Linda Ronstadt is an American singer who can boast of having won no less than 11 Grammy Awards, 3 American Music Awards, 2 Academy of Country Music, 1 Emmy Award and 1 ALMA Award to date ! Singer who can also boast of having ranked no less than 38 titles in the American Billboard Hot 100 and who has also sold no less than 100 million records worldwide, just that...
Artist who started her artistic career quite early since we find her at the age of 14 in a trio she formed with her brother Peter and her sister Gretchen. Trio which will know a nice success of esteem in the surroundings of Tucson…
We find her a few years later in the 'Stone Ponies', a group she formed with a friend from Tucson Bobby Kimmel. Group which will release 3 albums between 1967 and 1968 and which will not go unnoticed, far from it, in particular thanks to the enormous title "Different drum". Title which remains to this day one of the reference titles of the singer…
Her solo career really started in 1969, when she released her first album “Hand sown…Home grown”. Album with relative success but with certain interest because considered to date as the first female album of Alternative Country.
The first real success came the following year in 1970 with the remarkable release of the album "Silk purse". Even if the album does not fully satisfy the singer, it will in any case allow her to land her first major hit with the title "Long, long time".
A growing success that did not prevent the singer from discovering that the male competition did no favors in this decade of the 70s towards young singers, often lowering them to the rank of second-class singer. Or by refusing outright to play for her…
Some still accept to support her like the 'Swampwater' or the future 'Eagles' whose group will be born shortly after. This is how we find them in 1972 on his third album, an eponymous album which will experience a little less success than its predecessor because it lacks a high-caliber Single…
Business resumed the following year with the release in 1973 of the album "Don't cry now", an album which allowed her to rise to the top of the pack in a spectacular way, notably thanks to the title "Love has no pride". A year 1973 which also sees her meet a certain… Emmylou Harris with whom she will collaborate on many occasions thereafter…
The career will suddenly get carried away from the year 1974 with the fanfare release of the album "Heart like a wheel", album which offers her for the first time a place of N°1 in the Charts Albums. And who will also give her her first Single No.1 in the Billboard Hot 100 with the enormous title "You're no good".
At the rate of one album per year, it was the turn of "Prisoner in disguise" to be released the following year in 1975, an album with less success but which came out of it in extremis thanks to the success of the title "The tracks of my tears”.
The success will spread to the whole planet from the year 1976 with the release of the album "Hasten down the wind", an album with a particularly sexy cover and whose flagship Single will be "That'll be the day ".
The beginning of consecration takes place the following year in 1977 with the release of the enormous album "Simple dreams", an album which will sell more than 3 million copies in less than a year in the United States alone, a record for a female artist ! Album carried at arm's length by 2 Singles, "Bue bayou" and "It's so easy", two titles which will allow the singer to be the first female artist to have succeeded in ranking 2 titles simultaneously in the Billboard Top10 Hot 100, just that !
The success is such at the end of the 70s that the singer is considered the highest paid female artist of the moment. Especially since the year 1978 still saw her smash everything in her path with the album "Living in the USA", an album whose flagship Single was "Back in the U.S.A.".
At the very end of the 1970s, she had already collected 8 'Gold', 6 'Platinum' and 4 'Multi-Platinum' certifications for albums, a real record for the time !
An incredible adventure that continues at the beginning of the following decade with the release of the album in 1980 of the album "Mad love". Even if this one has a lower level of success than its predecessors, it still maintains the singer at a level of success to make more than one jealous, in particular thanks to the title “Hurt so bad”…
A year 1980 which sees her on the cover of the music magazine Rolling Stone for… the 6th time, a new record to her credit !
New fact and not least, she decides to embark on the musical the same year and this is how we find her in the troupe of "The pirates of Penzance". And even in this very particular register, she will immediately succeed in establishing hemself as one of the all the best of the moment.
Back in solo from the year 1982 with the album "Get closer", an album which saw her drop in the Charts for the first time since her debut. An album that will save the furniture thanks to the high-caliber Single "I knew you when"...
The following album "What's new" which was released the following year in 1983 will put her back on the front of the stage in a spectacular way, to say the least, even if it will struggle to produce the slightest hit of very high caliber. Critics are particularly appreciative of its unexpected risk-taking and the album really surprises with its audacity, including the album cover...
