fbpx
Wikipedia

Linda Ronstadt

Linda Maria Ronstadt (born July 15, 1946) is a retired American singer who performed and recorded in diverse genres including rock, country, light opera, the Great American Songbook, and Latin. She has earned 11 Grammy Awards,[2] three American Music Awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, an Emmy Award, and an ALMA Award. Many of her albums have been certified gold, platinum or multiplatinum in the United States and internationally. She has also earned nominations for a Tony Award and a Golden Globe award. She was awarded the Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award by the Latin Recording Academy in 2011 and also awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award by the Recording Academy in 2016. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April 2014.[3] On July 28, 2014, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts and Humanities.[4][15] In 2019, she received a star jointly with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for their work as the group Trio.[16][17] Ronstadt was among five honorees who received the 2019 Kennedy Center Honors for lifetime artistic achievements.

Linda Ronstadt
Ronstadt in 1976
Background information
Birth nameLinda Maria Ronstadt[1]
Born (1946-07-15) July 15, 1946 (age 76)
Tucson, Arizona, U.S.
Genres
Occupation(s)
  • Singer
  • songwriter
  • musician
  • record producer
  • actress
Instrument(s)
  • Vocals
  • guitar
Years active1967–2011
Labels

Ronstadt has released 24 studio albums and 15 compilation or greatest hits albums. She charted 38 US Billboard Hot 100 singles. Twenty-one of those singles reached the top 40, ten reached the top 10, and one reached number one ("You're No Good"). Ronstadt also charted in UK as two of her duets, "Somewhere Out There" with James Ingram and "Don't Know Much" with Aaron Neville, peaked at numbers 8 and 2 respectively and the single "Blue Bayou" reached number 35 on the UK Singles charts.[18][19] She has charted 36 albums, ten top-10 albums, and three number 1 albums on the US Billboard Pop Album Chart.[citation needed]

Ronstadt has collaborated with artists in diverse genres, including: Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Bette Midler, Billy Eckstine,[20] Frank Zappa, Carla Bley (Escalator Over the Hill), Rosemary Clooney, Flaco Jiménez, Philip Glass, Warren Zevon, Gram Parsons, Neil Young, Paul Simon, Earl Scruggs, Johnny Cash, and Nelson Riddle. She has lent her voice to over 120 albums and has sold more than 100 million records, making her one of the world's best-selling artists of all time.[21][22] Christopher Loudon, of Jazz Times, wrote in 2004 that Ronstadt is "blessed with arguably the most sterling set of pipes of her generation."[23]

Ronstadt reduced her activity after 2000 when she felt her singing voice deteriorating,[24] releasing her last full-length album in 2004 and performing her last live concert in 2009. She announced her retirement in 2011 and revealed shortly afterwards that she is no longer able to sing as a result of a degenerative condition later determined to be progressive supranuclear palsy.[24][a] Since then, Ronstadt has continued to make public appearances, going on a number of public speaking tours in the 2010s. She published an autobiography, Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir,[25] in September 2013. A documentary based on her memoirs, Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice, was released in 2019.

Early life

Linda Maria Ronstadt was born in Tucson, Arizona, on July 15, 1946, the third of four children of Gilbert Ronstadt (1911–1995), a prosperous machinery merchant who ran the F. Ronstadt Co.,[26] and Ruth Mary (née Copeman) Ronstadt (1914–1982), a homemaker.[27]

Ronstadt was raised on the family's 10-acre (4 ha) ranch with her siblings Peter (who served as Tucson's Chief of Police for ten years, 1981–1991), Michael, and Gretchen. The family was featured in Family Circle magazine in 1953.[28]

Ronstadt family history

Ronstadt's father came from a pioneering Arizona ranching family[29] and was of Mexican descent with a German male ancestor.[30] The family's influence on and contributions to Arizona's history, including wagon making, commerce, pharmacies, and music, are documented in the library of the University of Arizona.[31] Her great-grandfather, the engineer Friedrich August Ronstadt (who went by Federico Augusto Ronstadt), immigrated first to Sonora, Mexico and later to the Southwest (then a part of Mexico) in the 1840s from Hanover, Germany. He married a Mexican citizen, and eventually settled in Tucson.[32][33] In 1991, the City of Tucson opened its central transit terminal on March 16 and dedicated it to Linda's grandfather, Federico José María Ronstadt, a local pioneer businessman; he was a wagon maker whose early contribution to the city's mobility included six mule-drawn streetcars delivered in 1903–04.[34]

Ronstadt's mother Ruth Mary, of German, English, and Dutch ancestry, was raised in Flint, Michigan. Ruth Mary's father, Lloyd Groff Copeman, a prolific inventor and holder of nearly 700 patents, invented an early form of the electric toaster, many refrigerator devices, the grease gun, the first electric stove, and an early form of the microwave oven.[35] His flexible rubber ice cube tray earned him millions of dollars in royalties.[36]

Career summary

Everybody has their own level of doing their music. ... Mine just happened to resonate over the years, in one way and another, with a significant enough number of people so that I could do it professionally.

—Linda Ronstadt[37]

Establishing her professional career in the mid-1960s at the forefront of California's emerging folk rock and country rock movements – genres which defined post-1960s rock music – Ronstadt joined forces with Bobby Kimmel and Kenny Edwards and became the lead singer of a folk-rock trio, the Stone Poneys. Later, as a solo artist, she released Hand Sown ... Home Grown in 1969, which has been described as the first alternative country record by a female recording artist.[38] Although fame eluded her during these years, Ronstadt actively toured with the Doors, Neil Young, Jackson Browne, and others, appeared numerous times on television shows, and began to contribute her singing to albums by other artists.

With the release of chart-topping albums such as Heart Like a Wheel, Simple Dreams, and Living in the USA, Ronstadt became the first female "arena class" rock star. She set records as one of the top-grossing concert artists of the decade.[38][39][40][41] Referred to as the "First Lady of Rock"[29][42] and the "Queen of Rock", Ronstadt was voted the Top Female Pop Singer of the 1970s.[29] Her rock-and-roll image was as famous as her music; she appeared six times on the cover of Rolling Stone and on the covers of Newsweek and Time.

In the 1980s, Ronstadt performed on Broadway and received a Tony nomination for her performance in The Pirates of Penzance,[43] teamed with the composer Philip Glass, recorded traditional music, and collaborated with the conductor Nelson Riddle, an event at that time viewed as an original and unorthodox move for a rock-and-roll artist. This venture paid off,[44] and Ronstadt remained one of the music industry's best-selling acts throughout the 1980s, with multi-platinum-selling albums such as Mad Love, What's New, Canciones de Mi Padre, and Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind. She continued to tour, collaborate, and record celebrated albums, such as Winter Light and Hummin' to Myself, until her retirement in 2011.[45] Most of Ronstadt's albums are certified gold, platinum, or multi-platinum.[46][47] Having sold in excess of 100 million records worldwide[48] and setting records as one of the top-grossing concert performers for over a decade, Ronstadt was the most successful female singer of the 1970s and stands as one of the most successful female recording artists in U.S. history. She opened many doors for women in rock and roll and other musical genres by championing songwriters and musicians, pioneering her chart success onto the concert circuit, and being in the vanguard of many musical movements.[38]

Career overview

Early influences

I don't record (any type of genre of music) that I didn't hear in my family's living room by the time I was 10. It just is my rule that I don't break because ... I can't do it authentically ... I really think that you're just hard-wiring (synapses) in your brain up until the age of maybe 12 or 10, and there are certain things you can't learn in an authentic way after that.

—Linda Ronstadt[49]

Ronstadt's early family life was filled with music and tradition, which influenced the stylistic and musical choices she later made in her career. Growing up, she listened to many types of music, including Mexican music, which was sung by her entire family and was a staple in her childhood.[50]

Ronstadt has remarked that everything she has recorded on her own records – rock and roll, rhythm and blues, gospel, opera, country, choral, and mariachi – is all music she heard her family sing in their living room or heard played on the radio, by the age of 10. She credits her mother for her appreciation of Gilbert and Sullivan and her father for introducing her to the traditional pop and Great American Songbook repertoire that she would, in turn, help reintroduce to an entire generation.[49][51]

If I didn't hear it on the radio, or if my dad wasn't playing it on the piano, or if my brother wasn't playing it on the guitar or singing it in his boys' choir, or my mother and sister weren't practicing a Broadway tune or a Gilbert and Sullivan song, then I can't do it today. It's as simple as that. All of my influences and my authenticity are a direct result of the music played in that Tucson living room.[52]

—Linda Ronstadt

Early on, her singing style had been influenced by singers such as Lola Beltrán and Édith Piaf; she has called their singing and rhythms "more like Greek music ... It's sort of like 6/8 time signature ... very hard driving and very intense."[53] She also drew influence from country singer Hank Williams.

She has said that "all girl singers" eventually "have to curtsy to Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday".[29] Of Maria Callas, Ronstadt says, "There's no one in her league. That's it. Period. I learn more ... about singing rock n roll from listening to Maria Callas records than I ever would from listening to pop music for a month of Sundays. ... She's the greatest chick singer ever."[54] She admires Callas for her musicianship and her attempts to push 20th-century singing, particularly opera, back into the bel canto "natural style of singing".[55]

A self-described product of American radio of the 1950s and 1960s, Ronstadt is a fan of its eclectic and diverse music programming.[51]

Beginning of professional career

At age 14, Ronstadt formed a folk trio with her brother Peter and sister Gretchen. The group played coffeehouses, fraternity houses, and other small venues, billing themselves as "the Union City Ramblers" and "the Three Ronstadts", and they even recorded themselves at a Tucson studio under the name "the New Union Ramblers".[56] Their repertoire included the music they grew up on – folk, country, bluegrass, and Mexican.[57] But increasingly, Ronstadt wanted to make a union of folk music and rock 'n' roll,[41] and in 1964, after a semester at Arizona State University,[57] the 18-year-old decided to move to Los Angeles.[58][59][60]

The Stone Poneys

Ronstadt visited a friend from Tucson, Bobby Kimmel, in Los Angeles during Easter break from college in 1964, and later that year, shortly before her eighteenth birthday,[58] decided to move there permanently to form a band with him.[59] Kimmel had already begun co-writing folk-rock songs with guitarist-songwriter Kenny Edwards, and eventually the three of them were signed by Nik Venet to Capitol in the summer of 1966 as "the Stone Poneys". The trio released three albums in a 15-month period in 1967–68: The Stone Poneys; Evergreen, Volume 2; and Linda Ronstadt, Stone Poneys and Friends, Vol. III. The band is widely known for their hit single "Different Drum" (written by Michael Nesmith prior to his joining the Monkees), which reached number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart as well as number 12 in Cashbox magazine. Nearly 50 years later, the song remains one of Ronstadt's most popular recordings.[61]

Solo career

Still contractually obligated to Capitol Records, Ronstadt released her first solo album, Hand Sown ... Home Grown, in 1969. It has been called the first alternative country record by a female recording artist.[38] During this same period, she contributed to the Music from Free Creek "super session" project.

Ronstadt provided the vocals for some commercials during this period, including one for Remington electric razors, in which a multitracked Ronstadt and Frank Zappa claimed that the electric razor "cleans you, thrills you ... may even keep you from getting busted".[62]

Ronstadt's second solo album, Silk Purse, was released in March 1970. Recorded entirely in Nashville, it was produced by Elliot Mazer, whom Ronstadt chose on the advice of Janis Joplin, who had worked with him on the Cheap Thrills album.[63] The Silk Purse album cover showed Ronstadt in a muddy pigpen, while the back and inside cover depicted her onstage wearing bright red. Ronstadt has stated that she was not pleased with the album, although it provided her with her first solo hit, the multi-format single "Long, Long Time", and earned her first Grammy nomination (for Best Contemporary Vocal Performance/Female).

Touring

Judy Henske, who was the then reigning queen of folk music, said to me at The Troubadour, "Honey, in this town there are four sexes. Men, women, homosexuals, and girl singers."

—Linda Ronstadt[64]

In 1975, Ronstadt performed shows with Jackson Browne, the Eagles, and Toots and the Maytals.[65] In a 1976 Rolling Stone interview with Cameron Crowe, Ronstadt said, "they haven't invented a word for that loneliness that everybody goes through on the road. The world is tearing by you, real fast, and all these people are looking at you. ... People see me in my 'girl-singer' suit."[66] In 1974 she told Peter Knobler in Crawdaddy, "People are always taking advantage of you; everybody that's interested in you has got an angle."[67]

Several years before Ronstadt became what author Gerri Hirshey called the first "arena-class rock diva" with "hugely anticipated tours"[39] she began her solo career touring the North American concert circuit. But being on the road took its toll both emotionally and professionally. There were few "girl singers" on the rock circuit at the time, and they were relegated to "groupie level when in a crowd of a bunch of rock and roll guys", a status Ronstadt avoided.[68] Relating to men on a professional level as fellow musicians led to competition, insecurity, bad romances, and a series of boyfriend-managers. At the time, she admired singers like Maria Muldaur for not sacrificing their femininity but says she felt enormous self-imposed pressure to compete with "the boys" at every level.[59] She noted in a 1969 interview in Fusion magazine that it was difficult being a single "chick singer" with an all-male backup band.[68] According to her, it was difficult to get a band of backing musicians because of their ego problem of being labeled sidemen for a female singer.[69]

Soon after she went solo in the late 1960s, one of her first backing bands was the pioneering country-rock band Swampwater, which combined Cajun and swamp-rock elements in their music. Its members included Cajun fiddler Gib Guilbeau and John Beland, who later joined the Flying Burrito Brothers,[70] as well as Stan Pratt, Thad Maxwell, and Eric White, brother of Clarence White of the Byrds. Swampwater went on to back Ronstadt during TV appearances on The Johnny Cash Show[71] and The Mike Douglas Show, and at the Big Sur Folk Festival.[72]

Another backing band included Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Bernie Leadon, and Randy Meisner, who went on to form the Eagles. They toured with her for a short period in 1971 and played on Linda Ronstadt, her self-titled third album, from which the failed single, Ronstadt's version of Browne's "Rock Me on the Water", was drawn. At this stage, Ronstadt began working with producer and boyfriend John Boylan. She said, "As soon as I started working with John Boylan, I started co-producing myself. I was always a part of my productions. But I always needed a producer who would carry out my whims."[56] Also in 1971, Ronstadt began talking with David Geffen about moving from Capitol Records to Geffen's Asylum Records label.[73]

Collaborations with Peter Asher

In general when you fall in love with an artist and their music, the plan is a fairly simple one. .. get people to go and see them, and make a record that you think properly presents their music to the public and some of which you can get on the radio.

Peter Asher, on collaborating with Ronstadt[37]

Ronstadt began her fourth solo album, Don't Cry Now, in 1973, with Boylan (who had negotiated her contract with Asylum Records) and John David "J.D." Souther producing most of the album's tracks. But needing someone willing to work with her as an equal, Ronstadt asked Peter Asher, who came highly recommended to her by James Taylor's sister Kate Taylor, to help produce two of them: "Sail Away" and "I Believe in You".[74]

The album featured Ronstadt's first country hit, "Silver Threads and Golden Needles", which she had first recorded on Hand Sown ... Home Grown – this time hitting the Country Top 20.

With the release of Don't Cry Now, Ronstadt took on her biggest gig to date as the opening act on Neil Young's Time Fades Away tour, playing for larger crowds than ever before. Backstage at a concert in Texas, Chris Hillman introduced her to Emmylou Harris, telling them, "You two could be good friends",[75] which soon occurred, resulting in frequent collaborations over the following years. Meanwhile, the album became Ronstadt's most successful up to that time, selling 300,000 copies by the end of 1974.[74]

Asher turned out to be more collaborative, and more on the same page with her musically, than any producer she had worked with previously.[56] Ronstadt's professional relationship with Asher allowed her to take command and effectively delegate responsibilities in the recording studio.[74] Although hesitant at first to work with her because of her reputation for being a "woman of strong opinions (who) knew what she wanted to do (with her career)", he nonetheless agreed to become her full-time producer,[76] and remained in that role through the late 1980s. Asher attributed the long-term success of his working relationship with Ronstadt to the fact that he was the first person to manage and produce her with whom there was a solely professional relationship. "It must be a lot harder to have objective conversations about someone's career when it's someone you sleep with", he said.[74]

Asher executive produced a tribute CD called Listen to Me: Buddy Holly, released September 6, 2011, on which Ronstadt's 1976 version of Buddy Holly's "That'll Be The Day" appears among newly recorded versions of Holly's songs by various artists.[77]

Vocal styles

I grew up singing Mexican music, and that's based on indigenous Mexican rhythms. Mexican music also has an overlay of West African music, based on huapango drums, and it's kind of like a 6/8 time signature, but it really is a very syncopated 6/8. And that's how I attack vocals.

—Linda Ronstadt, on reconciling her musical instincts with rock 'n' roll.[56]

Ronstadt captured the sounds of country music and the rhythms of ranchera music – which she likened in 1968 to "Mexican bluegrass" – and redirected them into her rock 'n' roll and some of her pop music. Many of these rhythms and sounds were part of her Southwestern roots.[78] Likewise, a country sound and style, a fusion of country music and rock 'n' roll called country rock, started to exert its influence on mainstream pop music around the late 1960s, and it became an emerging movement Ronstadt helped form and commercialize. However, as early as 1970, Ronstadt was being criticized by music "purists" for her "brand of music" which crossed many genres. Country Western Stars magazine wrote in 1970 that "Rock people thought she was too gentle, folk people thought she was too pop, and pop people didn't quite understand where she was at, but Country people really loved Linda." She never categorized herself and stuck to her genre-crossing brand of music.[79]

Interpretive singer

Ronstadt is considered an "interpreter of her times",[80] and has earned praise for her courage to put her "stamp" on many of her songs.[81] Nevertheless, her hits were criticized in some quarters for being cover songs.[by whom?] Ronstadt herself has indicated that some of her 1970s hits were recorded under considerable pressure to create commercially successful recordings, and that she prefers many of her songs that were non-hit album tracks.[56] An infrequent songwriter, Ronstadt co-composed only three songs over her long career.

Ronstadt's natural vocal range spans several octaves from contralto to soprano, and occasionally she will showcase this entire range within a single work. Ronstadt was the first female artist in popular music history to accumulate four consecutive platinum albums (fourteen certified million selling, to date). As for the singles, Rolling Stone pointed out that a whole generation, "but for her, might never have heard the work of artists such as Buddy Holly, Elvis Costello, and Chuck Berry."[82]

Music is meant to lighten your load. By singing it ... you release (the sadness). And release yourself ... an exercise in exorcism. ... You exorcise that emotion ... and diminish sadness and feel joy.

