Linda Ronstadt simply cannot be categorized, except to say that she was the finest female vocalist of the 20th century.
When Linda Ronstadt announced to her record company in 1982 that she wanted to make an album of jazz standards, her longtime manager and producer Peter Asher was taken aback, as was the owner of Asylum Records, David Geffen. Linda was the top-selling female artist of the 1970s, with several platinum albums to her credit: Heart Like A Wheel, Simple Dreams, Living In The USA and Hasten Down The Wind, all records with a rock and/or country rock flavour.
Songs such as the rock sizzler “You’re No Good”, the Buddy Holly hit “It’s So Easy”, and her cover of the Rolling Stones “Tumbling Dice”, solidified her image as a sexy rocker, while covers of Elvis Presley’s “Love Me Tender” and Hank Williams’ “I Can’t Help It If I’m Still In Love With You” showed off her country-weeper talent. However, Linda found that fronting an all-male band and being the only woman on the tour bus made for a lonely life. Her image was on several magazine covers, including Time, under the banner “Torchy Rock”.
What was often ignored in discussions of her music was her passion for great songwriting: she chose to record the song “Heart Like A Wheel” by the relatively unknown Canadian folk duo The McGarrigle sisters and made that song a monster hit. She recorded “Someone To Lay Down Beside Me” by Karla Bonoff, as well as new material by the likes of Warren Zevon, Elvis Costello and J.D. Souther.
With her incredible vocal range she delivered an unforgettable version of Smoky Robinson’s Motown classic “Ooh Baby”. She also recorded great cover versions of classics by The Everly Brothers (“When Will I Be Loved”) and Chuck Berry (“Back in the USA”) as well as “Willin” by Little Feat. Her song selection of both new and old material is unsurpassed for its variety and quality.
By 1980 she had grown very dissatisfied with being referred to as the Queen of Rock or The Rock Diva. She took the unusual step of singing a lead role in a Broadway production of The Pirates of Penzance, and found that her vocal range of several octaves, spanning from soprano to contralto, was suited to much more than folk-rock and country material. That production won a Tony award, and Linda began to consider new directions for her career.
She also wanted her audience to hear a different side of her – the music of her youth. She had experienced a multifaceted upbringing, being raised in Tucson, Arizona with a mother who loved opera, Gilbert and Sullivan and the standards of the Great American Songbook, while her German-Mexican father was steeped in mariachi music.
Still, she was told that this idea of making a jazz record would ruin her reputation. Not to mention that jazz records didn’t sell. And there was another concern: she wanted Nelson Riddle and his Orchestra to back her. Riddle was known primarily as Frank Sinatra’s arranger, and the music of Frank Sinatra was a non-starter in 1982 – had been since the late 1960s when Frank scored his last major hit with “My Way” in 1969.
Over the objections of her record company, Linda insisted that she be the one to direct her career and her choice of material. Her goal, she said, in recording material from The Great American Songbook was “to rescue little jewels of artistic expression from spending the rest of their lives riding up and down on the elevators”.
The project resulted in not one but three albums with Nelson Riddle and his Orchestra. The first was What’s New, released in 1983. The production was on a grand scale, her singing romantic, and the songs hauntingly beautiful. The record sold more than 3 million copies and made young audiences aware of the depth and exquisite musicality behind classic songs by writers such as Cole Porter, the Gershwin Brothers, Sammy Cahn and Irving Berlin. The following year saw the release of Lush Life, and 1986 brought For Sentimental Reasons. The three albums topped the jazz charts and the Adult Contemporary charts.
The late 1980s saw Linda focus on the music of her father and his Mexican heritage. Her first Latin release, the all-Spanish 1987 album Canciones De Mi Padre, is now the best-selling non-English-language album in American music history. She went on to make a follow-up album, Mas Canciones, in 1989. Both albums earned her a Grammy award.
She also issued the two Trio albums of traditional country music, in which she collaborated with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris. Her final recording in 2006 was Adieu False Heart, a duo project with Ann Savoy, which consisted mostly of Cajun and Americana material. The standout track, surprisingly, was a cover of “Walk Away Renee”, the 1966 hit record by The Left Banke, previously covered by The Four Tops. Linda and Ann delivered a slow, simmering version that defies all expectations of the emotion that pop song could possibly produce. It was a fitting farewell to her recording career.
Although not a songwriter herself, Linda was much more than a singer. She co-produced many of her own albums and worked as a major producer for artists such David Lindley, Jimmy Webb, and even the neo-classical composer Philip Glass. In her work as music producer, she became very involved in the recording process and in the acoustics complexities of sound engineering.
Mix magazine stated that “Linda Ronstadt left her mark on more than the record business; her devotion to the craft of singing influenced many audio professionals … and she is intensely knowledgeable about the mechanics of singing and the cultural contexts of every genre she passes”.
She also wrote the introduction to the book Classic Ferrington Guitars, which honoured Danny Ferrington, one of the most talented luthiers in America. Outside of her musical career, she was also very passionate about politics, as well as organizing and sponsoring cultural festivals honouring Mexican music and heritage.
Diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2013 (later rediagnosed as progressive supranuclear palsy in 2019), Linda Ronstadt no longer sings or records. Her influence on female singers, on songwriters, and on American music is inestimable.
