Day 17 of my series of Songs That Peaked at No. 11: "That'll Be the Day" was the first single off Linda Ronstadt's 1976 album, "Hasten Down the Wind," which became her third straight platinum LP -- making her the first woman to have three million-sellers in a row. The album also won the Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 1977, the second of her 13 Grammy Awards.
Her superb gender-flip cover of the Buddy Holly classic wasn't as successful as some of her other 1970s singles -- "You're No Good," "When Will I Be Loved," "Heat Wave," "Blue Bayou" and "It's So Easy" were all Top 5 or better -- but became a staple in her live shows for reasons that are evident in the video below. Thirteen years later, Ronstadt scored her second No. 11 single, "All My Life" (featuring Aaron Neville), which also happened to be the last of her 21 Top 40 hits.
Finally saw and loved the Linda Ronstadt documentary, which lived up to every bit of the hype. There were so many highlights -- all that old footage, J.D. Souther's loving memories, Nelson Riddle, and the country "9 to 5" reboot (above), to name just a few. But after spending 90 minutes watching Linda run herself into the ground (the "Different Drum" mix!), my main takeaway is this: A million bucks says she can still sing beautifully but it's just not as perfect as it was in 1977 so she insists her voice has been taken by Parkinson's (later rediagnosed as progressive supranuclear palsy)! I'm reading "Girls Like Us" right now. And while Linda is no Carole, Joni or Carly -- aka era-defining singer/songwriters -- in my mind what she has above those three and every other pop singer is the best live voice of all time.
Question: What do you consider to be Linda's signature song. Pick just one and remember it doesn't have to be your favorite. For me, it's "Blue Bayou" -- but something tells me your age will influence your answer. I was introduced via the radio and my brother Terence, the first member of our family to buy a Ronstadt album. (He also bought a Cheryl Ladd album, so I'm not entirely sure if he was a fan or just bought it for the artwork!) The song was HUGE in 1977 and has forever been the song I associate with her most.
I was devastated that I couldn't make it to singer Travis Moser's tribute to Linda Ronstadt last night at the Green Room 42. (If you're reading, please know I was there in spirit, on skates!) So to help fill the void, I finally listened to her recently released "Live in Hollywood" album in its entirety at the gym and am more convinced than ever that she is the best live vocalist of my lifetime. Case in point, below.
So when I did my post last week about divas "going New Wave" I got a smidge of pushback about my inclusion of Linda Ronstadt from a friend who pointed out she'd actually recorded an Elvis Costello song before, so the three on "Mad Love" didn't really signify a notable shift. I argued that it was a lot more than her material -- the artwork, her band and her own styling all screamed post-punk 1980 -- but just now realizing "How Do I Make You" might have been an even better pick than "Girls Talk." The reason? even Stephen Holden (formerly of Rolling Stone and now of The New York Times) noted at the time that Ronstadt "frankly imitates Deborah Harry," lead vocalist of defining New Wave act Blondie. (And songwriter Billy Steinberg admits he was influenced by "My Sharona"!) Have a listen and tell me you can't all but hear the blue bayou gal start to threatening to walk down the mall, stand over by the wall, where she can see it all, find out who you call and getcha getcha getcha getcha ...
My obsession with Linda continues on into the 1980s era. I so remember this video from the early days of MTV -- but only now as a grown man do I realize how adorable she is in it! (She was 36.) When the album became her first relative bomb, it ushered in the new phase of her career -- with three widely successful albums of standards with the Nelson Riddle Orchestra.
My Bonnie Tyler post yesterday got my friend Seth thinking about another musical phenomenon: when singers and bands reinvent themselves -- with completely different personas and styles in different decades -- and end up succeeding both times, and how they frequently end up having two "trademark" songs. (Heart and the Pointer Sisters, for starters.) I loved the idea -- and Linda Ronstadt's new wave album, 1980's "Mad Love" immediately came to mind, where she covered three Elvis Costello songs, including this favorite of mine.
But Linda was in good company ...