The years follow each other but are not necessarily alike, the proof with its relative poor performance on the albums "Lush life" in 1984 and "For sentimental reasons" in 1986. Two albums with average success, especially the second and above all incapable of produce hits worthy of the singer…
The year 1986 will be saved in extremis thanks to her successful participation in the soundtrack of the film "An American tail", all on a title where she shares the poster with James Ingram.
It is a trio, and not the least, which will put her back in the spotlight the following year in 1987 thanks to her association for the time of the album "Trio" with Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton. A collaboration that the 3 singers had already wanted to try the previous decade but which could not see the light of day for lack of time to devote to it for the 3...
A year 1987 which also saw her release the solo album “Canciones de mi padre”, an album in which she took up titles from Mexican folklore in homage to certain family roots. An album that will not produce any major hits but will still sell more than 2 million copies, making this album the best-selling non-English-speaking album in American musical history, just that!
She will end the 80s in the best possible way with the oh so successful release of the album "Cry like a rainstorm, howl like the wind" in 1989. An album which will remain as one of her most successful thanks in particular to 2 very high caliber Singles such as "Don't know much" and "All my life", two titles where she will share the poster with Aaron Neville.
We find her again in Spanish at the start of the 1990s on the albums "Mas canciones" and "Frenesi", two albums which were released in 1991 and 1992 respectively. Two albums with average success on a par with their predecessor released in 1987…
Back in force and especially in English language on the following album "Winter light" in 1993, and who says English language, normally says guaranteed success. Which isn't really going to be the case despite rave reviews to say the least. Only the title "Hearbeats accelerating" will manage more or less to pull out of the game...
Album which will be her last major album as others will be released later, but the singer will never again find the incredible level of success she experienced in the late 70s and early 80s. That will not prevent her from remaining in the musical history of this end of the 21st century as one of the most gifted artists of her generation.
To discover or rediscover...
Discography (among others ...) :
60s Decade :
Sweet summer blue and gold 1967
Different drum 1967
Up to my neck in high muddy water 1968
Baby you've been on my mind 1969
70s Decade :
Will you love me tomorrow 1970
Long, long time 1970
(She’s a) Very lovely woman 1971
Rock me on the water 1972
Love has no pride 1973
Silver threads and golden needles 1974
Colorado 1974
I can't help it (If I'm still in love with you) 1974
You’re no good 1975
When will I be loved 1975
Heat wave 1975
Love is a rose 1975
The tracks of my tears 1975
It doesn’t matter anymore 1975
That’ll be the day 1976
Someone to lay down beside me 1976
Lose again 1977
Blue bayou 1977
It’s so easy 1977
Poor poor pitiful me 1977
Tumbling dice 1978
I never will marry 1978
Back in the U.S.A. 1978
Ooh baby baby 1978
Just one look 1979
Alison 1979
80s Decade :
How do I make you 1980
Hurt so bad 1980
I can’t let go 1980
Get closer 1982
I knew you when 1982
Easy for you to say 1983
What’s new 1983
I’ve got a crush on you 1984
Skylark 1984
When I fall in love 1985
When you wish upon a star 1986
Somewhere out there 1986
To know him is to love him 1987
Telling me lies 1987
Those memories of you 1987
Wildflowers 1988
Don’t know much 1989
All my life 1989
90s Decade :
When something is wrong with my baby 1990
Adios 1990
Dreams to dream 1991
Frenesi 1992
Perfidia 1992
Heartbeats accelerating 1993
Adonde voy 1994
Oh no not my baby 1994
Blue train 1995
Walk on 1995
Dedicated to the one I love 1996
If I should fall behind 1998
I go to pieces 1998
High sierra 1999
Feels like home 1999
2000s Decade :
The Christmas song 2000
Miss Otis regrets 2004
Tracks :
1967...the shy beginnings of a young 21-year-old girl who doesn't look like much, as they say. Who would imagine at this stage the incredible career that awaits her behind...
1967...it took very little time for her to start talking about her. Certainly, for the moment she plays it in grouped mode but it will have been enough of a title, this title, to change the situation...
1968...young Linda's career is well and truly launched and now she just has to find THE title that will be able to set her apart from the crowd. Let's give her a little more time...
1969... for the big take-off, we will have to wait a little longer. It will not take place during this decade 60 but it could be that things evolve quickly and necessarily in the right direction...
1970...the start of a decade that was to prove exceptional from all points of view for the artist. But she doesn't know it yet...
1970... it is on this fine title that the lines will seriously begin to move. A title which offers her a first major success and which is only the beginning of a long, very long series of successes precisely...