—Linda Ronstadt[83]

Others have argued that Ronstadt had the same generational effect with her Great American Songbook music, exposing a whole new generation to the music of the 1920s and 1930s – music which was pushed aside because of the advent of rock 'n' roll. When interpreting, Ronstadt said she "sticks to what the music demands", in terms of lyrics.[84] Explaining that rock and roll music is part of her culture, she says that the songs she sang after her rock and roll hits were part of her soul. "The (Mariachi music) was my father's side of the soul," she was quoted as saying in a 1998 interview she gave at her Tucson home. "My mother's side of my soul was the Nelson Riddle stuff. And I had to do them both to reestablish who I was."[85]

In the 1974 book Rock 'N' Roll Woman, author Katherine Orloff writes that Ronstadt's "own musical preferences run strongly to rhythm and blues, the type of music she most frequently chooses to listen to ... (and) her goal is to ... be soulful too. With this in mind, Ronstadt fuses country and rock into a special union."[59]

By this stage of her career, Ronstadt had established her niche in the field of country-rock. Along with other musicians such as the Flying Burrito Brothers, Emmylou Harris, Gram Parsons, Swampwater, Neil Young, and the Eagles, she helped free country music from stereotypes and showed rockers that country was okay. However, she stated that she was being pushed hard into singing more rock and roll.[75]

Most successful female singer of the 1970s

 
Ronstadt with producer Peter Asher and her band, 1976

Author Andrew Greeley, in his book God in Popular Culture, described Ronstadt as "the most successful and certainly the most durable and most gifted woman Rock singer of her era."[86] Signaling her wide popularity as a concert artist, outside of the singles charts and the recording studio, Dirty Linen magazine describes her as the "first true woman rock 'n' roll superstar ... (selling) out stadiums with a string of mega-successful albums."[38] Amazon.com defines her as the American female rock superstar of the decade.[87] Cashbox gave Ronstadt a Special Decade Award,[88] as the top-selling female singer of the 1970s.[29]

Her album covers, posters, magazine covers – her entire rock 'n' roll image – were as famous as her music.[37] By the end of the decade, the singer whom the Chicago Sun Times described as the "Dean of the 1970s school of female rock singers"[81] became what Redbook called "the most successful female rock star in the world."[89] "Female" was the important qualifier, according to Time magazine, which labeled her "a rarity ... to (have survived) ... in the shark-infested deeps of rock."[90]

Although Ronstadt had been a cult favorite on the music scene for several years, 1975 was "remembered in the music biz as the year when 29-year-old Linda Ronstadt belatedly happened."[91]

With the release of Heart Like a Wheel‍—‌named after one of the album's songs, written by Anna McGarrigle‍—‌Ronstadt reached number 1 on the Billboard 200 chart;[92] it was also the first of four number 1 Country Albums, and the disc was certified double-platinum[93] (over two million copies sold in the U.S.). In many instances, her own interpretations were more successful than the original recordings, and many times new songwriters were discovered by a larger audience as a result of her interpretation and recording. Ronstadt had major success interpreting songs from a diverse spectrum of artists.

Heart Like a Wheel's first single release, "You're No Good" – a rockified version of an R&B song written by Clint Ballard, Jr. that Ronstadt had initially resisted because Andrew Gold's guitar tracks sounded too much like a "Beatles song" to her[74] – climbed to number 1 on both the Billboard and Cash Box Pop singles charts.[94] The album's second single release, "When Will I Be Loved" – an uptempo country-rock version of a Top 10 Everly Brothers song – hit number 1 in Cashbox and number 2 in Billboard.[94] The song was also Ronstadt's first number 1 country hit.[94]

The album's critical and commercial success was due to a fine presentation of country and rock, with Heart Like a Wheel her first of many major commercial successes that would set her on the path to being one of the best-selling female artists of all time. Ronstadt won her first Grammy Award[95] for Best Country Vocal Performance/Female for "I Can't Help It (If I'm Still in Love with You)" which was originally a 1940s hit by Hank Williams. Ronstadt's interpretation peaked at number 2 on the country chart. The album itself was nominated for the Album of the Year Grammy.

Rolling Stone put Ronstadt on its cover in March 1975. It was the first of six Rolling Stone covers shot by photographer Annie Leibovitz. It included her as the featured artist with a full photo layout and an article by Ben Fong-Torres, discussing Ronstadt's many struggling years in rock n roll, as well as her home life and what it was like to be a woman on tour in a decidedly all-male environment.

In September 1975, Ronstadt's album Prisoner in Disguise was released. It quickly climbed into the Top Five on the Billboard Album Chart and sold over a million copies.[93] It became her second in a row to go platinum, "a grand slam" in the same year (Ronstadt would eventually become the first female artist in popular music history to have three consecutive platinum albums and would ultimately go on to have eight consecutive platinum albums, and then another six between 1983 and 1990).[91] The disc's first single release was "Love Is A Rose". It was climbing the pop and country charts but "Heat Wave", a rockified version of the 1963 hit by Martha and the Vandellas, was receiving considerable airplay. Asylum pulled the "Love Is a Rose" single and issued "Heat Wave" with "Love Is a Rose" on the B-side. "Heat Wave" hit the Top Five on Billboard's Hot 100 while "Love Is A Rose" hit the Top Five on Billboard's country chart.

In 1976, Ronstadt reached the Top 3 of Billboard's Album Chart and won her second career Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for her third consecutive platinum[93] album Hasten Down the Wind. The album featured a sexy, revealing cover shot and showcased Ronstadt the singer-songwriter, who composed two of its songs, "Try Me Again" (co-authored with Andrew Gold) and "Lo Siento Mi Vida". It also included an interpretation of Willie Nelson's ballad "Crazy", which became a Top 10 Country hit for Ronstadt in early 1977.

At the end of 1977, Ronstadt surpassed the success of Heart Like a Wheel with her album Simple Dreams, which held the number 1 position for five consecutive weeks on the Billboard 200 chart.[96] It sold over 312 million copies in less than a year in the U.S. alone – a record for a female artist. Simple Dreams spawned a string of hit singles on numerous charts. Among them were the RIAA platinum-certified single "Blue Bayou", a country-rock interpretation of a Roy Orbison song; "It's So Easy" – previously sung by Buddy Holly – , a cover of The Rolling Stones' "Tumbling Dice", and "Poor Poor Pitiful Me", a song written by Warren Zevon, an up-and-coming songwriter of the time. The album garnered several Grammy Award nominations – including Record of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance/Female for "Blue Bayou" – and won its art director, Kosh, a Grammy Award for Best Album Cover, the first of three Grammy Awards he would win for designing Ronstadt album covers. In late 1977, Ronstadt became the first female recording artist to have two songs in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Top Ten at the same time. "Blue Bayou" was at No. 3 while "It's So Easy" was at No. 5.

Simple Dreams became one of the singer's best-selling international-selling albums as well, reaching number 1 on the Australian and Canadian Pop and Country Albums charts.[97] Simple Dreams also made Ronstadt the most successful international female touring artist. The same year, she completed a concert tour around Europe. As Country Music magazine wrote in October 1978, Simple Dreams solidified Ronstadt's role as "easily the most successful female rock and roll and country star at this time."[57]

Also in 1977, she was asked by the Los Angeles Dodgers to sing the U.S. National Anthem at game three of the World Series against the New York Yankees.[98]

Time magazine and "rock chick" image

Ronstadt has remarked that she felt as though she was "artificially encouraged to kinda cop a really tough attitude (and be tough) because rock and roll is kind of tough (business)," which she felt wasn't worn quite authentically.[14] Female rock artists like her and Janis Joplin, whom she described as lovely, shy, and very literate in real life and the antithesis of the "red hot mamma" she was artificially encouraged to project, went through an identity crisis.[14]

 
Ronstadt on the cover of the February 28, 1977, issue of Time magazine

By the mid-1970s, Ronstadt's image became just as famous as her music.[37] In 1976 and 1977, she appeared on the covers of Rolling Stone and Time, respectively. The Rolling Stone cover story was accompanied by a series of photographs of Ronstadt in a skimpy red slip, taken by Annie Leibovitz. Ronstadt felt deceived by the photographer, not realizing that the photos would be so revealing. She says her manager Peter Asher kicked Leibovitz out of the house when she visited to show them the photographs prior to publication. Leibovitz had refused to let them veto any of the photos, which included one of Ronstadt sprawled across a bed in her underpants.[37] In a 1977 interview, Ronstadt explained, "Annie [Leibovitz] saw that picture as an exposé of my personality. She was right. But I wouldn't choose to show a picture like that to anybody who didn't know me personally, because only friends could get the other sides of me in balance."[99]

Her 1977 appearance on the cover of Time magazine under the banner "Torchy Rock" was also upsetting to Ronstadt, considering what the image appeared to project about the most famous woman in rock.[14][100] At a time in the industry when men still told women what to sing and what to wear,[101] Ronstadt hated the image of her that was projected to the world on that cover,[14] and she noted recently how the photographer kept forcing her to wear a dress, which was an image she did not want to project.[14] In 2004, she was interviewed for CBS This Morning[102] and stated that this image was not her because she did not sit like that. Asher noted, "Anyone who's met Linda for 10 seconds will know that I couldn't possibly have been her Svengali. She's an extremely determined woman, in every area. To me, she was everything that feminism's about."[101] Qualities which, Asher has stated, were considered a "negative (in a woman at that time), whereas in a man they were perceived as being masterful and bold".[76] Since her solo career had begun, Ronstadt had fought hard to be recognized as a solo female singer in the world of rock, and her portrayal on the Time cover did not appear to help the situation.[69]

In 1978, Rolling Stone declared Ronstadt "by far America's best-known female rock singer."[40] She scored a third number 1 album on the Billboard Album Chart – at this point equaling the record set by Carole King in 1974 – with Living in the USA. She achieved a major hit single with "Ooo Baby Baby", with her rendition hitting all four major singles charts (Pop, AC, Country, R&B). Living in the USA was the first album by any recording act in music history to ship double-platinum (over 2 million advance copies).[39] The album eventually sold 3 million U.S. copies.

At the end of that year, Billboard magazine crowned Ronstadt with three number-one Awards for the Year: Pop Female Singles Artist of the Year, Pop Female Album Artist of the Year, and Female Artist of the Year (overall).[103]

Living in the USA showed the singer on roller skates with a newly short, permed hairdo on the album cover. Ronstadt continued this theme on concert tour promotional posters with photos of her on roller skates in a dramatic pose with a large American flag in the background. By this stage of her career, she was using posters to promote every album[37] and concert – which at the time were recorded live on radio or television.

Ronstadt was also featured in the 1978 film FM, where the plot involved disc jockeys attempting to broadcast a Ronstadt concert live, without a competing station's knowledge. The film also showed Ronstadt performing the songs "Poor, Poor Pitiful Me", "Love Me Tender", and "Tumbling Dice". Ronstadt was persuaded to record "Tumbling Dice" after Mick Jagger came backstage when she was at a concert and said, "You do too many ballads, you should do more rock and roll songs."[104]

Following the success of Living in the USA, Ronstadt conducted album promotional tours and concerts. She made a guest appearance onstage with the Rolling Stones at the Tucson Community Center on July 21, 1978, in her hometown of Tucson, where she and Jagger sang "Tumbling Dice".[105][106][107] On singing with Jagger, Ronstadt later said, "I loved it. I didn't have a trace of stage fright. I'm scared to death all the way through my own shows. But it was too much fun to get scared. He's so silly onstage, he knocks you over. I mean you have to be on your toes or you wind up falling on your face."[40]

Highest-paid woman in rock

Rock is the thumping heart of Linda's music, and the rock world is dominated by males. The biggest stars are male, and so are the back-up musicians ... rock beats are ... phallic, and lyrics ... masculine. ... Janis Joplin, the first great white woman rocker, rattled the bars ... but she died. ... Joni Mitchell ... stylish (but can't) compete in drawing power with men ... (however) Linda Ronstadt ... has made herself one of the biggest individual rock draws in the world.

Time magazine, in 1977[90]

 
Ronstadt at the New Haven Veterans Memorial Coliseum, August 16, 1978[108]

By the end of 1978, Ronstadt had solidified her role as one of rock and pop's most successful solo female acts, and owing to her consistent platinum album success, and her ability as the first woman to sell out concerts in arenas and stadiums hosting tens of thousands of fans,[29] Ronstadt became the "highest-paid woman in rock".[39] She had six platinum-certified albums, three of which were number 1 on the Billboard album chart, and numerous charting pop singles. In 1978 alone, she made over $12 million[29] (equivalent to $50,000,000 in 2021)[109] and in the same year her albums sales were reported to be 17 million – grossing over $60 million[110] (equivalent to $249,000,000 in 2021).[109]

As Rolling Stone dubbed her "Rock's Venus",[40] her record sales continued to multiply and set records themselves. By 1979, Ronstadt had collected eight gold, six platinum, and four multi-platinum certifications for her albums, an unprecedented feat at the time. Her 1976 Greatest Hits album would sell consistently for the next 25 years, and it was certified by the RIAA for seven-times platinum in 2001[93] (over seven million U.S. copies sold). In 1980, Greatest Hits, Volume 2 was released and certified platinum.[93]

In 1979, Ronstadt went on an international tour, playing in arenas across Australia to Japan, including the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne, and the Budokan in Tokyo. She also participated in a benefit concert for her friend Lowell George, held at The Forum, in Los Angeles.

By the end of the decade, Ronstadt had outsold her female competition; she had five straight platinum LPs – Hasten Down the Wind and Heart Like a Wheel among them.[111] Us Weekly reported in 1978 that Ronstadt, Joni Mitchell, Stevie Nicks, and Carly Simon had become "The Queens of Rock"[110] and "Rock is no longer exclusively male. There is a new royalty ruling today's record charts."[110]

She would go on to parlay her mass commercial appeal with major success in interpreting The Great American Songbook – made famous a generation before by Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald – and later the Mexican folk songs of her childhood.

From rock to operetta

Rampant eclecticism is my middle name.

—Linda Ronstadt[64]

 
Linda Ronstadt at Six Flags Over Texas, August 1981.

In February 1980, Ronstadt released Mad Love, her seventh consecutive platinum-selling album. It was a straightforward rock and roll album with post-punk, new wave influences, including tracks by songwriters such as Elvis Costello, the Cretones, and musician Mark Goldenberg who played on the record himself. As part of the album's promotion, a live concert was recorded for an HBO special in April. A partial soundtrack for this special (omitting most of the Mad Love tracks) was released as her first official live album in February 2019.[112]

She also made the cover of Rolling Stone for a record-setting sixth time. Mad Love entered the Billboard Album Chart in the Top Five its first week (a record at that time) and climbed to the number 3 position. The project continued her streak of Top 10 hits with "How Do I Make You", originally recorded by Billy Thermal, and "Hurt So Bad", originally a Top 10 hit for Little Anthony & the Imperials. The album earned Ronstadt a 1980 Grammy Award nomination for Best Rock Vocal Performance/Female (although she lost to Pat Benatar's Crimes of Passion album). Benatar praised Ronstadt by stating, "There are a lot of good female singers around. How could I be the best? Ronstadt is still alive!"[113]

In the summer of 1980, Ronstadt began rehearsals for the first of several leads in Broadway musicals. Joseph Papp cast her as the lead in the New York Shakespeare Festival production of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance, alongside Kevin Kline.[114] She said singing Gilbert and Sullivan was a natural choice for her, since her grandfather Fred Ronstadt was credited with having created Tucson's first orchestra, the Club Filarmonico Tucsonense, and had once created an arrangement of The Pirates of Penzance.[50]

The Pirates of Penzance opened for a limited engagement in New York City's Central Park, eventually moving its production to Broadway, where it became a hit, running from January 8, 1981, to November 28, 1982.[115] Newsweek was effusive in its praise: "... she has not dodged the coloratura demands of her role (and Mabel is one of the most demanding parts in the G&S canon): from her entrance trilling 'Poor Wand'ring One,' it is clear that she is prepared to scale whatever soprano peaks stand in her way."[94] Ronstadt co-starred with Kline and Angela Lansbury in the 1983 operetta's film version; this was her only acting role in a motion picture (her other film appearances, such as in the 1978 drama, FM, being concert footage as herself). Ronstadt received a Golden Globe nomination for the role in the film version. She garnered a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical and The Pirates of Penzance won several Tony Awards, including a Tony Award for Best Revival.

As a child, Ronstadt had discovered the opera La bohème through the silent film with Lillian Gish and was determined to someday play the part of Mimi. When she met the opera superstar Beverly Sills, she was told, "My dear, every soprano in the world wants to play Mimi!" In 1984, Ronstadt was cast in the role at Joseph Papp's Public Theater. However, the production was a critical and commercial disaster, closing after only a few nights.[116]

In 1982, Ronstadt released the album Get Closer, a primarily rock album with some country and pop music as well. It remains her only album between 1975 and 1990 not to be officially certified platinum. It peaked at number 31 on the Billboard Album Chart. The release continued her streak of Top 40 hits with "Get Closer" and "I Knew You When" – a 1965 hit by Billy Joe Royal – while the Jimmy Webb song "Easy For You To Say" was a surprise Top 10 Adult Contemporary hit in the spring of 1983. "Sometimes You Just Can't Win" was picked up by country radio, and made it to number 27 on that listing. Ronstadt also filmed several music videos for this album which became popular on the fledgling MTV cable channel. The album earned Ronstadt two Grammy Award nominations: one for Best Rock Vocal Performance/Female for the title track and another for Best Pop Vocal Performance/Female for the album. The artwork won its art director, Kosh, his second Grammy Award for Best Album Package.

Along with the release of her Get Closer album, Ronstadt embarked on a North American tour, remaining one of the top rock-concert draws that summer and fall. On November 25, 1982, her "Happy Thanksgiving Day" concert was held at the Reunion Arena in Dallas and broadcast live via satellite to NBC radio stations in the United States.[117]

In 1988, Ronstadt returned to Broadway for a limited-run engagement in the musical show adaptation of her album celebrating her Mexican heritage, Canciones De Mi Padre – A Romantic Evening in Old Mexico.[118]

Artistic aspirations

Ronstadt has remarked that in the beginning of her career she "was so focused on folk, rock and country" that she "got a bit bored and started to branch out, and ... [has] been doing that ever since."[119] By 1983, her estimated worth was over $40 million[120] mostly from records, concerts and merchandising.

In the early 1980s, Ronstadt was criticized for accepting $500,000 to perform at the South African resort Sun City, violating the cultural boycott imposed against South Africa because of its policy of apartheid.[121][122][123] At the time, she stated, "the last place for a boycott is in the arts" and "I don't like being told I can't go somewhere".[124] Paul Simon was criticized for including her on his 1986 album Graceland, recorded in South Africa, but defended her: "I know that her intention was never to support the government there ... She made a mistake. She’s extremely liberal in her political thinking and unquestionably antiapartheid."[125]

Ronstadt eventually tired of playing arenas.[126] She had ceased to feel that arenas, where people milled around smoking marijuana cigarettes and drinking beer, were "appropriate places for music". She wanted "angels in the architecture" – a reference to a lyric in the Paul Simon song "You Can Call Me Al" from Graceland. (Ronstadt sang harmony with Simon on a different Graceland track, "Under African Skies". The second verse's lyrics pay tribute to Ronstadt: "Take this child, Lord, from Tucson, Arizona. ..."). Ronstadt has said she wants to sing in places similar to the theatre of ancient Greece, where the attention is focused on the stage and the performer.[127]

Ronstadt's recording output in the 1980s proved to be just as commercially and critically successful as her 1970s recordings. Between 1983 and 1990, Ronstadt scored six additional platinum albums; two are triple platinum (each with over three million U.S. copies sold); one has been certified double platinum (over two million copies sold), and one has earned additional certification as a Gold (over 500,000 U.S. copies sold) double-disc album.[47]

Jazz/pop trilogy

In 1981, Ronstadt produced and recorded an album of pop standards (later marketed in bootleg form) titled Keeping Out of Mischief with the assistance of producer Jerry Wexler. However, Ronstadt's displeasure with the result led her, with regrets, to scrap the project. "Doing that killed me," she said in a Time magazine interview.[128] But the appeal of the album's music had seduced Ronstadt, as she told DownBeat in April 1985, crediting Wexler for encouraging her.[129] Nonetheless, Ronstadt had to convince her reluctant record company, Elektra, to approve this type of album under her contract.[130]

By 1983, Ronstadt had enlisted the help of 62-year-old conductor Nelson Riddle. The two embarked on an unorthodox and original approach to rehabilitating the Great American Songbook, recording a trilogy of traditional pop albums: What's New (1983‍—‌U.S. 3.7 million as of 2010); Lush Life (1984‍—‌U.S. 1.7 million as of 2010); and For Sentimental Reasons (1986‍—‌U.S. 1.3 million as of 2010). The three albums have had a combined sales total of nearly seven million copies in the U.S. alone.

