Those of you who read these posts or know me personally are aware that I have a decent-sized vinyl record collection that I cherish. I’ve never been somebody who seeks out rare or valuable records for their collectability or investment value. To me, that’s just not the point. My favorite record buying experience has always been to walk into my local store and choose old or new LPs on a whim, picking titles that I want to add based on a desire to have the physical object available for the type of deep listening session firing up my turntable provides. I’ve also never been a completist, driven to collect all of the recordings by a favorite artist just to say I have them. The one slight exception to that rule is Linda’s early, pre-Heart Like a Wheel albums. I always check her bin in every store I visit to see if there’s one hanging out that wasn’t there before. Of the four studio albums and two compilations from that era I’ve managed to find five, only her first Capitol album Hand Sown…Home Grown has eluded me, but continuing the hunt is a big part of the fun of my version of record collecting.
Linda’s voice hooked me back in my teens. She took quite a bit of flak from critics and music writers, even as she was dominating the charts in the 70s, because she didn’t write her own songs during the golden age of the California-based singer / songwriter, but I didn’t care. There was something about her unique combination of emotional delicacy and pin-your-ears-back power that made her records stand up to dozens of plays for me. I didn’t think there was another interpretive singer in her league back then, and I still believe that today. In all honesty, her looks didn’t hurt either, I thought she was the most beautiful female pop artist of the 70s (sorry, Stevie). I learned a lot about her history and recordings from buying magazines with articles, interviews and, of course, photos.
Linda’s career is divided into a few interesting segments that swerve in and out of the commercial lanes. After leaving the Stone Poneys in 1969, the band that lured her to L.A. from the University of Arizona, but before becoming an international pop star, she recorded those four excellent albums I'm searching for between 1969 and 1973 – three for Capitol, one for Asylum – that few people heard. Seven huge multi-million selling albums followed, beginning with Heart Like a Wheel, making her a constant presence at the top of the sales charts until she took some creative detours starting in the early 80s. Three albums of American Songbook pop standards with Nelson Riddle’s orchestra, a couple of Trio albums with Dolly and Emmylou, and three Spanish language albums, to be specific. That none of those stylistic diversions made my top ten list doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy them, just that I slightly prefer her more straightforward pop records. Linda returned to the contemporary pop format of her earlier hits in 1993 and made some of the best records of her career, although far fewer people were listening after her decade of traveling on the less commercial side of the road. She still couldn’t resist the occasional left turn, though, 1996’s Dedicated to the One I Love was a set of pop songs reinterpreted as children’s lullabies, curiously including Queen’s “We Will Rock You.” Despite the wide variety of inspirations Linda followed over her long and impressive career, I found it pretty easy to pull out and rank my ten favorites.
The Linda Ronstadt Discography – 45 total releases. 21 English language albums, 4 Spanish language albums, 1 live album, 5 duet or trio albums, and 14 hits compilations.
01 Heart Like A Wheel (1974) - The album that took her from promising singer with good reviews, bubbling just under the Billboard Top 40, to international recording star. “You’re No Good” blasted out of every radio station, topping both the pop and country charts. Linda and Peter Asher (formerly of Peter & Gordon pop fame) put their creative heads together and finally nailed the ideal balance between pop, country, and rock that had proved elusive on her previous attempts. Nearly three dozen musicians and backup singers worked on HLAW, but Asher somehow managed to sculpt the arrangements to sound simple and organic, with Linda’s voice leaping out of the mix like a church bell on a clear Sunday morning. From the robust energy of the hit single and her definitive cover of Lowell George’s “Willin’” to the heartbreak of “Faithless Love” (Linda hits a note at the end of this one that still amazes me), to the delicate beauty of the title song, HLAW is as flawless as pop records get.
EARWORM: "Willin'" - It didn't hurt Little Feat's career to have Linda cover one of Lowell George's best songs so perfectly on a smash hit album.
