Silver Threads and Golden Needles

Wanda Jackson first recorded it in 1956, and the Springfields, with Dusty Springfield, took it into the American top 20 in 1962. Ronstadt cut it as a straight country song on her first solo album in 1969, then remade it as country rock for Don't Cry Now, with John Boylan co-producing. On the 1973 recording Ed Black plays steel guitar, Gib Guilbeau fiddle, Herb Pedersen acoustic guitar and harmony, and Ronstadt tambourine. Released as a single in early 1974, it reached number 67 on the Hot 100 and number 20 on the country chart, her first country hit.

It was one of her most played songs: setlist.fm logs 101 performances, from the Troubadour in September 1969 to Willie Nelson's Fourth of July Picnic in 1983. She also sang it with Emmylou Harris on Dolly Parton's television show and at Johnny Cash's concert at Tennessee State Prison. Sandy Denny covered it in 1977, and Parton, Tammy Wynette and Loretta Lynn in 1993. The upload in the hypersongs web is not Ronstadt's recording: it is a fan's short pedal-steel lesson on the song's solo, played after the 1973 record.