I now realize I was taking a tremendous risk, and that Joe Smith (the head of Elektra Records, and strongly opposed) was looking out for himself, and for me. When it became apparent I wouldn't change my mind, he said: "I love Nelson so much! Can I please come to the sessions." I said "Yes." When the albums ... were successful, Joe congratulated me, and I never said "I told you so."

—Linda Ronstadt[131]

The album design for What's New by designer Kosh was unlike any of her previous disc covers. It showed Ronstadt in a vintage dress lying on shimmering satin sheets with a Walkman headset. At the time, Ronstadt received some chiding for both the album cover and her venture into what was then considered "elevator music" by cynics, but remained determined to record with Riddle, and What's New became a hit. The album was released in September 1983 and spent 81 weeks on the Billboard Album Chart and held the number three position for a month and a half (held out of the top spot only by Michael Jackson's Thriller and Lionel Richie's Can't Slow Down) and the RIAA certified it triple platinum[93] (over three million copies sold in the U.S. alone). The album earned Ronstadt another Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, and critical raves, with Time magazine calling it "one of the gutsiest, most unorthodox and unexpected albums of the year."[132]

Ronstadt faced considerable pressure not to record What's New or record with Riddle. According to jazz historian Peter Levinson, author of the book September in the Rain – a Biography on Nelson Riddle, Joe Smith, president of Elektra Records, was terrified that the Riddle album would turn off Ronstadt's rock audience.[130] Ronstadt did not completely turn her back on her rock and roll past, however; the video for the title track featured Danny Kortchmar as the old beau that she bumped into during a rainstorm.

What's New brought Riddle to a younger audience. According to Levinson, "the younger audience hated what Riddle had done with Frank Sinatra,[133] which in 1983 was considered 'Vintage Pop'". Working with Ronstadt, Riddle brought his career back into focus in the last three years of his life.[133] Stephen Holden of The New York Times wrote, What's New "isn't the first album by a rock singer to pay tribute to the golden age of the pop, but is ... the best and most serious attempt to rehabilitate an idea of pop that Beatlemania and the mass marketing of rock LPs for teenagers undid in the mid-60s. ... In the decade prior to Beatlemania, most of the great band singers and crooners of the 40s and 50s codified a half-century of American pop standards on dozens of albums ... many of them now long out-of-print."[134] What's New is the first album by a rock singer to have major commercial success in rehabilitating the Great American Songbook.[134]

In 1984, Ronstadt and Riddle performed these songs live, in concert halls throughout Australia, Japan, and the United States, including multi-night performances at historic venues Carnegie Hall, Radio City Music Hall, and Pine Knob.

In 2004, Ronstadt released Hummin' to Myself, her album for Verve Records. It was her first foray into traditional jazz since her sessions with Jerry Wexler and her records with the Nelson Riddle Orchestra, but this time with an intimate jazz combo. The album was a quiet affair for Ronstadt, giving few interviews and making only one television performance as a promotion. It reached number 2 on Billboard's Top Jazz Albums chart but peaked at number 166 on the main Billboard album chart. Not having the mass distribution that Warner Music Group gave her, Hummin' To Myself had sold over 75,000 copies in the U.S. as of 2010. It also achieved some critical acclaim from the jazz cognoscenti.[23]

"Trio" recordings

When (we) sang, it was a beautiful and different sound I've never heard before. We (recorded the vocals) as individual parts, because we didn't have the luxury of spending a lot of time together on a tour bus ... and knowing each other's (vocal) moves ... takes years.

—Linda Ronstadt[56]

In 1978, Ronstadt, Dolly Parton, and Emmylou Harris, friends and admirers of one another's work (Ronstadt had included a cover of Parton's "I Will Always Love You" on Prisoner in Disguise) attempted to collaborate on a Trio album. Unfortunately, the attempt did not pan out. Ronstadt later remarked that not too many people were in control at the time and everyone was too involved with their own careers. (Though the efforts to complete the album were abandoned, a number of the recordings were included on the singers' respective solo recordings over the next few years.) This concept album was put on the back burner for almost ten years.

In January 1986, the three eventually did make their way into the recording studio, where they spent the next several months working. The result, Trio, which they had conceived ten years earlier, was released in March 1987. It was a considerable hit, holding the number 1 position on Billboard's Country Albums chart for five weeks running and hitting the Top 10 on the pop side also. Selling over three million copies in the U.S. and winning them a Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, it produced four Top Ten Country singles including "To Know Him Is to Love Him" which hit number 1. The album was also a nominee for overall Album of the Year, in the company of Michael Jackson, U2, Prince, and Whitney Houston.

In 1994, the three performers recorded a follow-up to Trio. As was the case with their aborted 1978 effort, conflicting schedules and competing priorities delayed the album's release indefinitely. Ronstadt, who had already paid for studio time‍—‌and owed her record company a finished album‍—‌removed Parton's individual tracks at Parton's request, kept Harris's vocals, and produced a number of the recordings, which she subsequently released on her 1995 return to country rock, the album Feels Like Home.

However, in 1999, Ronstadt, Parton, and Harris agreed to release the Trio II album, as was originally recorded in 1994. It included an ethereal cover of Neil Young's "After The Gold Rush" which became a popular music video. The effort was certified Gold (over 500,000 copies sold) and won them a Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals for the track. Ronstadt co-produced the album with George Massenburg and the three women also received a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Country Album.

Canciones de Mi Padre

At the end of 1987, Ronstadt released Canciones de Mi Padre, an album of traditional Mexican folk songs, or what she has described as "world class songs". Keeping with the Ronstadt history theme, her cover art was dramatic, bold, and colorful; it shows Ronstadt in full Mexican regalia. Her musical arranger was mariachi musician Rubén Fuentes.

These canciones were a big part of Ronstadt's family tradition and musical roots. In January 1946, the University of Arizona published a booklet by Luisa Espinel entitled Canciones de mi Padre.[135] Luisa Espinel, Ronstadt's aunt, was an international singer in the 1920s and 1930s. Espinel's father was Fred Ronstadt, Linda Ronstadt's grandfather, and the songs she had learned, transcribed, and published were some of the ones he had brought with him from Sonora. Ronstadt researched and extracted from the favorites she had learned from her father Gilbert and she called her album by the same name as her aunt's booklet and as a tribute to her father and his family. Though not fully bilingual, she has a fairly good command of the Spanish language, allowing her to sing Latin American songs with little discernible U.S. accent; Ronstadt has often identified herself as Mexican-American.[136] Her formative years were spent with her father's side of the family.[137] In fact, in 1976, Ronstadt had collaborated with her father to write and compose a traditional Mexican folk ballad, "Lo siento mi vida" – a song that she included on Hasten Down the Wind. Ronstadt has also credited Mexican singer Lola Beltrán as an influence on her own singing style, and she recalls how a frequent guest to the Ronstadt home, Eduardo "Lalo" Guerrero, father of Chicano music, would often serenade her as a child.[50]

Canciones de Mi Padre won Ronstadt a Grammy Award for Best Mexican-American Performance. In 2001, it was certified double-platinum by the RIAA for shipments of over 2 million copies in the United States, making it the best-selling non-English-language album in U.S. music history. The album and later theatrical stage show served as a benchmark of the Latin cultural renaissance in North America.

(I obtained) enough clout and ... after years and years of making commercial records, I was entitled to experiment ... the success of the (Nelson Riddle albums) ... entitled me to try the Mexican stuff.

—Linda Ronstadt[64]

Ronstadt produced and performed a theatrical stage show, also titled Canciones de mi Padre, in concert halls across the U.S. and Latin America to both Hispanic and non-Hispanic audiences. These performances were later released on DVD. Ronstadt elected to return to the Broadway stage, four years after she performed in La bohème, for a limited-run engagement. PBS's Great Performances aired the stage show during its annual fund drives and the show was a hit with audiences, earning Ronstadt a Primetime Emmy Award for Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program.

Ronstadt recorded two additional albums of Latin music in the early 1990s. Their promotion, like most of her albums in the 1990s, was a quieter affair, with Ronstadt making only a limited number of appearances to promote them. They were not nearly as successful as Canciones De Mi Padre, but were critically acclaimed in some circles. In 1991, she released Mas Canciones, a follow-up to the first Canciones. For this album, she won a Grammy Award for Best Mexican/Mexican-American Album. The following year, she stepped outside of the mariachi genre and decided to record well-known Afro-Cuban songs. This album was titled Frenesí. Like her two previous Latin recordings ventures, it won Ronstadt a Grammy Award, this time for Best Traditional Tropical Latin Album.

In 1991, Ronstadt acted in the lead role of archangel San Miguel in La Pastorela, or A Shephard's Tale, a musical filmed at San Juan Bautista. It was written and directed by Luis Valdez. The production was part of the PBS Great Performances series.

In December 2020, it was announced that Canciones de Mi Padre had been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.[138]

Returning to the contemporary music scene

By the late 1980s, while enjoying the success of her big band jazz collaborations with Riddle and her surprise hit mariachi recordings, Ronstadt elected to return to recording mainstream pop music once again. In 1987, she made a return to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart with "Somewhere Out There", which peaked at number 2 in March.[94] Featured in the animated film An American Tail, the sentimental duet with James Ingram was nominated for several Grammy Awards, ultimately winning the Grammy Award for Song of the Year. The song also received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Song and achieved high sales, earning a million-selling gold single in the U.S. – one of the last 45s ever to do so. It was also accompanied by a popular music video. On the heels of this success, Steven Spielberg asked Ronstadt to record the theme song for the animated sequel titled An American Tail: Fievel Goes West, which was titled "Dreams to Dream". Although "Dreams to Dream" failed to achieve the success of "Somewhere Out There", the song did give Ronstadt an Adult Contemporary hit in 1991.

In 1989, Ronstadt released a mainstream pop album and several popular singles. Cry Like A Rainstorm, Howl Like The Wind became one of the singer's most successful albums – in production, arrangements, sales, and critical acclaim. It became Ronstadt's tenth Top 10 album on the Billboard chart, reaching number 7 and being certified triple-platinum[93] (over three million copies sold in the U.S.). The album also received Grammy Award nominations.[139] Ronstadt included New Orleans soul singer Aaron Neville on several of the album's songs.

Ronstadt incorporated the sounds of the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir, Tower of Power horns, the Skywalker Symphony, and numerous musicians. It included the duets with Aaron Neville, "Don't Know Much" (Billboard Hot 100 number 2 hit, Christmas 1989[94]) and "All My Life" (Billboard Hot 100 number 11 hit), both of which were long-running number 1 Adult Contemporary hits. The duets earned several Grammy Award nominations. The duo won both the 1989 and 1990 Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal awards. Ronstadt's last known live Grammy Award appearance was in 1990 when she and Neville performed "Don't Know Much" together on the telecast.[55] ("Whenever I sing with a different artist, I can get things out of my voice that I can't do by myself", Ronstadt reflected in 2007. "I can do things with Aaron that I can't do alone.")[140]

In December 1990, she participated in a concert held at the Tokyo Dome to commemorate John Lennon's 50th birthday, and to raise awareness of environmental issues. Other participants included Miles Davis, Lenny Kravitz, Hall & Oates, Natalie Cole, Yoko Ono, and Sean Lennon. An album resulted, titled Happy Birthday, John.[141]

Return to roots music

Ronstadt released the highly acclaimed Winter Light album at the end of 1993. It included New Age arrangements such as the lead single "Heartbeats Accelerating" as well as the self-penned title track and featured the glass harmonica. It was her first commercial failure since 1972, and peaked at number 92 in Billboard, whereas 1995's Feels Like Home was Ronstadt's much-heralded return to country-rock and included her version of Tom Petty's classic hit "The Waiting". The single's rollicking, fiddle-infused flip side, "Walk On", returned Ronstadt to the Country Singles chart for the first time since 1983. An album track entitled "The Blue Train" charted 10 weeks in Billboard's Adult Contemporary Top 40. This album fared slightly better than its predecessor, reaching number 75. Both albums were later deleted from the Elektra/Asylum catalog. Ronstadt was nominated for three Lo Nuestro Awards in 1993: Female Regional Mexican Artist of the Year, Female Tropical/Salsa Artist of the Year, and her version of the song "Perfidia" was also listed for Tropical/Salsa Song of the Year.[142]

In 1996, Ronstadt produced Dedicated to the One I Love, an album of classic rock and roll songs reinvented as lullabies. The album reached number 78 in Billboard and won the Grammy Award for Best Musical Album for Children.

In 1998, Ronstadt released We Ran, her first album in over two years. The album harkened back to Ronstadt's country-rock and folk-rock heyday. She returned to her rock 'n' roll roots with vivid interpretations of songs by Bruce Springsteen, Doc Pomus, Bob Dylan, and John Hiatt. The recording was produced by Glyn Johns. A commercial failure, the album stood at 57,897 copies sold at the time of its deletion in 2008. It is the poorest-selling studio album in Ronstadt's Elektra/Asylum catalog. We Ran did not chart any singles but it was well received by critics.

Despite the lack of success of We Ran, Ronstadt kept moving towards this adult rock exploration. In the summer of 1999, she released the album Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions, a folk-rock-oriented project with Emmylou Harris. It earned a nomination for the Grammy Award for the Best Contemporary Folk Album and made the Top 10 of Billboard's Country Albums chart. Still in print as of December 2016, it has sold 223,255 copies per Nielsen SoundScan.[citation needed]

Also in 1999, Ronstadt went back to her concert roots when she performed with the Eagles and Jackson Browne at Staples Center's 1999 New Year's Eve celebration kicking off the December 31 end-of-the-millennium festivities. As Staples Center Senior Vice President and general manager Bobby Goldwater said, "It was our goal to present a spectacular event as a sendoff to the 20th century", and "Eagles, Jackson Browne, and Linda Ronstadt are three of the most popular acts of the century. Their performances will constitute a singular and historic night of entertainment for New Year's Eve in Los Angeles."[143]

In 2000, Ronstadt completed her long contractual relationship with the Elektra/Asylum label. The fulfillment of this contract commenced with the release of A Merry Little Christmas, her first holiday collection, which includes rare choral works, the somber Joni Mitchell song "River", and a rare recorded duet with the late Rosemary Clooney on Clooney's signature song, "White Christmas".

Since leaving Warner Music, Ronstadt has gone on to release one album each under Verve and Vanguard Records.

Your musical soul is like facets of a jewel, and you stick out one facet at a time ... (and) I tend to work real hard on whatever it is I do, to get it up to speed, up to a professional level. I tend to bury myself in one thing for years at a time.

—Linda Ronstadt[37]

In 2006, recording as the ZoZo Sisters, Ronstadt teamed with her new friend, musician and musical scholar Ann Savoy, to record Adieu False Heart. It was an album of roots music incorporating pop, Cajun, and early-20th-century music and released on the Vanguard Records label. But Adieu False Heart was a commercial failure, peaking at number 146 in the U.S. despite her touring for the final time that year. It was the last time Linda Ronstadt would record an album, having begun to lose her singing ability as a result of a degenerative condition later determined to be progressive supranuclear palsy, but initially diagnosed as Parkinson's disease, in December 2012. Adieu False Heart, recorded in Louisiana, features a cast of local musicians, including Chas Justus, Eric Frey and Kevin Wimmer of the Red Stick Ramblers, Sam Broussard of the Mamou Playboys, Dirk Powell, and Joel Savoy, as well as an array of Nashville musicians: fiddler Stuart Duncan, mandolinist Sam Bush, and guitarist Bryan Sutton. The recording earned two Grammy Award nominations: Best Traditional Folk Album and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical.

In 2007, Ronstadt contributed to the compilation album We All Love Ella: Celebrating the First Lady of Song – a tribute album to jazz music's all-time most heralded artist – on the track "Miss Otis Regrets".[144]

In August 2007, Ronstadt headlined the Newport Folk Festival, making her debut at this event, where she incorporated jazz, rock, and folk music into her repertoire. It was one of her final concerts.

In 2010, Ronstadt contributed the arrangement and lead vocal to "A La Orilla de un Palmar" on the Chieftains' studio album San Patricio (with Ry Cooder). This remains her most recent commercially available recording as lead vocalist.

Retirement

In 2011, Ronstadt was interviewed by the Arizona Daily Star and announced her retirement.[45] In August 2013, she revealed to Alanna Nash, writing for AARP, that she has Parkinson's disease and "can no longer sing a note."[145] Her diagnosis was subsequently re-evaluated as progressive supranuclear palsy.[24] Her memoir Feels Like Home: A Song for the Sonoran Borderlands was published in 2022.[146]

Selected career achievements

 
Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris receiving honors from Berklee, 2009

On April 10, 2014, Ronstadt was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.[147] In July 2019, Ronstadt was selected as a Kennedy Center Honoree.[148] On May 7, 2022, during the International Mariachi Conference, the Tucson Music Hall at the Tucson Convention Center was officially renamed as The Linda Ronstadt Music Hall.[149]

As of 2019, Ronstadt has earned three number-one pop albums, 10 top-ten pop albums, and 38 charting pop albums on the Billboard Pop Album Charts. She has 15 albums on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart, including four that hit number one. Ronstadt's singles have earned her a number-one hit and three number-two hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, with 10 top-ten pop singles and 21 reaching the Top 40. She has also scored two number-one hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, and two number-one hits on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart. Rolling Stone wrote that a whole generation "but for her, might never have heard the work of Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, or Elvis Costello."[82]

She has recorded and released over 30 studio albums and has made guest appearances on an estimated 120 albums by other artists. Her guest appearances included the classical minimalist Philip Glass's album Songs from Liquid Days, a hit classical record with other major pop stars either singing or writing lyrics (Ronstadt's two tracks on the album saw her singing lyrics written by Suzanne Vega and Laurie Anderson). She also appeared on Glass's follow-up recording 1000 Airplanes on the Roof. She appeared on Paul Simon's Graceland, where she sang a duet with Simon, "Under African Skies". In that song, there is a verse dedicated to Ronstadt, her voice and harmonies and her birth in Tucson, Arizona. She voiced herself in The Simpsons episode "Mr. Plow" and sang a duet, "Funny How Time Slips Away", with Homer Simpson on The Yellow Album.

Ronstadt has also appeared on albums by a vast range of artists including Emmylou Harris, the Chieftains, Dolly Parton, Neil Young, J. D. Souther, Gram Parsons, Bette Midler, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Earl Scruggs, the Eagles, Andrew Gold, Wendy Waldman, Hoyt Axton, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Ann Savoy, Karla Bonoff, James Taylor, Jimmy Webb, Valerie Carter, Warren Zevon, Maria Muldaur, Randy Newman (specifically his musical adaptation of Faust), Nicolette Larson, the Seldom Scene, Rosemary Clooney, Aaron Neville, Rodney Crowell, Hearts and Flowers, Laurie Lewis and Flaco Jiménez. As a singer-songwriter, Ronstadt has written songs covered by several artists, such as "Try Me Again", covered by Trisha Yearwood; and "Winter Light", which was co-written and composed with Zbigniew Preisner and Eric Kaz, and covered by Sarah Brightman.