02 Don’t Cry Now (1973) - Really close to stardom, and several steps closer to the sound that would take her to the top. After her previous solo albums on Capitol failed to launch, David Geffen lured Linda to his brand new Asylum Records label, promising her access to the best L.A. musicians and studios, as well as the full attention of his promotions team. Peter Asher made his first appearance as her producer on Don’t Cry Now, although he only worked on a few of the songs (their first true collaboration, Heart Like A Wheel would be next). The sessions became a bit rocky, mainly due to a power struggle between Linda’s new romantic partner J.D. Souther and a couple of outside producers, including Asher. The album was eventually finished and Geffen nearly kept his promise, Don’t Cry Now got to #45 on the Billboard charts, much higher than any of her previous records. Despite his feathers getting ruffled, Souther contributed three outstanding original songs, including the wonderful title track. Her version of “Love Has No Pride” charted as a single and remained a concert staple for her whole career, as did “Silver Threads and Golden Needles.” For me, there’s a trio of songs on DCN that elevate it to such a high spot on this list. Her breathtaking cover of her Eagles pals’ “Desperado,” the sweeping, powerful title song, and her fearless take on Randy Newman’s notoriously un-PC “Sail Away” - three of Linda’s finest recorded moments.
EARWORM: "Don't Cry Now" - J.D. Souther's widescreen ballad was right in his girlfriend's wheelhouse.
03 Adieu False Heart (2006) - Nobody knew at the time of its release that this would be Linda’s last album. Her fans could be forgiven for thinking Adieu False Heart was going to be another of her genre exercises when it was announced that Ann Savoy, lead singer for the Savoy Doucet Cajun band would get co-billing. The two had met while contributing vocals to a Cajun music tribute album and discovered that Linda’s soprano and Ann’s alto combined to magical effect. The resulting album has some slight touches of Cajun and zydeco around the edges; an accordion here, a fiddle there, a few songs in French; but AFH is primarily Linda’s most pure folk record and her singing is astonishing. Dropping all traces of the full-throated raw power that played such a crucial role on her more pop-oriented albums, she interprets these mostly quiet songs with precision and a beautiful feel for melody. Ms. Savoy isn’t given any lead vocals on the album, AFH is a Linda Ronstadt record first and foremost, but their harmonizing throughout is a wonder. The song lineup is an eclectic mix of traditional folk and cajun, two fantastic Richard Thompson songs, and The Left Banke’s eternal “Walk Away Renee.” Even though AFH doesn’t sound much like the records that made her famous, it’s a beautiful, rich, and satisfying album. It's a shame it escaped the notice of most of her fans.
EARWORM: “King of Bohemia” - A great Richard Thompson song, done beautifully as a duet.
04 Prisoner in Disguise (1975) – Linda struggled for a few years trying to find her sound after the Stone Poneys dissolved, and then Heart Like a Wheel exploded and she became an overnight global superstar. What to record next? For most of my adult life, I would have put Prisoner in Disguise at number two on a list like this, I love it almost as much as HLAW, but a couple of latter-day discoveries have bumped it down just a bit. It wasn’t quite as big a commercial tsunami as the previous record, although it was another million-seller. The tone of Prisoner is warmer, but more subtle and introverted, a difference I see reflected in the two album covers. HLAW had Linda’s face close up, front and center, ready to take on the world. Prisoner showed her in the distance, sitting by herself on the floor of a photo studio. Although Prisoner’s singles did well, especially her cover of Smokey Robinson’s “Tracks of my Tears,” none of them swept the landscape quite like “You’re No Good.” Instead of opening the record with another chart-dominating blockbuster, Prisoner opens with the banjo-led “Love is a Rose,” one of Neil Young’s quirkier ballads. Every track that follows is of a piece with the album’s overall introspective feel. Linda offers up the definitive version of James Taylor’s “Hey Mister, That’s Me Up on the Jukebox,” taps Little Feat’s Lowell George for another gem, “Roll Um Easy,” and sings beautiful harmonies with Maria Muldaur on “You Tell Me That I’m Falling Down” and Emmylou Harris on “The Sweetest Gift.” For me, the two transcendent moments on the record have always been the emotionally powerful cover of Jimmy Cliff’s seminal “Many Rivers to Cross” and the lovely title song, an original contributed by no-longer-boyfriend J.D. Souther, who sings it with her. Maybe, after going from semi-obscurity to world famous pop star almost overnight, Linda felt the need to step back a little and reflect. Prisoner in Disguise is noticeably less assertive than HLAW, but no less compelling.
EARWORM: “Many Rivers to Cross” - Well before reggae music gained a foothold outside of Jamaica, Linda recorded a powerhouse version of one of the first songs to make a commercial dent off-island.