Others from the era include Rosanne Cash -- whose hair matched her new-found cowpunk sound. (Not a coincidence that she and Maria McKee of Lone Justice both recorded "Never Be You," with the latter's winding up on the "Streets of Fire" soundtrack and the former's on Cash's crossover album "Rhyme & Reason," featuring her cover of John Hiatt's new wave girl anthem "Pink Bedroom."
Cash's stepsister Carlene Carter also rode the new wave, with her synthy "C'est C Bon" LP. ("Third Time Charm" was yet another miss that sounded like a hit.)
And the list of people new wave happened to went on ...
"Julie"
"Never Should Have Started"
The best of all had to have been Cher, who pulled a Tori Spelling at an Aaron Spelling audition and formed a "punk band" without putting her name out front. Black Rose recorded one bomb album before disbanding.
But Cher is nothing if not persistent. Two years later she returned as herself, releasing "I Paralyze" ... which pretty much summed up the record-buying public's reaction to the endeavor.
Diana Ross, who had a more successful turn than Cher as a Disco Diva, had the new wave sound down to pat on "Pieces of Ice," even if the video was more "Cats" than Clash ...
Carly Simon told us "Why," which was a smash in the U.K. when released as a single from the soundtrack for the sex comedy "Soup for One," but never got a U.S. release. This was strange given that her album from a year or two earlier, "Come Upstairs," had been a success with its synth-driven songs including "Jesse," which a pal refers to has a "sublime low-self-esteem anthem"!
By the time she released "Spoiled Girl" in 1985 -- at the height of the new wave -- people had lost interest in her again. It didn't help that "Tired of Being Blonde" was inferior to "Why."
Chameleon Bette Midler -- who'd gone disco with 1979's "Thighs and Whispers" -- attempted to cash in on the new wave with a cover Marshall Crenshaw's "My Favorite Waste of Time," which had been the B-side of his only Top 40 hit, "Someday, Someway." Fans weren't buying the Divine Miss M's latest makeover.
Kim Carnes -- who started out more a country and folk singer -- was already (unwittingly?) riding the Blondie bandwagon when "Bette Davis Eyes" topped the charts in '81. But her "Voyeur" followup was a full-blown attempt at new wave ...
"Anxiety (Get Nervous)" was Pat's attempt, although the album cover -- which is kind of a cousin of Debbie Harry's "Koo Koo" -- was probably the biggest shift in style.
Billy Joel and his band looked the part in 1980's "You May Be Right."
And then there was Sheena Easton, who wound up singing the James Bond theme when Blondie backed out -- they'd written their own and weren't interested in doing a Bill Conti song -- reached maximum new waveness with "Swear." It stalled at No. 80. Turns out fans were much more interested in her being a nymph than a new waver ...
Olivia Newton-John had the spikey hair and the synthesizers out in full force for this inferior follow-up to "Twist of Fate" (1983)
This was a real shocker at the time. Shell Kepler, who played goody-two-shoes nurse Amy Vining on "General Hospital," must have tired of Dr. Noah Drake getting all the attention, so released a five-song EP of new wave songs under the moniker Shell and the Crush. Perhaps the most shocking thing? It was kind of good.
And last but certainly not least, Shaun Cassidy tried to reinvent himself in 1980 with the new wavey "Wasp." It featured an Adam Ant-ish album cover and and production by Todd Rundgren, who would later helm the Psychedelic Furs' breakthrough album. It also included Talking Heads and David Bowie covers but as the Wikipedia entry kindly put it, "never found an audience, effectively ending the onetime teenybopper's recording career."
UPDATE (2025): Just saw this by Jim Froelich, who too was intrigued by this era!
I am fascinated by 70s-era artists of many genres who tried to evolve with the zeitgeist and stay relevant by cutting their hair and going "new wave" at the dawn of the 80s, e.g. Alice Cooper ("Flush the Fashion"), Neil Young ("Trans"), Peter Frampton ("Art of Control"), Village People ("Food Fight"), Triumvirat ("Party Life"), etc. A fave, though, is former teenybopper Shaun Cassidy's "Wasp" from 1980. Here, Cassidy hooked up with producer Todd Rundgren and most of Rundgren's band Utopia to record synthy originals plus covers of David Bowie, Talking Heads, Ian Hunter and The Who. Like the efforts of most of his peers, it was a commercial failure but I think it holds up independently as a passable relic of its time.
