Linda Ronstadt

The Tucson singer who moved from folk rock to country rock, pop rock, Broadway, standards and mariachi, sold over 100 million records, and made the best-selling non-English-language album in American history.

Origin
Tucson, Arizona, United States
Years active
1964-2011
Genres
folk rock, country rock, pop rock, mariachi, Great American Songbook
Labels
Capitol, Asylum, Elektra, Verve, Rhino

Tucson

Linda Maria Ronstadt was born in Tucson in 1946, the third of four children, and grew up on the family ranch. Her father's side was a pioneering Arizona ranching family of Mexican descent, founded by a great-grandfather who had emigrated from Hanover. Her father, Gilbert, ran the family machinery business and had a baritone she likened to a blend of Pedro Infante and Frank Sinatra; he serenaded her mother with Mexican songs such as La Barca de Oro. Her grandfather's band in Tucson was the one hired to serenade a sweetheart in the small hours, and her aunt, Luisa Espinel, collected regional songs in Mexico and Spain.

At fourteen she formed a folk trio with her brother Peter and sister Gretchen. After a semester at the University of Arizona she left for Los Angeles in 1964, aged eighteen.

Stone Poneys and Nashville

In Los Angeles she formed the Stone Poneys with Bobby Kimmel and Kenny Edwards. Capitol signed them in 1966, and Michael Nesmith's Different Drum reached number 13 in 1967; the band ended the following year. Her first solo album, Hand Sown ... Home Grown (1969), produced by Chip Douglas, held the first of her two studio versions of Silver Threads and Golden Needles, and it has been called the first alternative country record by a woman.

In 1969 the songwriter Gary White played her Long Long Time backstage in New York. She cut it in Nashville for Silk Purse (1970) with players from Area Code 615, and it reached number 25. For her next album, Linda Ronstadt (1971), her backing band was Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Bernie Leadon and Randy Meisner, who toured with her briefly and then formed the Eagles. "They were my backup band, and I just got out of the way," she said.

Asylum and Peter Asher

Don't Cry Now (1973), her first album for David Geffen's Asylum, took about a year, delayed by a tour with Neil Young. It was produced by JD Souther and John Boylan, and it introduced Peter Asher, who went on to produce her through the late 1980s. Its remake of Silver Threads gave her a first country chart hit.

Heart Like a Wheel (1974), owed to Capitol under contract and produced by Asher, was her first number one album, and You're No Good her number one single. A run of Asylum records followed: Prisoner in Disguise, Hasten Down the Wind, Simple Dreams (five weeks at number one), Living in the USA (the first album by any act to ship double platinum), Mad Love and Get Closer. Along the way she recorded songs by Souther, Warren Zevon, Karla Bonoff and Anna McGarrigle and widened their audience.

Broadway, standards and Mexico

From 1981 she sang in The Pirates of Penzance on Broadway, earning a Tony nomination, and in 1984 she was Mimi in La bohème at the Public Theater. Against her label's advice she made three albums of standards with the arranger Nelson Riddle, beginning with What's New (1983), and in 1987 she released Trio with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris.

Later that year came Canciones de Mi Padre, Mexican songs of the kind her family had sung, named after a 1946 booklet by her aunt and made with Rubén Fuentes and Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán. It won a Grammy, became the best-selling non-English-language album in US history, and entered the National Recording Registry in 2022. A staged version played the Minskoff Theatre on Broadway and toured in 1988, and its PBS Great Performances special, which includes La Cigarra, won her an Emmy. Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind (1989) followed, with two Grammy-winning duets with Aaron Neville, then Más Canciones, Frenesí and a second Trio.

Silence

Her last solo album, Hummin' to Myself, came in 2004 and her last collaboration, Adieu False Heart with Ann Savoy, in 2006. She gave her last concert in 2009 and announced her retirement in 2011. In 2013 she revealed that illness had left her unable to sing, the year her memoir Simple Dreams appeared; the diagnosis was later revised to progressive supranuclear palsy.

Glenn Frey inducted her into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014. She has sold over 100 million records and won eleven Grammys, and Rolling Stone placed her 47th among the greatest singers of all time. The documentary The Sound of My Voice and the Kennedy Center Honors followed in 2019, and in 2023 The Last of Us sent Long Long Time back up the charts.

Records

Songs

Eagles, Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, JD Souther

Where to go next

Official

  • Linda Ronstadt The official site, with music, videos, a Spanish-language section on the Canciones reissue, and the shop.

Reference

Discography and data

  • MusicBrainz Every release, plus live broadcasts from 1972 to 1976.
  • Discogs Releases with track-by-track liner credits.

Writing and criticism

Interviews

Live performance archives

Film and video

Fan sites and communities

  • ronstadt-linda.com Tony Partridge's unofficial site: articles from 1964 to 2020, tour books, chart tables and guest appearances.
  • Ronstadt forum A long-running fan discussion board.

Sources

  1. Linda Ronstadt, Wikipedia
  2. Stone Poneys, Wikipedia
  3. Linda Ronstadt on Fresh Air, NPR (2013)
  4. Excerpt: Simple Dreams, NPR (2013-09-16)
  5. Linda Ronstadt, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
  6. Ben Fong-Torres on Linda Ronstadt, Rolling Stone (via ronstadt-linda.com) (1975-03-27)