05 Simple Dreams (1977) - The album that finally knocked Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours off the top of the charts in 1977, Simple Dreams was the biggest selling album of Linda’s career. The singles were huge – “Blue Bayou” and “It’s So Easy” were in the Billboard Top 5 at the same time - the first time that had happened since The Beatles’ heyday. Her version of Dolly’s “I Never Will Marry” landed in the Top 10 of the country music charts for good measure. As far as records by a female artist go, only Carole King’s Tapestry has moved more units than Simple Dreams. She was still a great champion of her friend Warren Zevon at this point, including “Carmelita” and “Poor Poor Pitiful Me” on the record, essentially financing his fledgling career. Simple Dreams is a large-scale, immaculate pop record, not unlike the record she knocked out of the #1 spot. What it may lack in some of the intimacy of her earlier records, it makes up for with powerhouse song choices and the level of complete mastery Linda had reached with her vocals. She definitely knew what the world wanted to hear from her at this point, and delivered beyond expectations.
EARWORM: “Tumbling Dice” – Linda’s decision to record the Stones’ classic reportedly sprang from a backstage conversation with Sir Mick, who told her she recorded too many ballads. Challenge accepted.
06 Different Drum (1974) - A patchwork product put out by Capitol during Linda’s label-hopping period. She started her career with the Stone Poneys on Capitol Records, recorded three albums for the label as a solo act, jumped to Asylum for Don’t Cry Now, then came back to Capitol for Heart Like a Wheel. After she had recorded the star-making HLAW, but before Capitol had a chance to release it, she let them know that she was returning to Asylum, where she stayed for most of the rest of her long and prosperous career. Clear as mud, right? Wanting to release something before Linda jumped ship (again), Capitol put together Different Drum, a compilation that’s half Stone Poneys songs and half early solo Linda. Just rack-filling product that the artist had no say in, but what a delightful compilation it is. That awkward period where Linda was trying to find her voice and vision as a solo performer is expertly mined for the best tracks from records nobody heard, combined with the cream of the three Stone Poneys LPs, and makes for a compelling and highly entertaining listen. The collection opens with “Different Drum,” a Michael Nesmith song that the Poneys took to #13 on the Billboard chart and gave Linda her first peek at stardom. It then jumps to her terrific cover of her pal Jackson Browne’s “Rock Me on the Water” from 1972’s Linda Ronstadt album. I don’t know how much consideration Capitol execs gave to this project, but there’s a great advantage to the record not being sequenced chronologically, the juxtapositions feel natural and a little surprising. A fine example of a greatest hits album that plays like a planned release, and one I return to often.
EARWORM: “Different Drum” – If you’re of a certain age you may not realize that you know this song, but once you hear it again you’ll remember. It was an inescapable radio hit in its day.
07 Winter Light (1993) - With the exception of Adieu False Heart, Winter Light just might be the most underrated album in Linda’s entire catalog. By 1993 when it came out, she had gone through her Great American Songbook / Nelson Riddle phase and her Spanish-language phase, both of which lopped a few sizeable branches from her commercial tree. Her audience was far smaller than it was at the height of her pop success when she holed up at Skywalker Ranch to record Winter Light with co-producer George Massenburg, making it her first record without Peter Asher behind the board since Don’t Cry Now, two decades earlier. The production traded in the lush, warm, occasionally country-adjacent sound of her biggest albums for a decidedly cooler approach, with layers of synths going toe-to-toe with traditional instruments. Winter Light didn’t quite break the quarter of a million mark in sales, and eventually became Linda’s first Asylum title to be taken out of print entirely in 2008.
But giving it a fresh listen today, there’s no escaping the fact that the track lineup is simply one great song after another, sung beautifully, albeit over a more austere backdrop than we’re used to on a Linda Ronstadt record, more Enya than Little Feat. There’s possibly an homage to classic 60s female singers on the album, “Anyone Who Had a Heart,” “Oh No, Not My Baby,” and “I Just Don’t Know What to Do with Myself” were significant songs in Dusty Springfield’s catalog. But the opener returns to Canada’s brilliant McGarrigle sisters (authors of “Heart Like a Wheel”) and one of my favorites in their brilliant catalog, “Heartbeats Accelerating.” A lovely version of Brian Wilson’s Beach Boys stunner “Don’t Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)” from Pet Sounds, and Jimmy Webb’s overlooked “You Can’t Treat the Wrong Man Right” are a couple more highlights on an album full of them. If you’re a fan of Linda (and have read this far) but you’ve never heard Winter Light, I’d recommend giving it a stream asap.
EARWORM: "You Can't Treat the Wrong Man Right" - The first song I heard from the album, and the one that made me check out the rest.