NOTE: this phenomenon was not exclusive to artists bridging the 70s into the 80s. You can see it in any era as style and culture changed; from the 60s to the 70s, and very obviously from the 80s into the 90s with the advent of grunge.
Bacharach/David and Dionne Warwick is the relationship that first comes to mind when you think of songwriter(s) and their singer/muses. But the one between J.D. Souther and Linda Ronstadt is definitely right behind it, in my book.
What a thrill to suddenly discover one of my favorite vocalists singing one of my favorite songs. (I didn't react the same way when I came across Mandy Moore doing "Willin'" Tuesday on the flight back from Phoenix!)
Back on another Linda binge -- God is she something! -- after coming across a 2014 interview in which she discusses losing her voice to Parkinson's Disease. She's so quick to downplay her talent -- in addition to that voice she basically is responsible for creating the Eagles -- but boy was it already on full display when she released this song in 1970, four years before she became a superstar with the classic "Heart Like a Wheel" album.
Am ashamed to admit I never followed through on the Linda Ronstadt, Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris project, even after liking what I heard back in the day -- and didn't get it during my more recent Linda tear, either. I know what I'm doing tonight.
I've written about my recent Linda bender -- played her the whole way to L.A. and back, with just one "Tapestry" break! -- so didn't want to miss wishing the Tucson beauty a happy 68th. Relieve the magic HERE.
With Linda Ronstadt, Hall and Oates, Cat Stevens, Chic and the Replacements -- not to mention the Zombies and Nirvana -- on the 2014 list of nominees for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, you'd swear I was on the voting committee! Read HERE.
For anyone who needs reminding why Linda Ronstadt was once the biggest female singer in the world -- 11 Grammy awards, six Rolling Stone covers -- this gem my brother sent me yesterday ought to do the trick. That her voice was somehow even more beautiful than her face made her equally popular with folk, rock and country audiences. "It Doesn't Matter Anymore" was from Ronstadt's 1974 LP, "Heart Like a Wheel," which is undoubtedly her masterpiece, in addition to being the first of her three chart-topping albums. But even more remarkable about this clip is that she was of the era when live versions were often BETTER than the album takes, something you'd be hard-pressed to encounter with any of today's top stars. Buy HERE.
Spectacular songbird Linda Ronstadt disclosed Friday that she has Parkinson’s disease and the illness has already robbed her of her ability to sing.
The 67-year-old “Hurt So Bad” songstress, whose vocal range spanned the octaves from contralto to soprano, discussed her disease with AARP magazine in an interview. The 11-time Grammy Award winner’s memoir, “Simple Dreams,” is slated to be published next month.
“No one can sing with Parkinson’s disease,” Ronstadt said. “No matter how hard you try.”
Ronstadt, who churned out hits during the 1970s and ‘80s, including “Poor Poor Pitiful Me,” “You’re No Good” and “Just One Look,” now uses poles to assist her when walking on uneven ground and travels with a wheelchair.
I've long been a huge fan -- dating back to the Stone Poneys records -- and finally got to see her live on Long Island doing a Nelson Riddle set. It was an incredible night, one I appreciate even more given this sad turn of events.
Well, I'm not sure how that could have been any more fun. Last night at the Cutting Room, Nadya Ginsburg delivered an affectionate skewe...
Fake Jan Alert
My blog is featured in Susan Olsen's tell-all about the ill-fated "Brady Bunch Variety Hour"!
Little Kenny
Growing up in Madison Heights, Mich.
Back to the Old House
The Web leads to an unexpected return to a house I grew up in.
Oceans 11
Carlsbad, Calif. (2008)
1983
Go Behind the Music of my high-school band, A La Plage
A Death in the Family
Little Larry left us too soon.
Once I Had a Love
With Debbie Harry
'Jungle' Fever
With Robert Buckley
Roger & Me
With Roger Federer
Step Brother McMullen
With Ed Burns
Headline News
With Thomas Roberts
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