers of the past half century. She is more than capable of singing all manner of material from rock and roll to country to tunes from the Great American Songbook. In 2003 Rhino records released the outstanding single disc anthology "The Very Best of Linda Ronstadt". Just one listen to this disc should make you a huge fan.
"The Very Best of Linda Ronstadt" offers 21 tracks featuring some of Linda's biggest singles and most memorable recordings. In 1965 Linda Ronstadt moved to Los Angeles and was a founding member of the Stone Poneys. Within a relatively short period of time the group signed a recording contract with Capitol records and in 1967 had a pretty impressive Top 20 hit with a tune called "Different Drum". Linda did a terrific job singing lead on that record and Capitol decided that they had a potential star on their hands. In 1970, Linda Ronstadt would have her very first hit as a solo artist. The song "Long Long Time" remains my very favorite Ronstadt tune of all time. Here is the most poignant song about the pain of unrequited love that you will ever hear. I still get chills each and every time I hear it. Also featured in "The Very Best of Linda Ronstadt" are a couple of other hits from her days at Capitol in the early 1970's including "When Will I Be Loved" and her only #1 record "You're No Good" from 1974.
In 1975 Linda made the move to Asylum records and went to work with a new set of producers. Her first big hit for the label was a remake of the Martha and the Vandellas 1963 hit "Heat Wave". Over the next five years Linda would experience tremendous success recording new versions of old favorites such as "Blue Bayou", "It's So Easy" "That'll Be The Day" and even "Hurt So Bad" which was a Top Ten hit for her in 1980. All are included here. Linda Ronstadt's career would take an incredible turn in 1983 when she agreed to record an album of standards with the legendary bandleader Nelson Riddle and His Orchestra. The album "What's New" was a monumental success and remains one of my favorite albums ever. I was disappointed that this particular collection does not include any tunes from this album. Having said that I was quite pleased to see that Rhino saw fit to include a pair of outstanding Top Ten hits that Linda had in the late 1980's. Both "Somewhere Out There" recorded with James Ingram and "All of Me", a duet with Aaron Neville, made it all the way to #2 on the Billboard Hot 100.
In my humble opinion, the "Very Best of Linda Ronstadt" is easily the best compilation of her hits ever assembled. I remain a huge fan and have purchased a number of her albums over the years. If you do not own any one her albums then this would be a great place to start. Very highly recommended!
Free Music Review: FAITHLESS LOVE
Hit: 5 Stars
I was a big Linda Ronstadt fan in high school alhtough I only owned HEART LIKE A WHEEL. When I was 17 and a senior in high school, I photographed her portrait on the cover of the record in black and white and taped it to the inside of my locker door, pretending that ol' Linda was my girlfriend!
When I gained weight after the Army in 1980 and needed to lose weight, I took up jogging and it seemed that about evey night that I went out the adult contemporary radio station would play this phantom song that moved me deeply-SOMEONE TO LAY DOWN BESIDE ME. I had searched the record stores like crazy to figure out what the name of that song was that got to me so much. I found SOMEONE TO LAY DOWN BESIDE ME on her greatest hits album. It seemed to say to me that although I will never find the perfectly comptable mate, it seemed to me that what you get in life is someone to ;ay down beside you at night! I could understand this well!
Lately, when I bought a new table top stereo CD, I would put this soft romantic album on continual play and let ol' Linda sing me to sleep at night> I guess I was feeling pretty lonely at the time! My mom had to come into the room and turn off the stereo because this thing played on and on all night snd it drove my poor mom nuts! (I can also have a sense of humor when the neighbors don't annoy me!) Linda had a nice sweet romantic voice.
I was touched by HEART LIKE A WHEEL-"its only love that can take a human heart and turn it inside out!". And since my divorce, I have done my share of finding the girl of my dreams who at one time actually in my sleep since 1984 was this pretty little bleach blonde girl. That's a phantom girl, too. You can really mess your head up talking to so many pretty girls and they all turn you down.
Then the duet she sang with Erin Neville, to me I call it I DON'T KNOW MUCH! I would also put this sweet romantic song on repeat play when I was awake.