08 Linda Ronstadt (1971) - The most fully realized of Linda’s first three Capitol albums, when the label was really pushing for a country image and sound for her. She used her current touring band in the studio, a group of musicians who were about to get their own act together and start a little combo the world would soon come to know as The Eagles.
It was well known, even back then, that Linda chose her own material to record, she resisted all attempts by her record label and management to feed her songs they felt would be commercial enough for singles and radio airplay. She used her early albums to promote the songs of her songwriter friends, a practice that’s maybe most obvious on this record. Linda Ronstadt opens with Jackson Browne’s “Rock Me on the Water,” and adds unknown tracks by Eric Kaz, Livingston Taylor, Neil Young, and Eric Andersen. Her idea was to record songs she loved and if she happened to have a hit record she could boost the careers of her fellow struggling artists at the same time, a plan that worked much better with Warren Zevon later on when she had more industry clout. The album is still a little rough around the edges, her overall sound is inching toward the pop production that would catch fire with the public, but there’s still quite a bit of country / folk influence hanging around. There’s nothing wrong with the production other than it being a bit flat and one-note, lacking the depth Peter Asher would bring later. That being said, the sound does work for staying out of Linda’s way and letting her do her thing. And that’s the main attraction of Linda Ronstadt, her thing is becoming much, much better. The leap forward in the vocal performances from her first two solo albums is what sets this album above them and makes it a great listen. The Linda Ronstadt the world came to know and embrace really starts to emerge here. A fascinating and important transitional record for her, even if it didn't sell worth a damn.
EARWORM: “Birds” - An early Neil Young track, Linda recorded several of his songs over the years and they became lifelong friends.
09 Live in Hollywood (2019) - Linda wasn’t a fan of live records and resisted releasing one until 2019, long after she had stopped recording and performing. According to interviews, she saw herself as an old-school singer in the tradition of Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra, not a flashy performer on stage, so she thought her music was best represented by her studio output. Live in Hollywood was recorded for an HBO special in 1980 but the master tapes were lost for a few decades after it was aired.
When the show was recorded, Linda was on tour for her Mad Love album, one of the most divisive albums among her fans because of its edgier, new wave sound, more in tune with what was happening on the charts at the time rather than her classic sound. Mad Love included three songs by the up and coming Elvis Costello and three more by L.A. new wave power pop band, The Cretones. It still sold well, but for the ensuing tour Linda and the band skipped nearly all of the new material. They focused on a “greatest hits” type of setlist, giving fans a guided tour of her chart-topping albums, and that’s what you get on Live in Hollywood. I’m inclined to agree with the artist, I think Linda’s work in the controlled environment of the studio is her legacy and greatest achievement, but hearing her stand unadorned in front of an audience with her clarion call voice is its own kind of rush, and one I definitely enjoy revisiting from time to time.
EARWORM: “Blue Bayou” – The Roy Orbison classic that slayed in concert, too.
10 Feels Like Home (1995) - After Winter Light’s rather chilly sound and commercial reception, Linda went back to her roots and made this warmer sounding, more traditional pop record. She chose one of her finest latter-day lineup of songs, leading off with Tom Petty’s sublime “The Waiting” and moving on through “After the Gold Rush” and solid contributions from Matraca Berg, Randy Newman, and David Olney. She could easily afford an all-star lineup of studio musicians, and tapped Booker T. Jones, Dave Grisman, Alison Krauss, her cousin David Lindley, and Emmylou Harris, among many other A-listers, to pitch in. Linda is in exceptional voice throughout, but Feels Like Home lacks a bit of the sizzle and surprise of her chart-busting string of records. To my ears, it's missing the dynamics and complexity of Peter Asher's production. It’s a fine, enjoyable listen anytime I throw it on, and edges out a lot of her other albums to take the last spot on this list, but Feels Like Home breaks no new ground and surpasses none of the earlier records it brings to mind. Five of the album’s songs saw new life and greater popularity when they were re-recorded for Linda, Emmylou, and Dolly’s second Trio album four years later.
EARWORM: “The Blue Train” – The first single released from the album, with lovely accompaniment from Dolly Parton. A fine example of post-superstar Linda settling in to do what she does best.
If by some chance you haven't heard and wonder whatever happened to her, Linda was forced to retire from recording and performing in 2011, shortly before she received a diagnosis of Parkinson's disease. Her doctors revised their diagnosis a few years later to progressive supranuclear palsy, but the effect on her life and career is the same. In one of her rare recent interviews she explained she has no trouble remembering her vast catalog of songs, but her brain has lost the ability to control the muscles that would allow her to sing them.
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