1971...the success will rise crescendo from year to year thanks to a slow but steady rise in power. The ideal scenario to avoid a too fast climb and a descent behind as a result...
1972...everything is now in place for the big take-off. All the bases are laid and the young singer only has to move up a gear to enter the big leagues...
1973...this is what will be done from this year 1973. She will enter a dimension of success that she would never have imagined and which will offer her one of the most beautiful prize lists of this end 20th century...
1974...she does as much in novelty as in cover. She revisits here the title of Wanda Jackson dating from 1956 and on this one the copy will exceed the original, it is an understatement...
1974 ... a know-how in the ballads which extends from year to year and which shows that in this field she excels, it is clear. We definitely want more !
1974...she also alternates traditional pieces with much more Country-oriented pieces. But the second category is much less profitable in terms of the level of success necessarily achieved...
1975...and here comes the big take-off ! All on a revisited version of the title of Dee Dee Warwick dating from 1963 particularly successful. So successful that it offers the young singer her first planetary mega hit. HU-GE !
1975...it's a festival of revisited versions that she offers us in this year 1975. This time she covers here the title of the Everly Brothers dating from 1960 and once again the copy will exceed the original. But how does she sublimate old titles in this way, good question...?
1975 ... this time she revisits the title of Martha And The Vandellas dating from 1963 but the copy will not be able to exceed the original on this point in terms of success in the Charts. But very little...
1975...a year 1975 which sees her reach a level that no one would have dared to suspect a few years back. Everything succeeds with disconcerting ease !
1975...the year 1975 was undeniably the year of covers and above all of successful covers. She ends the year in style with this revisited version of the Miracles title dating from 1965. What talent !
1975...come on, the year isn't quite over. There is still this very last cover, this time of the title of Buddy Holly dating from 1959. And like the previous covers, this one will also know its hour of glory...
1976...the year 1976 restarts as the year 1975 ended, that is to say in cover mode, and yes, one more. She revisits here the title still by Buddy Holly dating from 1956. On this one, the copy will not exceed the original but will come close to it...
1976...surprisingly, as soon as she does in the original title, the results in the Charts do not follow. Or at least have nothing to do with the level reached by its multiple and varied covers...
1977...this one will do even worse than its predecessor, that is to say. She will therefore have to pull herself together and quickly and what better in these cases than to cover the good old title of another...
1977...she is not going to cover just any title because she dares to cover here Roy Orbison's flagship title dating from 1963. A luxury cover that will quite simply offer her one of the biggest hits of all her career. MAS-TER-FUL !
1977... suddenly she doesn't even dare to release original titles and continues in the luxury cover. Always Buddy Holly dating from 1958 and as for her other covers, it's a hit in the Charts !
1977...it is now the turn of Warren Zevon and his title dating from the previous year to be brought up to date. The singer has become in a few years the indisputable and undisputed champion of revisited versions, that's clear !
1978...and while she's there she even allows herself to cover a Rolling Stones title dating from 1972. It's still difficult to do even stronger than the original...
1978 ... there is nothing to do, as soon as she returns to creation mode, it is a free fall in the Charts. People got so used to her covers that they don't want it anymore...
1978... so she inevitably returns there. It is the turn of Chuck Berry and his title dating from 1959 to have the favors of the artist. And who says covers necessarily says major success...
1978... now it's the Miracles and their 1965 title that will get a light dusting. Successful dusting of course !
1979...might as well end the decade in style with...a good old cover of families, the opposite would have been damn surprising. Thank you who this time ? Thank you Doris Troy and her 1963 title...
1979...a fine title that she borrows this time from Elvis Costello, who released it two years earlier. It remains to be seen whether she intends to repeat the same scenario for us or not next decade…
1980... well no ! At least for the moment with this title which is good from her and which will come out of it not so badly in the end. Like what when she wants...
1980...there's nothing to do, hunt the natural, it's coming back at a gallop. It is in its deep nature to revisit the titles of others, this time a title of Little Anthony & The Imperials dating from 1964. We will not remake her again at first sight...
1980...so to whom do we owe this title ? Well to The Hollies, titles they released in 1966. Notably, even the covers are starting to pay less...
1982... the creations even manage to equal the covers now in terms of success. We feel that something is happening on the planet Ronstadt and that the lines are starting to move...
1982... the years go by, just like the decades, and covers remain her main subject. Once again the proof with this revisited version of the title of Billy Joe Royal dating from 1965. And it works as always...