Her three biggest-selling studio albums to date are: her 1977 release Simple Dreams, 1983's What's New, and 1989's Cry Like A Rainstorm, Howl Like The Wind. Each one has been certified by the Recording Industry Association of America for over three million copies sold. Her highest-selling album to date is the 1976 compilation Greatest Hits, certified for over seven million units sold as of 2001.[93] Ronstadt became music's first major touring female artist to sell out sizeable venues; she was also the top-grossing solo female concert artist for the 1970s.[39] She remained a highly successful touring artist into the 1990s, at which time she decided to scale back to smaller venues. In the 1970s, Cashbox magazine, a competitor of Billboard during that time period, named Ronstadt the "#1 Female Artist of the Decade".[29] "Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" included Heart Like a Wheel (1974) at number 164 and The Very Best Of Linda Ronstadt (2002) at number 324.[150] The 2012 revision kept only the compilation, but raised it to the place once occupied by Heart Like a Wheel.

Ronstadt's album sales have not been certified since 2001. At that time, Ronstadt's U.S. album sales were certified by the Recording Industry Association of America at over 30 million albums sold; however, Peter Asher, her former producer and manager, placed her total U.S. album sales at over 45 million.[49] Likewise, her worldwide albums sales are in excess of 100 million albums sold, according to the former president of Warner Bros. Records, Joe Smith, now a jury member of the Hit Parade Hall of Fame.[151] Her RIAA certification (audits paid for by record companies or artists for promotion) tally as of 2001 totaled 19 Gold, 14 Platinum and 7 Multi-Platinum albums.[93] She was the first female in music history to score three consecutive platinum albums and ultimately racked up a total of eight consecutive platinum albums.[47] Her album Living in the USA was the first album by any recording artist in U.S. music history to ship double platinum (over two million advanced copies).[39] Her first Latin release, the all-Spanish 1987 album Canciones De Mi Padre, stands as the best-selling non-English-language album in American music history. As of 2013, it had sold over 212 million U.S. copies.

Ronstadt has served as producer on albums from various musicians that include her cousin, David Lindley, Aaron Neville and singer-songwriter Jimmy Webb.[152] She produced Cristal – Glass Music Through the Ages, an album of classical music using glass instruments with Dennis James, where she sang on several of the arrangements.[153] In 1999, Ronstadt also produced the Grammy Award-winning Trio II. She has received a total of 27 Grammy Award nominations in various fields that include rock, country, pop and Tropical Latin, and has won 11 Grammy Awards in the categories of Pop, Country, Tropical Latin, Musical Album for Children and Mexican-American. In 2016, Ronstadt was again honored by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences with the Lifetime Achievement Grammy.

She was the first female solo artist to have two Top 5 singles simultaneously on Billboard magazine's Hot 100: "Blue Bayou" and "It's So Easy". By December of that year, both "Blue Bayou" and "It's So Easy" had climbed into Billboard's Top 5 and remained there for the month's last four weeks.[154] In 1999, Ronstadt ranked number 21 in VH1's 100 Greatest Women of Rock & Roll. Three years later, she ranked number 40 in CMT's 40 Greatest Women in Country Music.

Personal life

 
Jerry Brown (pictured) had a high-profile relationship with Ronstadt when he was the governor of California in the late 1970s.

Beginning in the mid-1970s, Ronstadt's private life became increasingly public. It was fueled by a relationship with then-Governor of California Jerry Brown, a Democratic presidential candidate. They shared a Newsweek magazine cover in April 1979,[155] as well as the covers of Us Weekly and People magazine.

In 1983, Linda Ronstadt dated comedian Jim Carrey for eight months.[156] From the end of 1983 to 1988, Ronstadt was engaged to Star Wars director George Lucas.[157]

In December 1990, she adopted an infant daughter, Mary Clementine Ronstadt.[158] In 1994, she adopted a baby boy, Carlos Ronstadt.[159] Ronstadt has never married.[160] Speaking of finding an acceptable mate, in 1974 she told Peter Knobler in Crawdaddy, "... he's real kind but isn't inspired musically and then you meet somebody else that's just so inspired musically that he just takes your breath away but he's such a moron, such a maniac that you can't get along with him. And then after that it's the problem of finding someone that can stand you!"[161]

In the late 1980s, after living in Los Angeles for 30 years, Ronstadt moved to San Francisco because she said she never felt at home in Southern California.[159] "Los Angeles became too enclosing an environment", she says. "I couldn't breathe the air and I didn't want to drive on the freeways to get to the studio. I also didn't want to embrace the values that have been so completely embraced by that city. Are you glamorous? Are you rich? Are you important? Do you have clout? It's just not me and it never was me."[54] In 1997, Ronstadt sold her home in San Francisco and moved back to her hometown of Tucson, Arizona, to raise her two children.[159] In more recent years, Ronstadt moved back to San Francisco while continuing to maintain her home in Tucson.

In 2009, in honor of Ronstadt, the Martin Guitar Company made a 00–42 model "Linda Ronstadt Limited Edition" acoustic guitar. Ronstadt appointed the Land Institute as recipient of all proceeds from her signature guitar.[162]

In 2013, Simon & Schuster published her autobiography,[163][164] Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir, as well as the Spanish version, Sueños Sencillos – Memorias Musicales.[165]

In August 2013, Ronstadt revealed she was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, leaving her unable to sing due to loss of muscular control, which is common to Parkinson's patients. She was diagnosed eight months prior to the announcement and had initially attributed the symptoms she had been experiencing to the aftereffects of shoulder surgery and a tick bite.[166][167] In late 2019, it was reported her doctors had revised their diagnosis to progressive supranuclear palsy, a degenerative disease commonly mistaken for Parkinson's due to the similarity of the symptoms.[24]

Ronstadt describes herself as a "spiritual atheist".[168]

Political activism

Ronstadt's politics received criticism and praise during and after her July 17, 2004, performance at the Aladdin Theatre for the Performing Arts in Las Vegas. Toward the end of the show, as she had done across the country, Ronstadt spoke to the audience, praising Fahrenheit 9/11, Michael Moore's documentary film about the Iraq War; she dedicated the song "Desperado" to Moore.[169] Accounts say the crowd's initial reaction was mixed, with "half the crowd heartily applauding her praise for Moore, (and) the other half booing."[169]

Following the concert, news accounts reported Ronstadt was "evicted" from the hotel premises.[170] Ronstadt's comments, as well as the reactions of some audience members and the hotel, became a topic of discussion nationwide. Aladdin casino president Bill Timmins and Michael Moore each made public statements about the controversy.[171]

The incident prompted international headlines and debate on an entertainer's right to express a political opinion from the stage and made the editorial section of The New York Times.[172] Following the incident, many friends of Ronstadt's, including the Eagles, immediately cancelled their engagements at the Aladdin.[55] Ronstadt also received telegrams of support from her rock 'n' roll friends around the world like the Rolling Stones, the Eagles and Elton John. Amid reports of mixed public response, Ronstadt continued her praise of Moore and his film throughout her 2004 and 2006 summer concerts across North America.

At a 2006 concert in Canada, Ronstadt told the Calgary Sun that she was "embarrassed George Bush (was) from the United States. ... He's an idiot. ... He's enormously incompetent on both the domestic and international scenes. ... Now the fact that we were lied to about the reasons for entering into war against Iraq and thousands of people have died‍—‌it's just as immoral as racism." Her remarks drew international headlines. In an August 14, 2007, interview, she commented on all her well-publicized, outspoken views, in particular the Aladdin incident, by noting, "If I had it to do over I would be much more gracious to everyone ... you can be as outspoken as you want if you are very, very respectful. Show some grace".[173]

In 2007, Ronstadt resided in San Francisco while also maintaining her home in Tucson.[174] That same year, she drew criticism and praise[175] from Tucsonans for commenting that local city council's failings, developers' strip mall mentality, greed and growing dust problem had rendered the city unrecognizable and poorly developed.[176]

In August 2009, Ronstadt, in a well-publicized interview to PlanetOut Inc. titled "Linda Ronstadt's Gay Mission", championed gay rights and same-sex marriage, and stated "homophobia is anti-family values. Period, end of story."[177]

On January 16, 2010, Ronstadt converged with thousands of other activists in a "National Day of Action". Ronstadt stated that her "dog in the fight" – as a native Arizonan and coming from a law enforcement family – was the treatment of illegal aliens and Arizona's enforcement of its illegal immigrant law, especially Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's efforts in that area.[178]

On April 29, 2010, Ronstadt began a campaign, including joining a lawsuit,[179] against Arizona's new illegal-immigration law SB 1070 calling it a "devastating blow to law enforcement ... the police don't protect us in a democracy with brute force", something she said she learned from her brother, Peter, who was Chief of Police in Tucson.[180]

Ronstadt has also been outspoken on environmental and community issues. She is a major supporter and admirer of sustainable agriculture pioneer Wes Jackson, saying in 2000, "the work he's doing right now is the most important work there is in the (United States)",[157] and dedicating the rock anthem "Desperado" to him at an August 2007 concert in Kansas City, Kansas.[181]

National arts advocacy

In the United States we spend millions of dollars on sports because it promotes teamwork, discipline, and the experience of learning to make great progress in small increments. Learning to play music together does all this and more.

Congressional testimony from Linda Ronstadt[182]

In 2004, Ronstadt wrote the foreword to the book The NPR Curious Listener's Guide to American Folk Music,[183] and in 2005, she wrote the introduction to the book Classic Ferrington Guitars, about guitar-maker and luthier Danny Ferrington and the custom guitars that he created for Ronstadt and other musicians such as Elvis Costello, Ry Cooder, and Kurt Cobain.[184]

Ronstadt has been honored for her contribution to the American arts. On September 23, 2007, she was inducted into the Arizona Music & Entertainment Hall of Fame, along with Stevie Nicks, Buck Owens, and filmmaker Steven Spielberg.[185] On August 17, 2008, Ronstadt received a tribute by various artists, including BeBe Winans and Wynonna Judd, when she was honored with the Trailblazer Award, presented to her by Plácido Domingo at the 2008 ALMA Awards,[186] a ceremony later televised in the U.S. on ABC.

In 2008, Ronstadt was appointed artistic director of the San José Mariachi and Mexican Heritage Festival.[187][188] On March 31, 2009, in testimony that the Los Angeles Times termed "remarkable",[189] Ronstadt spoke to the United States Congress House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment & Related Agencies, attempting to convince lawmakers to budget $200 million in the 2010 fiscal year for the National Endowment of the Arts.[188]

In May 2009, Ronstadt received an honorary doctorate of music degree from the Berklee College of Music for her achievements and influence in music and her contributions to American and international culture.[190] Mix magazine stated that "Linda Ronstadt (has) left her mark on more than the record business; her devotion to the craft of singing influenced many audio professionals ... (and is) intensely knowledgeable about the mechanics of singing and the cultural contexts of every genre she passes".[56]

Awards and nominations

Grammy Awards

Year Category Nominated work Result Ref.
1971 Best Contemporary Vocal Performance, Female "Long, Long Time" Nominated [191]
1976 Album of the Year Heart Like a Wheel Nominated
Best Contemporary Vocal Performance, Female Nominated
Best Country Vocal Performance, Female "I Can't Help It (If I'm Still in Love with You)" Won
1977 Best Contemporary Vocal Performance, Female Hasten Down the Wind Won
1978 "Blue Bayou" Nominated
Record of the Year Nominated
1981 Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female "How Do I Make You" Nominated
1983 "Get Closer" Nominated
Best Female Vocal Pop Performance Get Closer Nominated
1984 What's New Nominated
1986 Lush Life Nominated
1988 Album of the Year Trio (with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris) Nominated
Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal Won
Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals "Somewhere Out There" (with James Ingram) Nominated
1989 Best Mexican-American Performance Canciones de Mi Padre Won
1990 Best Female Vocal Pop Performance Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind Nominated
Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals "Don't Know Much" (with Aaron Neville) Won
1991 "All My Life" (with Aaron Neville) Won
1993 Best Tropical Latin Album Frenesí Won
Best Mexican-American Album Mas Canciones Won
1997 Best Musical Album for Children Dedicated to the One I Love Won
2000 Best Country Album Trio II (with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris) Nominated
Best Contemporary Folk Album Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions (with Emmylou Harris) Nominated
Best Country Collaboration with Vocals "After the Gold Rush" (with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris) Won
2007 Best Traditional Folk Album Adieu False Heart (with Ann Savoy) Nominated
2016 Lifetime Achievement Award Won
2021 Best Music Film Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice Won

Latin Grammy Awards

Year Category Nominated work Result Ref.
2011 Lifetime Achievement Award Won [192]

Primetime Emmy Awards

Tony Awards

Year Category Nominated work Result Ref.
1981 Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical The Pirates of Penzance Nominated

Golden Globe Awards

  • 1983 – Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical or Comedy, Linda Ronstadt in The Pirates of Penzance
Year Category Nominated work Result Ref.
1983 Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical The Pirates of Penzance Nominated

Arizona Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame

  • 2007 – Inducted for her significant impact on the evolution and development of the entertainment culture in the state of Arizona

Academy of Country Music

  • 1974 – Best New Female Artist
  • 1987 – Album of the Year/ Trio, Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris

Country Music Association

  • 1988 – Vocal Event of the Year / Trio, Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris

American Latino Media Arts

  • 2008 – Trailblazer Award for Contribution to American Music[194]

Lo Nuestro nominations

Kennedy Center

Discography

Filmography

Film, television and theater
Year Title Role Notes
1968–1969 It's Happening herself 2 episodes
1969–1971 The Johnny Cash Show herself 4 episodes
1970 Hee Haw herself episode: "1.28"
1970 Playboy After Dark herself; singer 2 episodes
1970 The Darin Invasion herself television film
1975 Cher herself episode: "1.10"
1977–1989 Saturday Night Live herself; musical guest 4 episodes
1978 FM herself – Concert Performance Movie
1980 The Pirates of Penzance Mabel Stanley television film
1980 The Muppet Show herself episode: "5.23"
1981–1982 The Pirates of Penzance Mabel Stanley nominated – Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical
1983 The Pirates of Penzance Mabel Stanley nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
1984 La bohème Mimi
1987 Corridos! Tales of Passion and Revolution La Chata and Adelita
1988 Canciones de Mi Padre vocalist winner – Primetime Emmy Award for Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program
1989 Sesame Street herself, musical guest 1 episode
1991 Great Performances San Miguel episode: "La Pastorela"
1992 The Simpsons herself Episode: "Mr. Plow"
1993 The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles Peggy (singing voice) episode: "Young Indiana Jones and the Scandal of 1920"
2019 Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice Herself, both in person and archive footage
2020 Linda and the Mockingbirds Herself, both in person and archive footage

Books

  • Ronstadt, Linda (2013). Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir (First Simon & Schuster hardcover ed.). New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4516-6872-8. OCLC 829743967.
  • Ronstadt, Linda (2022). Feels Like Home: A Song for the Sonoran Borderlands. New York: Heyday Books. ISBN 978-1597145794. OCLC 1290245461.

Explanatory notes

  1. ^ Ronstadt was initially diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, which she publicly revealed in 2013. However, it was reported in late 2019 that doctors have revised their diagnosis to progressive supranuclear palsy, which is commonly mistaken for Parkinson's due to the similarity of symptoms.