I seem to recognize that she had a Motown influence and a country influence. I recognize a Chuck Berry song and a Smokey Robinson song "OOH OOH OOH BABY BABY-gives me dirty feelings when she sings it. And I thought I picked out a Hank Williams song-was FAITHLESS LOVE on that album? But of course there were songs used in commercials-like ITS SO EASY to sell spray cleanser. And JUST ONE LOOK to sell Japanese cars. I used to really be into music!
Free Music Review: Blue Bayou
Hit: 5 Stars
"I'm going back someday, come what may to Blue Bayou."When Linda Ronstadt sang those delicious watercolor-dripping words, it wasn't of a particular place or locale. Though one may succeed in finding a "Blue Bayou" on a map, Blue Bayou isn't any one point on the compass-it's a perpetual state of mind that lives forever in loneliness and heartbreak and the longing for something that no longer exists. It is a picture in our memories and in our hearts where happiness was and somehow still remains, something we have all felt at one time or another in our lives. The melancholy yearning for that singularly quintessential moment when we each have felt enriched by the experience of love and understanding, of family and the jubilance of being surrounded by friends, representing warmth, and of life's constancy-it all goes deeper than our consciousness-it sings to place within, that goes to our soul of souls.
Blue Bayou speaks to what our lives should be all about. It resonates our hearts making us want to be happy again, wanting so badly to change our lives and turn back the clock to a time when we felt and possessed its elusive qualities. Blue Bayou makes each of us understand the differences and difficulties of each of our days in this one life we have been blessed with. It demonstrates how once we might have let happiness slip right through our fingers at a time when we might not have been attuned to its magic, or of when it was suddenly gone, or taken away. Blue Bayou, is watching the petals fall from a flower and recalling with poignant appreciation its former beauty.
Mostly, Blue Bayou is about hope and the need for having something dear to us available again. It is an inspirational overture to make things right, to turn over a new leaf and set ourselves right with the world again. Blue Bayou is that place where all these things are possible if only we can get back to it. It is about finding and understanding ourselves, whether through our own eyes are in the eyes of those who we love dearly. Blue Bayou then, is about love, and what love means to each and every one of us everyday we let in a fresh breath of air. Thank you Linda!!
"Well, I'll never be blue, my dreams come true, on Blue Bayou..."
Free Music Review: Everything Essential From Linda Ronstadt!
Hit: 5 Stars
I remember first hearing Linda Ronstadt's amazing voice come crashing out of the radio sometime in the late sixties as the lead vocalist for the folk-rock group, the Stone Ponies. Her distinctive melodic scream of a vocal style is so distinctive it is hard not to compare with Roy Orbison, whose hit song of "Blue Bayou" is covered here in Linda's own hit cover version is included in this terrific collection of her hit songs over a ten to fifteen year period, before she went for the big band and "lush" sounds of her more recent work. It is hard to not appreciate a voice so singular and versatile, even if it is most usually delivered with a fevered wail. I once saw her in a small venue in Lenox, Massachusetts in a small amphitheater setting, with the audience sprawled over an expansive lawn that gradually rose above the covered stage area. She was so good with just her guitar and small group that it is difficult to describe her in words short of superlatives such as phenomenal. All of her seminal work is included here for you casual enjoyment, from "Poor, Poor Pitiful Me" to "When Will I Be Loved", from "You're No Good" to "It's So Easy", and all the others, including "Blue Bayou", Long, Long Time", "That'll Be The Day", "Love Is A Rose", "Different Drum", "Heat Wave", and many others. This album gives us all of Linda's formidable hits, all here in a definitive and fairly comprehensive play list that anyone would want to have to ensure an accurate representation of her volumes of work, from dozens of hit albums recorded and released over more twenty years of popular work. This is an essential album for your collection, and one I have both in the house and in the car. For easy listening as I zoom down the highway. Other than the Beach Boys, on the one hand, or Jackson Browne on the other, nobody articulates the southern California folk rock style as well or as consistently as Linda Ronstadt, the little woman with the big, big voice. Enjoy!