1983... so, in your opinion, cover or not cover ? Given the level of success, to say the least mixed, you necessarily know the answer...
1983... so there, we are going back to 1939 ! She revisits here the title of Bob Crosby and his orchestra and dares to venture on a musical ground at the antipodes of that which is her usual. And why not...
1984...this time it's Georges Gershwin dating from 1928 that she brings up to date. A title full of finesse and lightness far, very far, from its usual universe once again...
1984...in the same vein. Who could have imagined one day that she would come to play in this very special musical category, not many people, that's for sure...
1985...here she attacks a monument whose most famous version is that of Nat King Cole dating from 1956. In truth the original was performed by Jeri Southern in 1952 and each time, regardless of the singer or the singer, the emotion remains the same in any case...
1986...the 30s and 40s that inspire her to the highest degree at first sight. She brings up to date a Cliff Edwards title dating from 1940 and as always, it works !
1986... here she is in soundtrack mode on the film 'An american tail' with a certain James Ingram. As a male partner, there are worse as they say !
1987... "and if we sang together the girlfriends" these 3 extraordinary artists said to each other. And inevitably, given the potential of each of them, we suspected that the result would be up to par. And it definitely is !
1987... after having revisited a Teddy Bears title dating from 1958, the 3 girls are doing something new this time. A little novelty does not harm quite the contrary...
1987...here comes a track from 1978 originally performed by Bill and James Monroe. Paradoxically, it is the version of the 3 girls which will remain as the best known, as what it was worth looking into...
1988...a legendary collaboration that allowed the 3 girls to show the best of themselves. And it may well be that they do it again later...
1989...a decade of the 80s which was the perfect time to share the poster at first sight. After the 2 girlfriends, here comes the time of the 100 % glamorous duo. And why not tell me...
1989...a collaboration that will work perfectly and offer the 2 artists two huge successes. It must be said that with titles of this quality, nothing surprising !
1990...a collaboration that will even extend to the beginning of the following decade. With the key to a third major success, certainly smaller than the 2 previous ones but all the same...
1990...a 90s decade which therefore started ideally and which allowed her to maintain herself at the highest level without too many difficulties. Hope it lasts...
1991..she had already tried the soundtrack experience in 1986 and here she is again for the sequel to the film 'American tail : Fievel goes West'. A musical sequel that will bring her much less than the first...
1992...here she is now in Hispanic mode to pay a nice tribute to her family roots. It comes from a good feeling to want to revisit this Artie Shaw standard dating from the 1940s, but it will only reach a very limited audience...
1992...here she revisits a title made famous by Xavier Cugat in 1940 and as for the previous title, the impact on the general public will be very limited once again...
1993... the return to the English language will allow her to come back a little bit in the race. But it is clear that the best years are now behind...
1994...surprisingly, she tries again the experience in the Hispanic language and as before, the general public will not follow. Afterwards, it is her who leads her career as she sees fit...
1994... suddenly, the only way to save the soldier Ronstadt, a good old resumption of families. This time she revisits the title of Maxine Brown dating from 1964 but even the covers do not bring her more than that now...
1995...a complicated 90s decade to manage is clear. It is more and more difficult for the singer to exist at the highest level, all the more so when the gap with the competition is more and more important...
1995...come on, another little cover for the road. And yes, another one ! She revisits here the title of Matraca Berg dating from 1990 but the copy will not do better than the original...
1996...a nice title full of finesse that we owe to...Shirelles. A title from 1959 that she brings back to light for our greatest pleasure but which will not bring her more than that again. Times are getting tougher...
1998...an end of the decade which sees her slowly but surely disappearing from the radar, as much on the album side as on the Singles side. Hard law of the trade...
1998...we can only salute her desire to continue the adventure at all costs, but the elements become so contradictory that existing at the highest level is almost mission impossible...
1999...we find the magic trio at the end of the decade. A sequel that will not really meet the same level of success as the first opus unfortunately...
1999...and yet the 3 girls are far from unworthy, that's clear. But even in this register, which nevertheless has always succeeded for them, the public is no longer really there, that is to say...
2000...we suspected that at some point going through Christmas's album was going to become essential. It is now done...
2004 ... we will find her in this new decade 2000 but it is only a shadow of herself. Above all, she evolves in a register far, very far from the aspirations of the general public. So, tobe continued or end of the adventure ? Only her can answer it now...
Wiki :
Official Website :
Greatest Hits :
Discography :