References

  1. ^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Linda Ronstadt > Biography". AllMusic. Retrieved December 13, 2009.
  2. ^ "Linda Ronstadt". Grammys.com. from the original on January 2, 2020. Retrieved March 10, 2019.
  3. ^ "2014 Induction Ceremony The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum". Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. October 16, 2013. from the original on October 17, 2013. Retrieved October 16, 2013.
  4. ^ "President Obama Honors Linda Ronstadt, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Others in Art and Humanities Ceremony". Daily News. New York. Associated Press. July 28, 2014. from the original on November 25, 2015. Retrieved November 23, 2015.
  5. ^ Silverman, Stephen M. (July 20, 2004). "Ronstadt Booted After Pro-Moore Comment". People. from the original on July 29, 2018. Retrieved July 28, 2018.
  6. ^ "Interview: Linda Ronstadt defends her politics". Edmonton Sun. August 10, 2006. Archived from the original on January 15, 2013. Retrieved October 2, 2015.
  7. ^ Kruger, Debbie (July 19, 1998). "Everlasting Linda". The Weekend Australian. from the original on October 31, 2015. Retrieved October 2, 2015.
  8. ^ "Linda Ronstadt: Female Rocker". Fusion. December 26, 1969. from the original on March 14, 2012. Retrieved October 2, 2015.
  9. ^ "A Heart To Heart with Linda Ronstadt". Creem. December 1976. from the original on October 13, 2014. Retrieved October 2, 2015.
  10. ^ "Interview". The San Diego Union-Tribune. from the original on May 4, 2012. Retrieved October 2, 2015.
  11. ^ "Linda Ronstadt rocks with jazz sophistication". August 4, 2007. from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved October 2, 2015.
  12. ^ "Linda Ronstadt lets wisdom strike notes". The Honolulu Advertiser. March 31, 2006. from the original on January 3, 2016. Retrieved October 2, 2015.
  13. ^ "Linda Ronstadt: Melancholy Baby". Esquire. October 1985. from the original on March 16, 2015. Retrieved October 2, 2015.
  14. ^ a b c d e f "Not My Job: Linda Ronstadt". Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!. NPR. April 28, 2007. from the original on October 3, 2015. Retrieved October 2, 2015.
  15. ^ Some of the content of the lead section is supported by these news items:[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]
  16. ^ Hermanson, Wendy (June 26, 2018). "Faith Hill, Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt Getting Stars on Hollywood Walk of Fame". Taste of Country. from the original on June 27, 2018. Retrieved October 9, 2020.
  17. ^ "Powerful Country Women Getting Stars on Hollywood Walk of Fame". Taste of Country. from the original on September 4, 2018. Retrieved August 24, 2018.
  18. ^ "Linda Ronstadt". Official Charts Company. from the original on May 8, 2019. Retrieved September 25, 2009.
  19. ^ "Don't Know Much". Official Charts Company. from the original on June 3, 2015. Retrieved September 25, 2009.
  20. ^ . Playboy After Dark DVD Collection. Archived from the original on August 21, 2006. Retrieved December 13, 2012.
  21. ^ Partridge, Tony (September 12, 2006). (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on May 9, 2008. Retrieved August 30, 2007.http://lyricswww.ronstadt-linda.com/guestapp.doc November 24, 2015, at the Wayback Machine
  22. ^ Ward, Bruce (December 27, 2013). "Musical memoirs hit some high notes". Ottawa Citizen. from the original on February 21, 2014. Retrieved February 14, 2014.
  23. ^ a b Loudon, Christopher (December 2004). . JazzTimes. Archived from the original on April 13, 2007. Retrieved April 19, 2007.
  24. ^ a b c d McCarthy, Ellen (December 3, 2019). "Linda Ronstadt never stopped singing". The Washington Post. from the original on December 4, 2019. Retrieved December 4, 2019.
  25. ^ Ronstadt, Linda (2013). Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4516-6872-8. OCLC 829743967.
  26. ^ . University of Arizona Press. 2003. Archived from the original on February 10, 2007. Retrieved May 7, 2007.
  27. ^ Bego, Mark (1990). Linda Ronstadt: It's So Easy. Eakin Press. pp. 9–11. ISBN 0-89015-775-8.
  28. ^ Ronstadt, Deborah J. (1953). . Family Circle. Archived from the original on September 29, 2007. Retrieved May 17, 2007.
  29. ^ a b c d e f g h Vallely, Jean (April 1980). "Playboy Interview: Linda Ronstadt". Playboy. from the original on December 5, 2007. Retrieved May 7, 2007.
  30. ^ "Tucson's Ronstadt Family". Through Our Parents' Eyes: History and Culture of Southern Arizona. Arizona Library. from the original on February 23, 2007. Retrieved April 9, 2007.
  31. ^ . The University of Arizona Archives. Archived from the original on September 4, 2006. Retrieved October 3, 2007.
  32. ^ . Early Pioneers of Tucson. September 2011. Archived from the original on June 18, 2006. Retrieved May 16, 2007.
  33. ^ McLeese, Don (June 1992). . Ford Times. Archived from the original on December 5, 2007. Retrieved October 30, 2006.http://www.ronstadt-linda.com/ford_times.html March 5, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
  34. ^ Bluestein, T (August 1991). "Tucson Opens Ronstadt Transit Center". Bus World. Vol. 13, no. 4. Retrieved June 5, 2010.
  35. ^ Ronstadt, Linda (2013). Simple Dreams:a Musical Memoir. New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 2. ISBN 978-1-4516-6872-8.
  36. ^ "LloydCopeman.com Prolific U.S. Inventor". LloydCopeman.com. from the original on April 13, 2007. Retrieved April 9, 2007.
  37. ^ a b c d e f g DeYoung, Bill (February 21, 2003). "Home at Last: The Journey of Linda Ronstadt". Goldmine. No. 589. from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved April 28, 2014.
  38. ^ a b c d e McGrath, T. J. (June–July 2003). . Dirty Linen Issue No. 106. Archived from the original on July 17, 2004. Retrieved November 15, 2012.
  39. ^ a b c d e f Hirshey, Gerri (June 2002). We Gotta Get Out of This Place: The True, Tough Story of Women in Rock. Grove Press. p. 86. ISBN 9780802138996. from the original on January 3, 2016. Retrieved May 11, 2007.
  40. ^ a b c d Herbst, Peter (October 19, 1978). "Rock's Venus Takes Control of Her Affairs (as reprinted in Herbst, The Rolling Stone Interviews, 1989)". Rolling Stone. ISBN 9780312034863. from the original on January 3, 2016. Retrieved November 15, 2012 – via Google Books.
  41. ^ a b Hamill, Pete (July 21, 1980). Linda Ronstadt, Pirate Queen. p. 23. from the original on January 3, 2016. Retrieved November 15, 2012.
  42. ^ Connelly, Christopher (October 13, 1983). . Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on August 16, 2017. Retrieved November 15, 2012.
  43. ^ Gioia, Michael (August 26, 2013). . Playbill. Archived from the original on October 4, 2013. Retrieved October 3, 2013.
  44. ^ Bruns, Mary Ellin (January 8, 1984). "Ronstadt: The Gamble Pays Off Big". Family Weekly. from the original on January 5, 2008. Retrieved April 9, 2007.
  45. ^ a b Burch, Cathalena E. (April 22, 2011). "Ronstadt: Legacy 'Belongs 100 Percent to Nelson'". Arizona Daily Star. Archived from the original on July 22, 2013. Retrieved September 4, 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  46. ^ "RIAA – Gold & Platinum Searchable Database". Recording Industry Association of America. from the original on January 4, 2013. Retrieved November 15, 2012. (Search for "Ronstadt, Linda")
  47. ^ a b c "Linda Ronstadt Top Pop Albums". Joel Whitburn presents the Billboard Albums 6th ed. (2007). ronstadt-linda.com. Retrieved April 19, 2007.
  48. ^ . lindaronstadt.de. Linda Ronstadt (DE) fan site. Archived from the original on November 8, 2010. Retrieved November 15, 2010.[dubious ]
  49. ^ a b c Kruger, Debbie (June 17, 1998). "Linda Ronstadt Interview 17 June 1998 at Linda's home in Tucson, Arizona". debbiekruger.com. from the original on September 28, 2007. Retrieved July 6, 2007.
  50. ^ a b c Leach, Anita Mabante (August 2007). . Archived from the original on December 22, 2008. Retrieved November 25, 2012.
  51. ^ a b Burlingame, Burl. "Silver threads golden moments: After 35 years, Linda Ronstadt returns to sing in Diamond Head Crater". Honolulu Star-Bulletin. from the original on August 8, 2010. Retrieved April 9, 2007.
  52. ^ McGrath, T.J. "Linda Ronstadt: Silver Threads & Golden Needles". No. #106 – June/July 2003. Dirty Linen. from the original on March 5, 2016. Retrieved November 15, 2015.
  53. ^ "Sanity on the Line Every Show". Hit Parader. February 1971. from the original on March 31, 2016. Retrieved May 7, 2007.
  54. ^ a b Holden, Stephen (April 19, 1995). "At Lunch With: Linda Ronstadt; And This Is What 48 Looks Like". The New York Times. from the original on May 18, 2013. Retrieved September 5, 2011.
  55. ^ a b c "Linda Ronstadt: Forum with Michael Krasny" (MP3, transcript). KQED-FM radio. July 19, 2006. from the original on September 29, 2007. Retrieved July 6, 2007.
  56. ^ a b c d e f g Daley, Dan (December 1, 2000). . Mix. Archived from the original on November 13, 2005. Retrieved May 7, 2007.http://www.mixonline.com/news/profiles/linda-ronstadt/365380 March 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
  57. ^ a b c Barnard, Russ (October 1978). "Linda Ronstadt: The Queen of Rock & Roll is also a Queen of Country Music". Country Music. from the original on August 8, 2007. Retrieved May 11, 2007.
  58. ^ a b Lewis, Randy (August 20, 2010). "Linda Ronstadt remembers Kenny Edwards: 'A beacon to me'". Los Angeles Times. from the original on August 23, 2010. Retrieved September 4, 2010.
  59. ^ a b c d Orloff, Katherine (1974). Rock 'n' Roll Woman. Nash Pub. from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved May 8, 2007.
  60. ^ Claire, Vivian (1978). Linda Ronstadt. New York: Flash Books. p. 10. ISBN 0-8256-3918-2.
  61. ^ "Linda Ronstadt". Rhapsody. from the original on July 4, 2011. Retrieved April 1, 2009.
  62. ^ . The Linda Ronstadt Download Center. westhamptonpg personal webpage. Archived from the original on December 17, 2005. Retrieved June 16, 2007.
  63. ^ "Linda Ronstadt's 1969–1974 Capitol Records Solo Output Presented in New 2-CD Collection, 'The Best Of Linda Ronstadt: The Capitol Years'". PR Newswire. November 8, 2005. from the original on October 11, 2007. Retrieved September 30, 2007.
  64. ^ a b c Shapiro, Gregg (February 1, 2003). "The Very Best: Linda Ronstadt". Windy City Times. from the original on November 21, 2006. Retrieved July 31, 2008.
  65. ^ Eliot, Marc (December 29, 2004). To the Limit: The Untold Story of the Eagles. Da Capo Press. pp. 119–. ISBN 978-0-306-81398-6. Retrieved December 15, 2016.
  66. ^ Crowe, Cameron (December 2, 1976). "Linda Ronstadt: The Million-Dollar Woman". Rolling Stone. from the original on July 6, 2008. Retrieved July 31, 2008.
  67. ^ Knobler, Peter. "Linda Ronstadt: It's Not That Easy Being the Pretty Girl on the Block" March 5, 2016, at the Wayback Machine Crawdaddy, June 1974.
  68. ^ a b Senoff, Pete (December 26, 1969). "Female Rocker Roundup: Linda Ronstadt, Lynn Carey, Lydia Pense, Nansi Nevins – Part 1". Fusion. from the original on March 14, 2012. Retrieved November 25, 2012.
  69. ^ a b Senoff, Pete (December 26, 1969). "Female Rocker Roundup: Linda Ronstadt, Lynn Carey, Lydia Pense, Nansi Nevins – Part 2". Fusion Magazine. from the original on March 14, 2012. Retrieved November 25, 2012. (Part 1 March 14, 2012, at the Wayback Machine)
  70. ^ jason (May 20, 2007). "Swampwater "Swampwater"". The Rising Storm. from the original on June 9, 2007. Retrieved June 14, 2007.
  71. ^ Roberts, John (May 2003). "John Beland". The Barking Spider. from the original on August 3, 2007. Retrieved June 14, 2007.
  72. ^ . Swampwater. Archived from the original on June 9, 2007. Retrieved June 14, 2007.
  73. ^ See generally Tom King, The Operator: David Geffen Builds, Buys, and Sells the New Hollywood, p. 159, 173, Broadway Books (New York 2001).
  74. ^ a b c d e Fong-Torres, Ben (1999). "Linda Ronstadt, Heartbreak on Wheels (Rolling Stone, March 27, 1975)". Not Fade Away: A Backstage Pass to 20 Years of Rock & Roll. pp. 209–220. ISBN 978-0-87930-590-1. from the original on January 11, 2014. Retrieved November 25, 2012.
  75. ^ a b "And then there were two ... Linda Ronstadt talks about her friend Emmylou Harris, and about the unhappy end of the Trio project". Goldmine. August 2, 1996. from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved May 11, 2007.
  76. ^ a b Ryder, Caroline (October 2007). . Swindle. Archived from the original on October 25, 2007. Retrieved November 25, 2012.
  77. ^ . AltSounds.com. July 26, 2011. Archived from the original on October 3, 2012. Retrieved July 26, 2011.
  78. ^ "Gypsy Eyes, Interview 1968". Cleveland Scene. from the original on August 8, 2007. Retrieved May 8, 2007.
  79. ^ "Sexy new sweetheart for country western". Country Western Stars. March 1970. from the original on January 9, 2008. Retrieved April 8, 2008.
  80. ^ Varga, George (November 21, 2004). "A 'song interpreter' for her times: Linda Ronstadt is ready to give jazz another whirl". U-T San Diego. from the original on December 25, 2008. Retrieved August 1, 2008.
  81. ^ a b . Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on November 6, 2012. Retrieved April 6, 2008.
  82. ^ a b . Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on December 2, 2017. Retrieved November 24, 2012.
  83. ^ "Linda Ronstadt's New Old Flame- Mexican Music 1. "I'm Not Good at Doing What I'm Told"". American Way. April 1, 1988. from the original on May 9, 2008. Retrieved July 31, 2008.
  84. ^ Caffery, Joshua Clegg (July 26, 2006). . The Independent Weekly. Archived from the original on September 28, 2007. Retrieved May 13, 2007.
  85. ^ "Everlasting Linda (Interview 17 June 1998 in Tucson, AZ)". Linda Ronstadt. from the original on September 28, 2007. Retrieved July 6, 2007.
  86. ^ Greeley, Andrew (1989). "14:Ronstadt and Mellencamp: The Search for Roots". God in Popular Culture. Thomas More Press. p. 214-. ISBN 978-0-88347-234-7. Retrieved November 25, 2012.
  87. ^ "The Very Best of Linda Ronstadt, September 24, 2002". Official Amazon Review. Retrieved May 14, 2007.
  88. ^ . Special Decade Award. Archived from the original on August 8, 2007. Retrieved June 24, 2007.
  89. ^ Kaye, Elizabeth. "Linda Ronstadt: Why Is She the Queen of Lonely?". Redbook. from the original on August 8, 2007. Retrieved May 7, 2007.
  90. ^ a b . Time (subscription required). February 28, 1977. Archived from the original on September 28, 2008. Retrieved August 2, 2008.
  91. ^ a b Windeler, Robert (November 17, 1975). "When Will She Be Loved? Linda Ronstadt Finds the Time, at Last, Is Now". People. from the original on January 7, 2007. Retrieved May 18, 2007.
  92. ^ Caulfield, Keith (April 18, 2014). "Linda Ronstadt Rocks Highest-Charting Album in 24 Years". Billboard. from the original on August 27, 2014. Retrieved December 8, 2014.
  93. ^ a b c d e f g h i RIAA. "RIAA – Gold & Platinum". Recording Industry Association of America. from the original on February 12, 2018. Retrieved February 28, 2016.
  94. ^ a b c d e f Bronson, Fred. The Billboard Book of Number 1 Hits. ISBN 0-8230-7677-6
  95. ^ "The GRAMMYs: Past Winners Search". from the original on December 25, 2010. Retrieved February 28, 2016.
  96. ^ "Billboard Jan 17, 2009". Billboard. Vol. 121, no. 2. January 17, 2009. p. 37. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved December 20, 2015.
  97. ^ "Ronstadt Facts, Investigative International Sales". Linda Ronstadt Record Sales Information Page (German Site). from the original on November 8, 2010. Retrieved April 17, 2007.
