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: Excellent Highlight
Hit: 5 Stars
This cd is a wonderful introduction to Linda's music, but I feel her work deserves the same two disc attention as her Warner label mates Fleetwood Mac and Carly Simon. All three acts have released three and four cd cd boxed sets and although Linda's boxed set is the most recent of the three, her recorded history also deserves a two-disc hits anthology. Linda's boxed set focused on album tracks and was really done for the fans, hence the absence of a number of hit songs. This greatest hits package should have been a completer set to the box and she's had enough hits to fill a second disc. Let's hope Warner does the same for Linda as they've done for Rod Stewart, and release a hits part two.Free Music Review: Great Intro to a Great Songstress
Hit: 4 Stars
As the French might say, "Quelle Chanteuse!" What a voice. "The Very Best of Linda Ronstadt" is a title that is at once both very specific and very appropriate. This isn't the Best of Linda Ronstadt, it's the Very Best. This collection is like the tip of an iceberg: a crop of singular, outstanding songs isolated from the great body of her work, which remains concealed, as it were, below the waterline. Nowhere to be found are her forays into Puccini or Gilbert and Sullivan, her recordings of Mexican folk-songs ("Canciones de Mi Padre") or her country-and-western collaboration with Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton. Nevertheless, there's a comprehensive selection of her pop and rock hits, primarily from the late 70's and early 80's, along with her later, Grammy-winning collaborations with James Ingram and Aaron Neville. "The Very Best of Linda Ronstadt" is a great introduction to a great artist and her fantastic vocal powers.Free Music Review: Linda Ronstadt - beginners start here!
Hit: 5 Stars
I've always been a Linda Ronstadt fan, well over 30 years now and this CD is a great way to get into some of her mainstream music. All the standards are there such as Heatwave, You're no good, Different Drum and later songs such as Winter Light and Don't know Much. She does a great version of Tracks of my Tears and Hurt So Bad is a great rock number. Buy this and you have a good idea of what her voice can do and you won't be disappointed! If you want more of her try such albums as Heart Like Wheel, Hasten Down the Wind and some of her more diverse offerings such as For Sentimental Reasons, Cancione de mi Padre and Frenesi.
This is a must buy for those of you who would like a talented and gorgeous female vocalist in your collection.
Free Music Review: Great Music, but...
Hit: 5 Stars
The music on the CD is classic. I'm rating it on the music alone, and it's easily a five-star CD using only that criteria. Ronstadt's voice is wonderful, the songs are catchy and artful, and the big hits are all here. Unfortunately, all the big hits are here, that's it. Granted, it is "The Very Best of...", but a more apt name would be "The Biggest Radio Hits of..." If a Linda Ronstadt complilation is going to be reduced to a single CD, then make it a sampler of her HALF-DOZEN CAREERS. I bought the CD because of the poor sound quality of the two "Greatest Hits" albums. Ah, well, time to start saving up for the box set.
Free Music Review: An Incomplete Portrait Of The Artist
Hit: 4 Stars
Linda Ronstadt possesses a strong, beautiful voice. She has covered many musical genres in her career, but not all of them are represented in this collection. The emphasis is in on her most commercially successful period, the seventies. Her rocking version of "When Will I Be Loved" starts this compilation off on a strong note. The Buddy Holly songs "It's So Easy" and "That'll Be The Day," the Chuck Berry classic "Back In The U.S.A." and Little Anthony's "Hurt So Bad" are also full-tilt rockers. Her emotional rendition of Roy Orbison's "Blue Bayou" is breathtaking. The longing in her voice on "Long, Long Time" is heartbreaking. Her breathy version of Smokey Robinson's "Ooh Baby Baby" finds Linda at her seductive best. While her country-rock classics, "Different Drum" (with the Stone Poneys) and "Love Is A Rose" are welcome inclusions, they sound out of place among the rockers. The shortcomings with this collection could have easily been fixed. First, the songs would have benefited by being presented in chronological order. Second, the compilation should have been expanded to a double CD. This would have allowed for inclusion of the essential rockers "I Can't Let Go," "How Do I Make You" and "I Knew You When." Her three albums of standards could have been represented with such songs as "I've Got A Crush On You," "My Funny Valentine," "When I Fall In Love" and "What's New?" At the very least, "To Know Him Is To Love Him" from her Trio album with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris could have been added. Selected songs from her two Spanish language albums would have spiced things up nicely. The songs that make up "The Very Best Of Linda Ronstadt" are uniformly great, but left this listener wanting more.