  98. ^ "Linda Ronstadt Singing the National Anthem at Game three of World Series". from the original on July 22, 2013. Retrieved August 11, 2007 – via YouTube.
  99. ^ Rockwell, John (October 14, 1977). "Linda Ronstadt: Her Soft-Core Charms". New Times. from the original on October 13, 2014. Retrieved April 26, 2014.
  100. ^ Rockwell, John. "Living in the USA". In Greil Marcus (ed.). Stranded – Rock and Roll for a Desert Island. from the original on December 5, 2007. Retrieved May 7, 2007.
  101. ^ a b "Homecoming Queen, April 1995". Mojo. from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved May 11, 2007.
  102. ^ . CBS News. December 5, 2004. Archived from the original on August 9, 2007. Retrieved July 12, 2007.
  103. ^ . Billboard. December 23, 1978. Archived from the original on August 8, 2007. Retrieved June 24, 2007.
  104. ^ "Tour Reflections and Simple Dreams". The Hit Parader Interview. March 1978. from the original on October 3, 2015. Retrieved December 29, 2010.
  105. ^ "Ronstadt and Rolling Stones, July 21, 1978". Photos. iorr.org forum. from the original on June 13, 2011. Retrieved December 9, 2010.
  106. ^ "Why Linda Ronstadt Still Matters to Tucson". September 12, 2013. from the original on May 29, 2015. Retrieved May 28, 2015.
  107. ^ "Rolling Stones U.S. Tour 1978". MyEtymology.com/SpeedyLook. July 21, 1978. from the original on July 14, 2011. Retrieved December 9, 2010.
  108. ^ "Linda Ronstadt: Black & White Photo Aug 16, 1978 New Haven Veterans Memorial Coliseum (New Haven, CT)" March 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, wolfgangsvault.com
  109. ^ a b "The Inflation Calculator". The following form adjusts any given amount of money for inflation, according to the Consumer Price Index. from the original on May 29, 2008. Retrieved August 10, 2009.
  110. ^ a b c Ward, Ed (February 21, 1978). "The Queens of Rock: Ronstadt, Mitchell, Simon and Nicks talk of their men, music and life on the road". The New York Times. from the original on October 16, 2015. Retrieved November 25, 2012.
  111. ^ "On the Charts and in Men's Hearts Linda Ronstadt is No. 1 With a Bullet". People. October 24, 1977. from the original on August 8, 2007. Retrieved May 7, 2007.
  112. ^ "Years after giving up singing, Linda Ronstadt is back on the charts with 'Live in Hollywood'". Los Angeles Times. February 9, 2019. from the original on July 15, 2019. Retrieved July 15, 2019.
  113. ^ "Pat Benatar: Rock's Reluctant Sex Symbol". Record Review, December 1980. from the original on September 28, 2007. Retrieved July 5, 2007.
  114. ^ "Rock Queen Conquers Broadway and Lives Happily Ever After". Hit Parader. September 1981. from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved May 8, 2007.
  115. ^ . Internet Broadway Database. Archived from the original on October 15, 2007. Retrieved May 8, 2007.http://www.ibdb.com/Person/View/58306 March 21, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
  116. ^ Kroll, Jack (December 10, 1984). "A Pop Star Goes Puccini". Newsweek. from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved May 8, 2007.
  117. ^ . Billboard. The Source (NBC). 1982. Archived from the original on November 28, 2007. Retrieved November 4, 2007.
  118. ^ . Internet Broadway Database. Archived from the original on July 13, 2007. Retrieved May 8, 2007.http://www.ibdb.com/Person/View/58306 March 21, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
  119. ^ Saitowitz, Paul (May 31, 2007). . Press-Enterprise. Riverside, California. Archived from the original on September 29, 2007. Retrieved June 6, 2007.
  120. ^ "What's New with Linda Ronstadt? She's Singing Her Love Songs to Star Wars Czar George Lucas". People. March 26, 1984. from the original on February 27, 2012. Retrieved November 24, 2012.
  121. ^ Latham, Aaron (August 18, 1983). "Linda Ronstadt: Snow White in South Africa". Rolling Stone. Retrieved January 29, 2013. (subscription required)
  122. ^ Christgau, Robert (1990) "Subjects for Further Research" March 27, 2016, at the Wayback Machine. Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s Pantheon Books, ISBN 0-679-73015-X (via robertchristgau.com). Retrieved January 29, 2013.
  123. ^ Santoro, Gene (March 12, 1988). "Miriam Makeba. (Music) (column)"[dead link]. The Nation
  124. ^ Wilson, John M. (May 19, 1985). "UN`s `Register` Of Performers Raises Blacklist Spectre In S. Africa Boycott" April 26, 2016, at the Wayback Machine. Chicago Tribune. Retrieved January 29, 2013.
  125. ^ Fricke, David (October 23, 1986). "Paul Simon: African Odyssey". Rolling Stone.
  126. ^ DeYoung, Bill. "Goldmine, #589, February 21, 2003". Home at Last: The Journey of Linda Ronstadt. Retrieved July 31, 2008.
  127. ^ Boone, M. (July 18, 2007). . Gazette (Montreal). Archived from the original on October 15, 2007. Retrieved July 20, 2007.
  128. ^ Cocks, Jay; Worrell, Denise (September 26, 1983). . Time. Archived from the original on November 7, 2012. Retrieved June 6, 2009.
  129. ^ Bloom, Steve (July 1985). "An Intimate Conversation with Linda Ronstadt". DownBeat. from the original on May 9, 2008. Retrieved August 18, 2008.
  130. ^ a b "The Peter Levinson Interview". Jerry Jazz Musician. April 20, 2002. Retrieved June 14, 2007.
  131. ^ Varga, George (November 2004). "A 'song interpreter' for her times". U-T San Diego. from the original on December 25, 2008. Retrieved August 1, 2008.
  132. ^ . Time (subscription required). September 26, 1983. Archived from the original on March 7, 2008. Retrieved September 29, 2007.
  133. ^ a b "Peter Levinson (Interview)". jerryjazzmusician.com. April 20, 2002. Retrieved June 14, 2007.
  134. ^ a b Holden, Stephen (September 4, 1983). "Linda Ronstadt Celebrate the Golden Age of Pop". The New York Times. from the original on March 5, 2016. Retrieved May 10, 2007.
  135. ^ Griffith, James S. . Tucson'sRonstadtFamily. Archived from the original on June 15, 2007. Retrieved May 30, 2007.
  136. ^ "American Way". Linda Ronstadt's New Old Flame- Mexican Music. from the original on August 8, 2007. Retrieved May 7, 2007.
  137. ^ Herbst, Peter. . Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on October 22, 2006. Retrieved October 19, 2006.
  138. ^ "GRAMMY Hall Of Fame Welcomes 2021 Inductions: A Tribe Called Quest, Billie Holiday, Journey, Patti Smith, Bruce Springsteen And More". Recording Academy. December 21, 2020. Retrieved February 16, 2021.
  139. ^ "Artist Linda Ronstadt". Recording Academy Grammy Awards. from the original on January 2, 2020. Retrieved October 23, 2018.
  140. ^ Thibodeaux, Ron (February 11, 2007). "Home Grown". The Times-Picayune.
  141. ^ Suzuki, Hisataka; MacKenzie, Shiona (November 9, 2001). "John Lennon Super Live – Japan". Dream Power. from the original on May 28, 2007. Retrieved May 12, 2007.
  142. ^ Lannert, John (March 30, 1993). "Secada Lead Latin Noms Following Grammy Win". Billboard. Vol. 105, no. 10. p. 10. from the original on January 3, 2016. Retrieved January 3, 2013.
  143. ^ . Staples Center. May 6, 1999. Archived from the original on September 28, 2007. Retrieved November 25, 2012.
  144. ^ Linda Ronstadt October 24, 2016, at the Wayback Machine Rock on the Net.
  145. ^ Mansfield, Brian (August 23, 2013). "Linda Ronstadt has Parkinson's Disease – The Grammy-Winning Singer Revealed Her Condition to AARP Friday" August 18, 2017, at the Wayback Machine. USA Today. Retrieved September 4, 2013.
  146. ^ Brown, Jeffrey; Jackson, Lena I. (October 5, 2022). "Singer Linda Ronstadt reflects on her roots in new book". PBS NewsHour. PBS. Retrieved October 5, 2022.
  147. ^ " Linda Ronstadt August 24, 2016, at the Wayback Machine. "Linda Ronstadt : inducted in 2014 | The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum".
  148. ^ . Variety. July 18, 2019. Archived from the original on July 24, 2019. Retrieved July 25, 2019.
  149. ^ Kelly Presnell (May 8, 2022). "The Tucson Music Hall renamed for Grammy and Emmy Award winner Linda Ronstadt". The Arizona Daily Star. Retrieved May 8, 2022.
  150. ^ "The RS 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" January 4, 2009, at the Wayback Machine. Rolling Stone.
  151. ^ . March 4, 2016. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved August 24, 2018.
  152. ^ "Homecoming Queen". Mojo. April 1995. from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved May 13, 2007.
  153. ^ Bailey, Rich (January 2002). "Dennis James interview". from the original on March 17, 2007. Retrieved May 8, 2007.
  154. ^ McAleer, Dave (2001). The Book of Singles – Top 20 Charts 1984 to Present Day. ISBN 0-87930-666-1
  155. ^ Mathews, Tom; Kasindorf, Martin; Huck, Janet (April 23, 1979). "The Pop Politics of Jerry Brown – The Ballad of Jerry and Linda". Newsweek. from the original on December 5, 2007. Retrieved November 12, 2006.
  156. ^ "Movie Star Jim Carrey Stops By" (Interview). Interviewed by Howard Stern. October 28, 2014. from the original on October 31, 2014. Retrieved November 4, 2014.
  157. ^ a b Schwartz, Jonathan. . Us Weekly. Archived from the original on October 8, 2007. Retrieved May 5, 2007.
  158. ^ Fink, Mitchell (September 16, 1991). "The Insider". People Weekly. Vol. 1991, no. 33. p. 33. Singer Linda Ronstadt quietly became a single parent earlier this year. She has adopted an infant girl and named her Mary Clementine Ronstadt.
  159. ^ a b c Walsh, Diana (September 25, 1997). "Linda Ronstadt home for sale". San Francisco Examiner. Retrieved November 25, 2012.
  160. ^ Harata, Wayne (March 31, 2006). "Linda Ronstadt lets wisdom strike notes" March 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine. The Honolulu Advertiser. Retrieved November 25, 2012.
  161. ^ Knobler, Peter. "Linda Ronstadt: It's Not That Easy Being the Pretty Girl on the Block" March 5, 2016, at the Wayback Machine Crawdaddy, June 1974
  162. ^ "The 00-42 Linda Ronstadt Signature Edition" (PDF). The Sounding Board. Martin & Co. January 2009. (PDF) from the original on March 5, 2016. Retrieved February 28, 2016.
  163. ^ "Quick Takes: Linda Ronstadt plans memoir". Los Angeles Times. July 29, 2011. Retrieved August 7, 2011.
  164. ^ Deutsch, Lindsay (July 29, 2011). "Trailblazing rocker Linda Ronstadt to publish memoir". USA Today. from the original on September 9, 2012. Retrieved August 7, 2011.
  165. ^ "AUTHORS 1 - 1 of 1: Ronstadt, Linda". Simon & Schuster. August 24, 2013. Archived from the original on August 24, 2013. Retrieved August 24, 2013.
  166. ^ Mansfield, Brian (August 23, 2013). "Linda Ronstadt has Parkinson's Disease". USA Today. from the original on August 26, 2013. Retrieved August 24, 2013.
  167. ^ "Linda Ronstadt Says She Has Parkinson's Disease". CBS San Francisco Bay Area. August 24, 2013. from the original on August 24, 2013. Retrieved August 24, 2013.
  168. ^ Asked about her religious beliefs on The Tavis Smiley Show (September 26, 2013), she replied, "I'm a spiritual atheist."
  169. ^ a b Rothschild, Matthew (July 21, 2004). "The Progressive". Linda Ronstadt Gets the Hook at Aladdin. from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved May 12, 2007.
  170. ^ Weatherford, Mike (July 20, 2004). "Aladdin officials defend eviction of singer after political comments". Las Vegas Review-Journal. from the original on September 23, 2012. Retrieved December 13, 2012.
  171. ^ . Michael Moore. Archived from the original on March 19, 2006. Retrieved June 24, 2007.
  172. ^ "Desperadoes". The New York Times. July 21, 2004. from the original on May 18, 2013. Retrieved May 12, 2007.
  173. ^ Dunham, Nancy (August 14, 2007). . Blogcritics. Archived from the original on October 14, 2008. Retrieved November 25, 2012.
  174. ^ Selvin, Joel (July 28, 2006). "Linda Ronstadt, at 60, is back in San Francisco, raising kids and singing what she wants to sing". San Francisco Chronicle. from the original on June 20, 2012. Retrieved November 25, 2012.
  175. ^ "Linda Ronstadt draws readers' ire". Arizona Daily Star. June 7, 2007. Archived from the original on January 17, 2013. Retrieved November 24, 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  176. ^ Burch, Cathalena E. (June 2, 2007). "Ronstadt: Dust drove me away". Arizona Daily Star. Archived from the original on January 17, 2013. Retrieved November 25, 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  177. ^ Stewart, Jenny (August 26, 2009). . Planet Out. Archived from the original on March 29, 2012. Retrieved April 30, 2010.
  178. ^ Lemons, Stephen (December 29, 2009). "Linda Ronstadt Calls Joe Arpaio 'a Sadistic Man', Will Participate in Anti-Arpaio Human Rights March Saturday, January 16". Phoenix New Times. from the original on February 6, 2010. Retrieved March 21, 2010.
  179. ^ Cooper, Jonathan J.; Davenport, Paul (April 30, 2010). "Linda Ronstadt joins group filing suit against Arizona law". The Christian Science Monitor. Associated Press. from the original on October 22, 2012. Retrieved November 25, 2012.
  180. ^ Fischer, Howard (April 29, 2010). "2 lawsuits challenge Arizona's immigration law". Arizona Daily Star. Capitol Media Services. from the original on May 3, 2010. Retrieved April 30, 2010.
  181. ^ Strand, Michael (October 1, 2007). . Salina Journal. Archived from the original on December 24, 2008. Retrieved November 25, 2012.
  182. ^ Bedard, Paul; Schwab, Nikki (March 31, 2009). "Linda Ronstadt, Wynton Marsalis, and Josh Groban Pitch Congress". Submitted by Linda Ronstadt Singer House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment & Related Agencies. from the original on March 18, 2012. Retrieved March 19, 2012.
  183. ^ Lornell, Kip; Ronstadt, Linda (2004). The NPR Curious Listener's Guide to American Folk Music. Perigee Trade. ISBN 978-0-399-53033-3.
  184. ^ Ronstadt, Linda (Introduction). Giel, Kate (ed.). "Classic Ferrington Guitars". Barnes & Noble. from the original on September 29, 2007. Retrieved May 17, 2007.
  185. ^ "Past Inductions – 2007 Induction". Arizona Music & Entertainment Hall Of Fame. from the original on June 17, 2019. Retrieved September 13, 2019.
  186. ^ . National Council of La Raza. Archived from the original on February 27, 2012. Retrieved December 13, 2012.
  187. ^ Brown, Patricia Leigh (September 19, 2008). "Once a Rock Star, Now a Matriarch of Mariachi". The New York Times. from the original on January 9, 2018. Retrieved April 5, 2009.
  188. ^ a b "Opinion: Arts Advocacy Day testimony from Linda Ronstadt". The Mercury News. March 30, 2009. from the original on July 1, 2018. Retrieved September 13, 2019.
  189. ^ Swed, Mark (April 1, 2009). "Linda Ronstadt hails Gustavo Dudamel in testimony on Capitol Hill". Los Angeles Times. from the original on April 4, 2009. Retrieved April 5, 2009.
  190. ^ . Berklee College of Music. Archived from the original on April 16, 2009. Retrieved April 14, 2009.
  191. ^ "Linda Ronstadt". The Recording Academy. Retrieved August 27, 2021.
  192. ^ Morris, Christopher (July 26, 2011). "Ronstadt Draws Lifetime Award – Latin Recording Academy Also Honors Feliciano". Variety. from the original on November 8, 2012. Retrieved September 4, 2013.
  193. ^ "Linda Ronstadt". Television Academy. Retrieved August 27, 2021.
  194. ^ "ALMA Award". from the original on July 7, 2015. Retrieved August 1, 2011 – via YouTube.
  195. ^ Coto, Juan Carlos (May 28, 1989). "Univision Launches Latin Music Awards". The Miami Herald.
  196. ^ "Ana Gabriel leads nominees for Latin Music Awards". Billboard. Vol. 104, no. 13. March 28, 1992.
  197. ^ Lannert, John (March 30, 1993). "Secada Lead Latin Noms Following Grammy Win". Billboard. Vol. 105, no. 10. p. 10. Retrieved January 3, 2013.

External links

linda, ronstadt, linda, maria, ronstadt, born, july, 1946, retired, american, singer, performed, recorded, diverse, genres, including, rock, country, light, opera, great, american, songbook, latin, earned, grammy, awards, three, american, music, awards, academ. Linda Maria Ronstadt born July 15 1946 is a retired American singer who performed and recorded in diverse genres including rock country light opera the Great American Songbook and Latin She has earned 11 Grammy Awards 2 three American Music Awards two Academy of Country Music awards an Emmy Award and an ALMA Award Many of her albums have been certified gold platinum or multiplatinum in the United States and internationally She has also earned nominations for a Tony Award and a Golden Globe award She was awarded the Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award by the Latin Recording Academy in 2011 and also awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award by the Recording Academy in 2016 She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April 2014 3 On July 28 2014 she was awarded the National Medal of Arts and Humanities 4 15 In 2019 she received a star jointly with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for their work as the group Trio 16 17 Ronstadt was among five honorees who received the 2019 Kennedy Center Honors for lifetime artistic achievements Linda RonstadtRonstadt in 1976Background informationBirth nameLinda Maria Ronstadt 1 Born 1946 07 15 July 15 1946 age 76 Tucson Arizona U S GenresRockpopfolkcountryLatinOccupation s Singer songwriter musician record producer actressInstrument s VocalsguitarYears active1967 2011LabelsCapitolAsylumElektraVerveRhino Ronstadt has released 24 studio albums and 15 compilation or greatest hits albums She charted 38 US Billboard Hot 100 singles Twenty one of those singles reached the top 40 ten reached the top 10 and one reached number one You re No Good Ronstadt also charted in UK as two of her duets Somewhere Out There with James Ingram and Don t Know Much with Aaron Neville peaked at numbers 8 and 2 respectively and the single Blue Bayou reached number 35 on the UK Singles charts 18 19 She has charted 36 albums ten top 10 albums and three number 1 albums on the US Billboard Pop Album Chart citation needed Ronstadt has collaborated with artists in diverse genres including Dolly Parton Emmylou Harris Bette Midler Billy Eckstine 20 Frank Zappa Carla Bley Escalator Over the Hill Rosemary Clooney Flaco Jimenez Philip Glass Warren Zevon Gram Parsons Neil Young Paul Simon Earl Scruggs Johnny Cash and Nelson Riddle She has lent her voice to over 120 albums and has sold more than 100 million records making her one of the world s best selling artists of all time 21 22 Christopher Loudon of Jazz Times wrote in 2004 that Ronstadt is blessed with arguably the most sterling set of pipes of her generation 23 Ronstadt reduced her activity after 2000 when she felt her singing voice deteriorating 24 releasing her last full length album in 2004 and performing her last live concert in 2009 She announced her retirement in 2011 and revealed shortly afterwards that she is no longer able to sing as a result of a degenerative condition later determined to be progressive supranuclear palsy 24 a Since then Ronstadt has continued to make public appearances going on a number of public speaking tours in the 2010s She published an autobiography Simple Dreams A Musical Memoir 25 in September 2013 A documentary based on her memoirs Linda Ronstadt The Sound of My Voice was released in 2019 Contents 1 Early life 1 1 Ronstadt family history 2 Career summary 3 Career overview 3 1 Early influences 3 2 Beginning of professional career 3 3 The Stone Poneys 3 4 Solo career 3 4 1 Touring 3 4 2 Collaborations with Peter Asher 3 4 3 Vocal styles 3 4 4 Interpretive singer 3 4 5 Most successful female singer of the 1970s 3 4 6 Time magazine and rock chick image 3 4 7 Highest paid woman in rock 3 4 8 From rock to operetta 3 5 Artistic aspirations 3 6 Jazz pop trilogy 3 7 Trio recordings 3 8 Canciones de Mi Padre 3 9 Returning to the contemporary music scene 3 10 Return to roots music 3 11 Retirement 3 12 Selected career achievements 4 Personal life 4 1 Political activism 4 2 National arts advocacy 5 Awards and nominations 5 1 Grammy Awards 5 2 Latin Grammy Awards 5 3 Primetime Emmy Awards 5 4 Tony Awards 5 5 Golden Globe Awards 5 6 Arizona Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame 5 7 Academy of Country Music 5 8 Country Music Association 5 9 American Latino Media Arts 5 10 Lo Nuestro nominations 5 11 Kennedy Center 6 Discography 6 1 Studio albums 6 2 Live albums 6 3 Duets and trios 6 4 Compilation albums 7 Filmography 8 Books 9 Explanatory notes 10 References 11 External linksEarly lifeLinda Maria Ronstadt was born in Tucson Arizona on July 15 1946 the third of four children of Gilbert Ronstadt 1911 1995 a prosperous machinery merchant who ran the F Ronstadt Co 26 and Ruth Mary nee Copeman Ronstadt 1914 1982 a homemaker 27 Ronstadt was raised on the family s 10 acre 4 ha ranch with her siblings Peter who served as Tucson s Chief of Police for ten years 1981 1991 Michael and Gretchen The family was featured in Family Circle magazine in 1953 28 Ronstadt family history Ronstadt s father came from a pioneering Arizona ranching family 29 and was of Mexican descent with a German male ancestor 30 The family s influence on and contributions to Arizona s history including wagon making commerce pharmacies and music are documented in the library of the University of Arizona 31 Her great grandfather the engineer Friedrich August Ronstadt who went by Federico Augusto Ronstadt immigrated first to Sonora Mexico and later to the Southwest then a part of Mexico in the 1840s from Hanover Germany He married a Mexican citizen and eventually settled in Tucson 32 33 In 1991 the City of Tucson opened its central transit terminal on March 16 and dedicated it to Linda s grandfather Federico Jose Maria Ronstadt a local pioneer businessman he was a wagon maker whose early contribution to the city s mobility included six mule drawn streetcars delivered in 1903 04 34 Ronstadt s mother Ruth Mary of German English and Dutch ancestry was raised in Flint Michigan Ruth Mary s father Lloyd Groff Copeman a prolific inventor and holder of nearly 700 patents invented an early form of the electric toaster many refrigerator devices the grease gun the first electric stove and an early form of the microwave oven 35 His flexible rubber ice cube tray earned him millions of dollars in royalties 36 Career summaryEverybody has their own level of doing their music Mine just happened to resonate over the years in one way and another with a significant enough number of people so that I could do it professionally Linda Ronstadt 37 Establishing her professional career in the mid 1960s at the forefront of California s emerging folk rock and country rock movements genres which defined post 1960s rock music Ronstadt joined forces with Bobby Kimmel and Kenny Edwards and became the lead singer of a folk rock trio the Stone Poneys Later as a solo artist she released Hand Sown Home Grown in 1969 which has been described as the first alternative country record by a female recording artist 38 Although fame eluded her during these years Ronstadt actively toured with the Doors Neil Young Jackson Browne and others appeared numerous times on television shows and began to contribute her singing to albums by other artists With the release of chart topping albums such as Heart Like a Wheel Simple Dreams and Living in the USA Ronstadt became the first female arena class rock star She set records as one of the top grossing concert artists of the decade 38 39 40 41 Referred to as the First Lady of Rock 29 42 and the Queen of Rock Ronstadt was voted the Top Female Pop Singer of the 1970s 29 Her rock and roll image was as famous as her music she appeared six times on the cover of Rolling Stone and on the covers of Newsweek and Time In the 1980s Ronstadt performed on Broadway and received a Tony nomination for her performance in The Pirates of Penzance 43 teamed with the composer Philip Glass recorded traditional music and collaborated with the conductor Nelson Riddle an event at that time viewed as an original and unorthodox move for a rock and roll artist This venture paid off 44 and Ronstadt remained one of the music industry s best selling acts throughout the 1980s with multi platinum selling albums such as Mad Love What s New Canciones de Mi Padre and Cry Like a Rainstorm Howl Like the Wind She continued to tour collaborate and record celebrated albums such as Winter Light and Hummin to Myself until her retirement in 2011 45 Most of Ronstadt s albums are certified gold platinum or multi platinum 46 47 Having sold in excess of 100 million records worldwide 48 and setting records as one of the top grossing concert performers for over a decade Ronstadt was the most successful female singer of the 1970s and stands as one of the most successful female recording artists in U S history She opened many doors for women in rock and roll and other musical genres by championing songwriters and musicians pioneering her chart success onto the concert circuit and being in the vanguard of many musical movements 38 Career overviewEarly influences I don t record any type of genre of music that I didn t hear in my family s living room by the time I was 10 It just is my rule that I don t break because I can t do it authentically I really think that you re just hard wiring synapses in your brain up until the age of maybe 12 or 10 and there are certain things you can t learn in an authentic way after that Linda Ronstadt 49 Ronstadt s early family life was filled with music and tradition which influenced the stylistic and musical choices she later made in her career Growing up she listened to many types of music including Mexican music which was sung by her entire family and was a staple in her childhood 50 Ronstadt has remarked that everything she has recorded on her own records rock and roll rhythm and blues gospel opera country choral and mariachi is all music she heard her family sing in their living room or heard played on the radio by the age of 10 She credits her mother for her appreciation of Gilbert and Sullivan and her father for introducing her to the traditional pop and Great American Songbook repertoire that she would in turn help reintroduce to an entire generation 49 51 If I didn t hear it on the radio or if my dad wasn t playing it on the piano or if my brother wasn t playing it on the guitar or singing it in his boys choir or my mother and sister weren t practicing a Broadway tune or a Gilbert and Sullivan song then I can t do it today It s as simple as that All of my influences and my authenticity are a direct result of the music played in that Tucson living room 52 Linda Ronstadt Early on her singing style had been influenced by singers such as Lola Beltran and Edith Piaf she has called their singing and rhythms more like Greek music It s sort of like 6 8 time signature very hard driving and very intense 53 She also drew influence from country singer Hank Williams She has said that all girl singers eventually have to curtsy to Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday 29 Of Maria Callas Ronstadt says There s no one in her league That s it Period I learn more about singing rock n roll from listening to Maria Callas records than I ever would from listening to pop music for a month of Sundays She s the greatest chick singer ever 54 She admires Callas for her musicianship and her attempts to push 20th century singing particularly opera back into the bel canto natural style of singing 55 A self described product of American radio of the 1950s and 1960s Ronstadt is a fan of its eclectic and diverse music programming 51 Beginning of professional career At age 14 Ronstadt formed a folk trio with her brother Peter and sister Gretchen The group played coffeehouses fraternity houses and other small venues billing themselves as the Union City Ramblers and the Three Ronstadts and they even recorded themselves at a Tucson studio under the name the New Union Ramblers 56 Their repertoire included the music they grew up on folk country bluegrass and Mexican 57 But increasingly Ronstadt wanted to make a union of folk music and rock n roll 41 and in 1964 after a semester at Arizona State University 57 the 18 year old decided to move to Los Angeles 58 59 60 The Stone Poneys Main article Stone Poneys Ronstadt visited a friend from Tucson Bobby Kimmel in Los Angeles during Easter break from college in 1964 and later that year shortly before her eighteenth birthday 58 decided to move there permanently to form a band with him 59 Kimmel had already begun co writing folk rock songs with guitarist songwriter Kenny Edwards and eventually the three of them were signed by Nik Venet to Capitol in the summer of 1966 as the Stone Poneys The trio released three albums in a 15 month period in 1967 68 The Stone Poneys Evergreen Volume 2 and Linda Ronstadt Stone Poneys and Friends Vol III The band is widely known for their hit single Different Drum written by Michael Nesmith prior to his joining the Monkees which reached number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart as well as number 12 in Cashbox magazine Nearly 50 years later the song remains one of Ronstadt s most popular recordings 61 Solo career Still contractually obligated to Capitol Records Ronstadt released her first solo album Hand Sown Home Grown in 1969 It has been called the first alternative country record by a female recording artist 38 During this same period she contributed to the Music from Free Creek super session project Ronstadt provided the vocals for some commercials during this period including one for Remington electric razors in which a multitracked Ronstadt and Frank Zappa claimed that the electric razor cleans you thrills you may even keep you from getting busted 62 Ronstadt s second solo album Silk Purse was released in March 1970 Recorded entirely in Nashville it was produced by Elliot Mazer whom Ronstadt chose on the advice of Janis Joplin who had worked with him on the Cheap Thrills album 63 The Silk Purse album cover showed Ronstadt in a muddy pigpen while the back and inside cover depicted her onstage wearing bright red Ronstadt has stated that she was not pleased with the album although it provided her with her first solo hit the multi format single Long Long Time and earned her first Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Vocal Performance Female Touring Judy Henske who was the then reigning queen of folk music said to me at The Troubadour Honey in this town there are four sexes Men women homosexuals and girl singers Linda Ronstadt 64 In 1975 Ronstadt performed shows with Jackson Browne the Eagles and Toots and the Maytals 65 In a 1976 Rolling Stone interview with Cameron Crowe Ronstadt said they haven t invented a word for that loneliness that everybody goes through on the road The world is tearing by you real fast and all these people are looking at you People see me in my girl singer suit 66 In 1974 she told Peter Knobler in Crawdaddy People are always taking advantage of you everybody that s interested in you has got an angle 67 Several years before Ronstadt became what author Gerri Hirshey called the first arena class rock diva with hugely anticipated tours 39 she began her solo career touring the North American concert circuit But being on the road took its toll both emotionally and professionally There were few girl singers on the rock circuit at the time and they were relegated to groupie level when in a crowd of a bunch of rock and roll guys a status Ronstadt avoided 68 Relating to men on a professional level as fellow musicians led to competition insecurity bad romances and a series of boyfriend managers At the time she admired singers like Maria Muldaur for not sacrificing their femininity but says she felt enormous self imposed pressure to compete with the boys at every level 59 She noted in a 1969 interview in Fusion magazine that it was difficult being a single chick singer with an all male backup band 68 According to her it was difficult to get a band of backing musicians because of their ego problem of being labeled sidemen for a female singer 69 Soon after she went solo in the late 1960s one of her first backing bands was the pioneering country rock band Swampwater which combined Cajun and swamp rock elements in their music Its members included Cajun fiddler Gib Guilbeau and John Beland who later joined the Flying Burrito Brothers 70 as well as Stan Pratt Thad Maxwell and Eric White brother of Clarence White of the Byrds Swampwater went on to back Ronstadt during TV appearances on The Johnny Cash Show 71 and The Mike Douglas Show and at the Big Sur Folk Festival 72 Another backing band included Don Henley Glenn Frey Bernie Leadon and Randy Meisner who went on to form the Eagles They toured with her for a short period in 1971 and played on Linda Ronstadt her self titled third album from which the failed single Ronstadt s version of Browne s Rock Me on the Water was drawn At this stage Ronstadt began working with producer and boyfriend John Boylan She said As soon as I started working with John Boylan I started co producing myself I was always a part of my productions But I always needed a producer who would carry out my whims 56 Also in 1971 Ronstadt began talking with David Geffen about moving from Capitol Records to Geffen s Asylum Records label 73 Collaborations with Peter Asher In general when you fall in love with an artist and their music the plan is a fairly simple one get people to go and see them and make a record that you think properly presents their music to the public and some of which you can get on the radio Peter Asher on collaborating with Ronstadt 37 Ronstadt began her fourth solo album Don t Cry Now in 1973 with Boylan who had negotiated her contract with Asylum Records and John David J D Souther producing most of the album s tracks But needing someone willing to work with her as an equal Ronstadt asked Peter Asher who came highly recommended to her by James Taylor s sister Kate Taylor to help produce two of them Sail Away and I Believe in You 74 The album featured Ronstadt s first country hit Silver Threads and Golden Needles which she had first recorded on Hand Sown Home Grown this time hitting the Country Top 20 With the release of Don t Cry Now Ronstadt took on her biggest gig to date as the opening act on Neil Young s Time Fades Away tour playing for larger crowds than ever before Backstage at a concert in Texas Chris Hillman introduced her to Emmylou Harris telling them You two could be good friends 75 which soon occurred resulting in frequent collaborations over the following years Meanwhile the album became Ronstadt s most successful up to that time selling 300 000 copies by the end of 1974 74 Asher turned out to be more collaborative and more on the same page with her musically than any producer she had worked with previously 56 Ronstadt s professional relationship with Asher allowed her to take command and effectively delegate responsibilities in the recording studio 74 Although hesitant at first to work with her because of her reputation for being a woman of strong opinions who knew what she wanted to do with her career he nonetheless agreed to become her full time producer 76 and remained in that role through the late 1980s Asher attributed the long term success of his working relationship with Ronstadt to the fact that he was the first person to manage and produce her with whom there was a solely professional relationship It must be a lot harder to have objective conversations about someone s career when it s someone you sleep with he said 74 Asher executive produced a tribute CD called Listen to Me Buddy Holly released September 6 2011 on which Ronstadt s 1976 version of Buddy Holly s That ll Be The Day appears among newly recorded versions of Holly s songs by various artists 77 Vocal styles I grew up singing Mexican music and that s based on indigenous Mexican rhythms Mexican music also has an overlay of West African music based on huapango drums and it s kind of like a 6 8 time signature but it really is a very syncopated 6 8 And that s how I attack vocals Linda Ronstadt on reconciling her musical instincts with rock n roll 56 Ronstadt captured the sounds of country music and the rhythms of ranchera music which she likened in 1968 to Mexican bluegrass and redirected them into her rock n roll and some of her pop music Many of these rhythms and sounds were part of her Southwestern roots 78 Likewise a country sound and style a fusion of country music and rock n roll called country rock started to exert its influence on mainstream pop music around the late 1960s and it became an emerging movement Ronstadt helped form and commercialize However as early as 1970 Ronstadt was being criticized by music purists for her brand of music which crossed many genres Country Western Stars magazine wrote in 1970 that Rock people thought she was too gentle folk people thought she was too pop and pop people didn t quite understand where she was at but Country people really loved Linda She never categorized herself and stuck to her genre crossing brand of music 79 Interpretive singer Ronstadt is considered an interpreter of her times 80 and has earned praise for her courage to put her stamp on many of her songs 81 Nevertheless her hits were criticized in some quarters for being cover songs by whom Ronstadt herself has indicated that some of her 1970s hits were recorded under considerable pressure to create commercially successful recordings and that she prefers many of her songs that were non hit album tracks 56 An infrequent songwriter Ronstadt co composed only three songs over her long career Ronstadt s natural vocal range spans several octaves from contralto to soprano and occasionally she will showcase this entire range within a single work Ronstadt was the first female artist in popular music history to accumulate four consecutive platinum albums fourteen certified million selling to date As for the singles Rolling Stone pointed out that a whole generation but for her might never have heard the work of artists such as Buddy Holly Elvis Costello and Chuck Berry 82 Music is meant to lighten your load By singing it you release the sadness And release yourself an exercise in exorcism You exorcise that emotion and diminish sadness and feel joy Linda Ronstadt 83 Others have argued that Ronstadt had the same generational effect with her Great American Songbook music exposing a whole new generation to the music of the 1920s and 1930s music which was pushed aside because of the advent of rock n roll When interpreting Ronstadt said she sticks to what the music demands in terms of lyrics 84 Explaining that rock and roll music is part of her culture she says that the songs she sang after her rock and roll hits were part of her soul The Mariachi music was my father s side of the soul she was quoted as saying in a 1998 interview she gave at her Tucson home My mother s side of my soul was the Nelson Riddle stuff And I had to do them both to reestablish who I was 85 In the 1974 book Rock N Roll Woman author Katherine Orloff writes that Ronstadt s own musical preferences run strongly to rhythm and blues the type of music she most frequently chooses to listen to and her goal is to be soulful too With this in mind Ronstadt fuses country and rock into a special union 59 By this stage of her career Ronstadt had established her niche in the field of country rock Along with other musicians such as the Flying Burrito Brothers Emmylou Harris Gram Parsons Swampwater Neil Young and the Eagles she helped free country music from stereotypes and showed rockers that country was okay However she stated that she was being pushed hard into singing more rock and roll 75 Most successful female singer of the 1970s Ronstadt with producer Peter Asher and her band 1976 Author Andrew Greeley in his book God in Popular Culture described Ronstadt as the most successful and certainly the most durable and most gifted woman Rock singer of her era 86 Signaling her wide popularity as a concert artist outside of the singles charts and the recording studio Dirty Linen magazine describes her as the first true woman rock n roll superstar selling out stadiums with a string of mega successful albums 38 Amazon com defines her as the American female rock superstar of the decade 87 Cashbox gave Ronstadt a Special Decade Award 88 as the top selling female singer of the 1970s 29 Her album covers posters magazine covers her entire rock n roll image were as famous as her music 37 By the end of the decade the singer whom the Chicago Sun Times described as the Dean of the 1970s school of female rock singers 81 became what Redbook called the most successful female rock star in the world 89 Female was the important qualifier according to Time magazine which labeled her a rarity to have survived in the shark infested deeps of rock 90 Although Ronstadt had been a cult favorite on the music scene for several years 1975 was remembered in the music biz as the year when 29 year old Linda Ronstadt belatedly happened 91 With the release of Heart Like a Wheel named after one of the album s songs written by Anna McGarrigle Ronstadt reached number 1 on the Billboard 200 chart 92 it was also the first of four number 1 Country Albums and the disc was certified double platinum 93 over two million copies sold in the U S In many instances her own interpretations were more successful than the original recordings and many times new songwriters were discovered by a larger audience as a result of her interpretation and recording Ronstadt had major success interpreting songs from a diverse spectrum of artists Heart Like a Wheel s first single release You re No Good a rockified version of an R amp B song written by Clint Ballard Jr that Ronstadt had initially resisted because Andrew Gold s guitar tracks sounded too much like a Beatles song to her 74 climbed to number 1 on both the Billboard and Cash Box Pop singles charts 94 The album s second single release When Will I Be Loved an uptempo country rock version of a Top 10 Everly Brothers song hit number 1 in Cashbox and number 2 in Billboard 94 The song was also Ronstadt s first number 1 country hit 94 The album s critical and commercial success was due to a fine presentation of country and rock with Heart Like a Wheel her first of many major commercial successes that would set her on the path to being one of the best selling female artists of all time Ronstadt won her first Grammy Award 95 for Best Country Vocal Performance Female for I Can t Help It If I m Still in Love with You which was originally a 1940s hit by Hank Williams Ronstadt s interpretation peaked at number 2 on the country chart The album itself was nominated for the Album of the Year Grammy Rolling Stone put Ronstadt on its cover in March 1975 It was the first of six Rolling Stone covers shot by photographer Annie Leibovitz It included her as the featured artist with a full photo layout and an article by Ben Fong Torres discussing Ronstadt s many struggling years in rock n roll as well as her home life and what it was like to be a woman on tour in a decidedly all male environment In September 1975 Ronstadt s album Prisoner in Disguise was released It quickly climbed into the Top Five on the Billboard Album Chart and sold over a million copies 93 It became her second in a row to go platinum a grand slam in the same year Ronstadt would eventually become the first female artist in popular music history to have three consecutive platinum albums and would ultimately go on to have eight consecutive platinum albums and then another six between 1983 and 1990 91 The disc s first single release was Love Is A Rose It was climbing the pop and country charts but Heat Wave a rockified version of the 1963 hit by Martha and the Vandellas was receiving considerable airplay Asylum pulled the Love Is a Rose single and issued Heat Wave with Love Is a Rose on the B side Heat Wave hit the Top Five on Billboard s Hot 100 while Love Is A Rose hit the Top Five on Billboard s country chart In 1976 Ronstadt reached the Top 3 of Billboard s Album Chart and won her second career Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for her third consecutive platinum 93 album Hasten Down the Wind The album featured a sexy revealing cover shot and showcased Ronstadt the singer songwriter who composed two of its songs Try Me Again co authored with Andrew Gold and Lo Siento Mi Vida It also included an interpretation of Willie Nelson s ballad Crazy which became a Top 10 Country hit for Ronstadt in early 1977 At the end of 1977 Ronstadt surpassed the success of Heart Like a Wheel with her album Simple Dreams which held the number 1 position for five consecutive weeks on the Billboard 200 chart 96 It sold over 31 2 million copies in less than a year in the U S alone a record for a female artist Simple Dreams spawned a string of hit singles on numerous charts Among them were the RIAA platinum certified single Blue Bayou a country rock interpretation of a Roy Orbison song It s So Easy previously sung by Buddy Holly a cover of The Rolling Stones Tumbling Dice and Poor Poor Pitiful Me a song written by Warren Zevon an up and coming songwriter of the time The album garnered several Grammy Award nominations including Record of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance Female for Blue Bayou and won its art director Kosh a Grammy Award for Best Album Cover the first of three Grammy Awards he would win for designing Ronstadt album covers In late 1977 Ronstadt became the first female recording artist to have two songs in the U S Billboard Hot 100 Top Ten at the same time Blue Bayou was at No 3 while It s So Easy was at No 5 Simple Dreams became one of the singer s best selling international selling albums as well reaching number 1 on the Australian and Canadian Pop and Country Albums charts 97 Simple Dreams also made Ronstadt the most successful international female touring artist The same year she completed a concert tour around Europe As Country Music magazine wrote in October 1978 Simple Dreams solidified Ronstadt s role as easily the most successful female rock and roll and country star at this time 57 Also in 1977 she was asked by the Los Angeles Dodgers to sing the U S National Anthem at game three of the World Series against the New York Yankees 98 Time magazine and rock chick image Ronstadt has remarked that she felt as though she was artificially encouraged to kinda cop a really tough attitude and be tough because rock and roll is kind of tough business which she felt wasn t worn quite authentically 14 Female rock artists like her and Janis Joplin whom she described as lovely shy and very literate in real life and the antithesis of the red hot mamma she was artificially encouraged to project went through an identity crisis 14 Ronstadt on the cover of the February 28 1977 issue of Time magazine By the mid 1970s Ronstadt s image became just as famous as her music 37 In 1976 and 1977 she appeared on the covers of Rolling Stone and Time respectively The Rolling Stone cover story was accompanied by a series of photographs of Ronstadt in a skimpy red slip taken by Annie Leibovitz Ronstadt felt deceived by the photographer not realizing that the photos would be so revealing She says her manager Peter Asher kicked Leibovitz out of the house when she visited to show them the photographs prior to publication Leibovitz had refused to let them veto any of the photos which included one of Ronstadt sprawled across a bed in her underpants 37 In a 1977 interview Ronstadt explained Annie Leibovitz saw that picture as an expose of my personality She was right But I wouldn t choose to show a picture like that to anybody who didn t know me personally because only friends could get the other sides of me in balance 99 Her 1977 appearance on the cover of Time magazine under the banner Torchy Rock was also upsetting to Ronstadt considering what the image appeared to project about the most famous woman in rock 14 100 At a time in the industry when men still told women what to sing and what to wear 101 Ronstadt hated the image of her that was projected to the world on that cover 14 and she noted recently how the photographer kept forcing her to wear a dress which was an image she did not want to project 14 In 2004 she was interviewed for CBS This Morning 102 and stated that this image was not her because she did not sit like that Asher noted Anyone who s met Linda for 10 seconds will know that I couldn t possibly have been her Svengali She s an extremely determined woman in every area To me she was everything that feminism s about 101 Qualities which Asher has stated were considered a negative in a woman at that time whereas in a man they were perceived as being masterful and bold 76 Since her solo career had begun Ronstadt had fought hard to be recognized as a solo female singer in the world of rock and her portrayal on the Time cover did not appear to help the situation 69 In 1978 Rolling Stone declared Ronstadt by far America s best known female rock singer 40 She scored a third number 1 album on the Billboard Album Chart at this point equaling the record set by Carole King in 1974 with Living in the USA She achieved a major hit single with Ooo Baby Baby with her rendition hitting all four major singles charts Pop AC Country R amp B Living in the USA was the first album by any recording act in music history to ship double platinum over 2 million advance copies 39 The album eventually sold 3 million U S copies At the end of that year Billboard magazine crowned Ronstadt with three number one Awards for the Year Pop Female Singles Artist of the Year Pop Female Album Artist of the Year and Female Artist of the Year overall 103 Living in the USA showed the singer on roller skates with a newly short permed hairdo on the album cover Ronstadt continued this theme on concert tour promotional posters with photos of her on roller skates in a dramatic pose with a large American flag in the background By this stage of her career she was using posters to promote every album 37 and concert which at the time were recorded live on radio or television Ronstadt was also featured in the 1978 film FM where the plot involved disc jockeys attempting to broadcast a Ronstadt concert live without a competing station s knowledge The film also showed Ronstadt performing the songs Poor Poor Pitiful Me Love Me Tender and Tumbling Dice Ronstadt was persuaded to record Tumbling Dice after Mick Jagger came backstage when she was at a concert and said You do too many ballads you should do more rock and roll songs 104 Following the success of Living in the USA Ronstadt conducted album promotional tours and concerts She made a guest appearance onstage with the Rolling Stones at the Tucson Community Center on July 21 1978 in her hometown of Tucson where she and Jagger sang Tumbling Dice 105 106 107 On singing with Jagger Ronstadt later said I loved it I didn t have a trace of stage fright I m scared to death all the way through my own shows But it was too much fun to get scared He s so silly onstage he knocks you over I mean you have to be on your toes or you wind up falling on your face 40 Highest paid woman in rock Rock is the thumping heart of Linda s music and the rock world is dominated by males The biggest stars are male and so are the back up musicians rock beats are phallic and lyrics masculine Janis Joplin the first great white woman rocker rattled the bars but she died Joni Mitchell stylish but can t compete in drawing power with men however Linda Ronstadt has made herself one of the biggest individual rock draws in the world Time magazine in 1977 90 Ronstadt at the New Haven Veterans Memorial Coliseum August 16 1978 108 By the end of 1978 Ronstadt had solidified her role as one of rock and pop s most successful solo female acts and owing to her consistent platinum album success and her ability as the first woman to sell out concerts in arenas and stadiums hosting tens of thousands of fans 29 Ronstadt became the highest paid woman in rock 39 She had six platinum certified albums three of which were number 1 on the Billboard album chart and numerous charting pop singles In 1978 alone she made over 12 million 29 equivalent to 50 000 000 in 2021 109 and in the same year her albums sales were reported to be 17 million grossing over 60 million 110 equivalent to 249 000 000 in 2021 109 As Rolling Stone dubbed her Rock s Venus 40 her record sales continued to multiply and set records themselves By 1979 Ronstadt had collected eight gold six platinum and four multi platinum certifications for her albums an unprecedented feat at the time Her 1976 Greatest Hits album would sell consistently for the next 25 years and it was certified by the RIAA for seven times platinum in 2001 93 over seven million U S copies sold In 1980 Greatest Hits Volume 2 was released and certified platinum 93 In 1979 Ronstadt went on an international tour playing in arenas across Australia to Japan including the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne and the Budokan in Tokyo She also participated in a benefit concert for her friend Lowell George held at The Forum in Los Angeles By the end of the decade Ronstadt had outsold her female competition she had five straight platinum LPs Hasten Down the Wind and Heart Like a Wheel among them 111 Us Weekly reported in 1978 that Ronstadt Joni Mitchell Stevie Nicks and Carly Simon had become The Queens of Rock 110 and Rock is no longer exclusively male There is a new royalty ruling today s record charts 110 She would go on to parlay her mass commercial appeal with major success in interpreting The Great American Songbook made famous a generation before by Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald and later the Mexican folk songs of her childhood From rock to operetta Rampant eclecticism is my middle name Linda Ronstadt 64 Linda Ronstadt at Six Flags Over Texas August 1981 In February 1980 Ronstadt released Mad Love her seventh consecutive platinum selling album It was a straightforward rock and roll album with post punk new wave influences including tracks by songwriters such as Elvis Costello the Cretones and musician Mark Goldenberg who played on the record himself As part of the album s promotion a live concert was recorded for an HBO special in April A partial soundtrack for this special omitting most of the Mad Love tracks was released as her first official live album in February 2019 112 She also made the cover of Rolling Stone for a record setting sixth time Mad Love entered the Billboard Album Chart in the Top Five its first week a record at that time and climbed to the number 3 position The project continued her streak of Top 10 hits with How Do I Make You originally recorded by Billy Thermal and Hurt So Bad originally a Top 10 hit for Little Anthony amp the Imperials The album earned Ronstadt a 1980 Grammy Award nomination for Best Rock Vocal Performance Female although she lost to Pat Benatar s Crimes of Passion album Benatar praised Ronstadt by stating There are a lot of good female singers around How could I be the best Ronstadt is still alive 113 In the summer of 1980 Ronstadt began rehearsals for the first of several leads in Broadway musicals Joseph Papp cast her as the lead in the New York Shakespeare Festival production of Gilbert and Sullivan s The Pirates of Penzance alongside Kevin Kline 114 She said singing Gilbert and Sullivan was a natural choice for her since her grandfather Fred Ronstadt was credited with having created Tucson s first orchestra the Club Filarmonico Tucsonense and had once created an arrangement of The Pirates of Penzance 50 The Pirates of Penzance opened for a limited engagement in New York City s Central Park eventually moving its production to Broadway where it became a hit running from January 8 1981 to November 28 1982 115 Newsweek was effusive in its praise she has not dodged the coloratura demands of her role and Mabel is one of the most demanding parts in the G amp S canon from her entrance trilling Poor Wand ring One it is clear that she is prepared to scale whatever soprano peaks stand in her way 94 Ronstadt co starred with Kline and Angela Lansbury in the 1983 operetta s film version this was her only acting role in a motion picture her other film appearances such as in the 1978 drama FM being concert footage as herself Ronstadt received a Golden Globe nomination for the role in the film version She garnered a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical and The Pirates of Penzance won several Tony Awards including a Tony Award for Best Revival As a child Ronstadt had discovered the opera La boheme through the silent film with Lillian Gish and was determined to someday play the part of Mimi When she met the opera superstar Beverly Sills she was told My dear everysoprano in the world wants to play Mimi In 1984 Ronstadt was cast in the role at Joseph Papp s Public Theater However the production was a critical and commercial disaster closing after only a few nights 116 In 1982 Ronstadt released the album Get Closer a primarily rock album with some country and pop music as well It remains her only album between 1975 and 1990 not to be officially certified platinum It peaked at number 31 on the Billboard Album Chart The release continued her streak of Top 40 hits with Get Closer and I Knew You When a 1965 hit by Billy Joe Royal while the Jimmy Webb song Easy For You To Say was a surprise Top 10 Adult Contemporary hit in the spring of 1983 Sometimes You Just Can t Win was picked up by country radio and made it to number 27 on that listing Ronstadt also filmed several music videos for this album which became popular on the fledgling MTV cable channel The album earned Ronstadt two Grammy Award nominations one for Best Rock Vocal Performance Female for the title track and another for Best Pop Vocal Performance Female for the album The artwork won its art director Kosh his second Grammy Award for Best Album Package Along with the release of her Get Closer album Ronstadt embarked on a North American tour remaining one of the top rock concert draws that summer and fall On November 25 1982 her Happy Thanksgiving Day concert was held at the Reunion Arena in Dallas and broadcast live via satellite to NBC radio stations in the United States 117 In 1988 Ronstadt returned to Broadway for a limited run engagement in the musical show adaptation of her album celebrating her Mexican heritage Canciones De Mi Padre A Romantic Evening in Old Mexico 118 Artistic aspirations Ronstadt has remarked that in the beginning of her career she was so focused on folk rock and country that she got a bit bored and started to branch out and has been doing that ever since 119 By 1983 her estimated worth was over 40 million 120 mostly from records concerts and merchandising In the early 1980s Ronstadt was criticized for accepting 500 000 to perform at the South African resort Sun City violating the cultural boycott imposed against South Africa because of its policy of apartheid 121 122 123 At the time she stated the last place for a boycott is in the arts and I don t like being told I can t go somewhere 124 Paul Simon was criticized for including her on his 1986 album Graceland recorded in South Africa but defended her I know that her intention was never to support the government there She made a mistake She s extremely liberal in her political thinking and unquestionably antiapartheid 125 Ronstadt eventually tired of playing arenas 126 She had ceased to feel that arenas where people milled around smoking marijuana cigarettes and drinking beer were appropriate places for music She wanted angels in the architecture a reference to a lyric in the Paul Simon song You Can Call Me Al from Graceland Ronstadt sang harmony with Simon on a different Graceland track Under African Skies The second verse s lyrics pay tribute to Ronstadt Take this child Lord from Tucson Arizona Ronstadt has said she wants to sing in places similar to the theatre of ancient Greece where the attention is focused on the stage and the performer 127 Ronstadt s recording output in the 1980s proved to be just as commercially and critically successful as her 1970s recordings Between 1983 and 1990 Ronstadt scored six additional platinum albums two are triple platinum each with over three million U S copies sold one has been certified double platinum over two million copies sold and one has earned additional certification as a Gold over 500 000 U S copies sold double disc album 47 Jazz pop trilogy In 1981 Ronstadt produced and recorded an album of pop standards later marketed in bootleg form titled Keeping Out of Mischief with the assistance of producer Jerry Wexler However Ronstadt s displeasure with the result led her with regrets to scrap the project Doing that killed me she said in a Time magazine interview 128 But the appeal of the album s music had seduced Ronstadt as she told DownBeat in April 1985 crediting Wexler for encouraging her 129 Nonetheless Ronstadt had to convince her reluctant record company Elektra to approve this type of album under her contract 130 By 1983 Ronstadt had enlisted the help of 62 year old conductor Nelson Riddle The two embarked on an unorthodox and original approach to rehabilitating the Great American Songbook recording a trilogy of traditional pop albums What s New 1983 U S 3 7 million as of 2010 Lush Life 1984 U S 1 7 million as of 2010 and For Sentimental Reasons 1986 U S 1 3 million as of 2010 The three albums have had a combined sales total of nearly seven million copies in the U S alone I now realize I was taking a tremendous risk and that Joe Smith the head of Elektra Records and strongly opposed was looking out for himself and for me When it became apparent I wouldn t change my mind he said I love Nelson so much Can I please come to the sessions I said Yes When the albums were successful Joe congratulated me and I never said I told you so Linda Ronstadt 131 The album design for What s New by designer Kosh was unlike any of her previous disc covers It showed Ronstadt in a vintage dress lying on shimmering satin sheets with a Walkman headset At the time Ronstadt received some chiding for both the album cover and her venture into what was then considered elevator music by cynics but remained determined to record with Riddle and What s New became a hit The album was released in September 1983 and spent 81 weeks on the Billboard Album Chart and held the number three position for a month and a half held out of the top spot only by Michael Jackson s Thriller and Lionel Richie s Can t Slow Down and the RIAA certified it triple platinum 93 over three million copies sold in the U S alone The album earned Ronstadt another Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and critical raves with Time magazine calling it one of the gutsiest most unorthodox and unexpected albums of the year 132 Ronstadt faced considerable pressure not to record What s New or record with Riddle According to jazz historian Peter Levinson author of the book September in the Rain a Biography on Nelson Riddle Joe Smith president of Elektra Records was terrified that the Riddle album would turn off Ronstadt s rock audience 130 Ronstadt did not completely turn her back on her rock and roll past however the video for the title track featured Danny Kortchmar as the old beau that she bumped into during a rainstorm What s New brought Riddle to a younger audience According to Levinson the younger audience hated what Riddle had done with Frank Sinatra 133 which in 1983 was considered Vintage Pop Working with Ronstadt Riddle brought his career back into focus in the last three years of his life 133 Stephen Holden of The New York Times wrote What s New isn t the first album by a rock singer to pay tribute to the golden age of the pop but is the best and most serious attempt to rehabilitate an idea of pop that Beatlemania and the mass marketing of rock LPs for teenagers undid in the mid 60s In the decade prior to Beatlemania most of the great band singers and crooners of the 40s and 50s codified a half century of American pop standards on dozens of albums many of them now long out of print 134 What s New is the first album by a rock singer to have major commercial success in rehabilitating the Great American Songbook 134 In 1984 Ronstadt and Riddle performed these songs live in concert halls throughout Australia Japan and the United States including multi night performances at historic venues Carnegie Hall Radio City Music Hall and Pine Knob In 2004 Ronstadt released Hummin to Myself her album for Verve Records It was her first foray into traditional jazz since her sessions with Jerry Wexler and her records with the Nelson Riddle Orchestra but this time with an intimate jazz combo The album was a quiet affair for Ronstadt giving few interviews and making only one television performance as a promotion It reached number 2 on Billboard s Top Jazz Albums chart but peaked at number 166 on the main Billboard album chart Not having the mass distribution that Warner Music Group gave her Hummin To Myself had sold over 75 000 copies in the U S as of 2010 It also achieved some critical acclaim from the jazz cognoscenti 23 Trio recordings When we sang it was a beautiful and different sound I ve never heard before We recorded the vocals as individual parts because we didn t have the luxury of spending a lot of time together on a tour bus and knowing each other s vocal moves takes years Linda Ronstadt 56 In 1978 Ronstadt Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris friends and admirers of one another s work Ronstadt had included a cover of Parton s I Will Always Love You on Prisoner in Disguise attempted to collaborate on a Trio album Unfortunately the attempt did not pan out Ronstadt later remarked that not too many people were in control at the time and everyone was too involved with their own careers Though the efforts to complete the album were abandoned a number of the recordings were included on the singers respective solo recordings over the next few years This concept album was put on the back burner for almost ten years In January 1986 the three eventually did make their way into the recording studio where they spent the next several months working The result Trio which they had conceived ten years earlier was released in March 1987 It was a considerable hit holding the number 1 position on Billboard s Country Albums chart for five weeks running and hitting the Top 10 on the pop side also Selling over three million copies in the U S and winning them a Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal it produced four Top Ten Country singles including To Know Him Is to Love Him which hit number 1 The album was also a nominee for overall Album of the Year in the company of Michael Jackson U2 Prince and Whitney Houston In 1994 the three performers recorded a follow up to Trio As was the case with their aborted 1978 effort conflicting schedules and competing priorities delayed the album s release indefinitely Ronstadt who had already paid for studio time and owed her record company a finished album removed Parton s individual tracks at Parton s request kept Harris s vocals and produced a number of the recordings which she subsequently released on her 1995 return to country rock the album Feels Like Home However in 1999 Ronstadt Parton and Harris agreed to release the Trio II album as was originally recorded in 1994 It included an ethereal cover of Neil Young s After The Gold Rush which became a popular music video The effort was certified Gold over 500 000 copies sold and won them a Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals for the track Ronstadt co produced the album with George Massenburg and the three women also received a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Country Album Canciones de Mi Padre Main article Canciones de Mi Padre At the end of 1987 Ronstadt released Canciones de Mi Padre an album of traditional Mexican folk songs or what she has described as world class songs Keeping with the Ronstadt history theme her cover art was dramatic bold and colorful it shows Ronstadt in full Mexican regalia Her musical arranger was mariachi musician Ruben Fuentes These canciones were a big part of Ronstadt s family tradition and musical roots In January 1946 the University of Arizona published a booklet by Luisa Espinel entitled Canciones de mi Padre 135 Luisa Espinel Ronstadt s aunt was an international singer in the 1920s and 1930s Espinel s father was Fred Ronstadt Linda Ronstadt s grandfather and the songs she had learned transcribed and published were some of the ones he had brought with him from Sonora Ronstadt researched and extracted from the favorites she had learned from her father Gilbert and she called her album by the same name as her aunt s booklet and as a tribute to her father and his family Though not fully bilingual she has a fairly good command of the Spanish language allowing her to sing Latin American songs with little discernible U S accent Ronstadt has often identified herself as Mexican American 136 Her formative years were spent with her father s side of the family 137 In fact in 1976 Ronstadt had collaborated with her father to write and compose a traditional Mexican folk ballad Lo siento mi vida a song that she included on Hasten Down the Wind Ronstadt has also credited Mexican singer Lola Beltran as an influence on her own singing style and she recalls how a frequent guest to the Ronstadt home Eduardo Lalo Guerrero father of Chicano music would often serenade her as a child 50 Canciones de Mi Padre won Ronstadt a Grammy Award for Best Mexican American Performance In 2001 it was certified double platinum by the RIAA for shipments of over 2 million copies in the United States making it the best selling non English language album in U S music history The album and later theatrical stage show served as a benchmark of the Latin cultural renaissance in North America I obtained enough clout and after years and years of making commercial records I was entitled to experiment the success of the Nelson Riddle albums entitled me to try the Mexican stuff Linda Ronstadt 64 Ronstadt produced and performed a theatrical stage show also titled Canciones de mi Padre in concert halls across the U S and Latin America to both Hispanic and non Hispanic audiences These performances were later released on DVD Ronstadt elected to return to the Broadway stage four years after she performed in La boheme for a limited run engagement PBS s Great Performances aired the stage show during its annual fund drives and the show was a hit with audiences earning Ronstadt a Primetime Emmy Award for Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program Ronstadt recorded two additional albums of Latin music in the early 1990s Their promotion like most of her albums in the 1990s was a quieter affair with Ronstadt making only a limited number of appearances to promote them They were not nearly as successful as Canciones De Mi Padre but were critically acclaimed in some circles In 1991 she released Mas Canciones a follow up to the first Canciones For this album she won a Grammy Award for Best Mexican Mexican American Album The following year she stepped outside of the mariachi genre and decided to record well known Afro Cuban songs This album was titled Frenesi Like her two previous Latin recordings ventures it won Ronstadt a Grammy Award this time for Best Traditional Tropical Latin Album In 1991 Ronstadt acted in the lead role of archangel San Miguel in La Pastorela or A Shephard s Tale a musical filmed at San Juan Bautista It was written and directed by Luis Valdez The production was part of the PBS Great Performances series In December 2020 it was announced that Canciones de Mi Padre had been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame 138 Returning to the contemporary music scene By the late 1980s while enjoying the success of her big band jazz collaborations with Riddle and her surprise hit mariachi recordings Ronstadt elected to return to recording mainstream pop music once again In 1987 she made a return to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart with Somewhere Out There which peaked at number 2 in March 94 Featured in the animated film An American Tail the sentimental duet with James Ingram was nominated for several Grammy Awards ultimately winning the Grammy Award for Song of the Year The song also received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Song and achieved high sales earning a million selling gold single in the U S one of the last 45s ever to do so It was also accompanied by a popular music video On the heels of this success Steven Spielberg asked Ronstadt to record the theme song for the animated sequel titled An American Tail Fievel Goes West which was titled Dreams to Dream Although Dreams to Dream failed to achieve the success of Somewhere Out There the song did give Ronstadt an Adult Contemporary hit in 1991 In 1989 Ronstadt released a mainstream pop album and several popular singles Cry Like A Rainstorm Howl Like The Wind became one of the singer s most successful albums in production arrangements sales and critical acclaim It became Ronstadt s tenth Top 10 album on the Billboard chart reaching number 7 and being certified triple platinum 93 over three million copies sold in the U S The album also received Grammy Award nominations 139 Ronstadt included New Orleans soul singer Aaron Neville on several of the album s songs Ronstadt incorporated the sounds of the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir Tower of Power horns the Skywalker Symphony and numerous musicians It included the duets with Aaron Neville Don t Know Much Billboard Hot 100 number 2 hit Christmas 1989 94 and All My Life Billboard Hot 100 number 11 hit both of which were long running number 1 Adult Contemporary hits The duets earned several Grammy Award nominations The duo won both the 1989 and 1990 Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal awards Ronstadt s last known live Grammy Award appearance was in 1990 when she and Neville performed Don t Know Much together on the telecast 55 Whenever I sing with a different artist I can get things out of my voice that I can t do by myself Ronstadt reflected in 2007 I can do things with Aaron that I can t do alone 140 In December 1990 she participated in a concert held at the Tokyo Dome to commemorate John Lennon s 50th birthday and to raise awareness of environmental issues Other participants included Miles Davis Lenny Kravitz Hall amp Oates Natalie Cole Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon An album resulted titled Happy Birthday John 141 Return to roots music Ronstadt released the highly acclaimed Winter Light album at the end of 1993 It included New Age arrangements such as the lead single Heartbeats Accelerating as well as the self penned title track and featured the glass harmonica It was her first commercial failure since 1972 and peaked at number 92 in Billboard whereas 1995 s Feels Like Home was Ronstadt s much heralded return to country rock and included her version of Tom Petty s classic hit The Waiting The single s rollicking fiddle infused flip side Walk On returned Ronstadt to the Country Singles chart for the first time since 1983 An album track entitled The Blue Train charted 10 weeks in Billboard s Adult Contemporary Top 40 This album fared slightly better than its predecessor reaching number 75 Both albums were later deleted from the Elektra Asylum catalog Ronstadt was nominated for three Lo Nuestro Awards in 1993 Female Regional Mexican Artist of the Year Female Tropical Salsa Artist of the Year and her version of the song Perfidia was also listed for Tropical Salsa Song of the Year 142 In 1996 Ronstadt produced Dedicated to the One I Love an album of classic rock and roll songs reinvented as lullabies The album reached number 78 in Billboard and won the Grammy Award for Best Musical Album for Children In 1998 Ronstadt released We Ran her first album in over two years The album harkened back to Ronstadt s country rock and folk rock heyday She returned to her rock n roll roots with vivid interpretations of songs by Bruce Springsteen Doc Pomus Bob Dylan and John Hiatt The recording was produced by Glyn Johns A commercial failure the album stood at 57 897 copies sold at the time of its deletion in 2008 It is the poorest selling studio album in Ronstadt s Elektra Asylum catalog We Ran did not chart any singles but it was well received by critics Despite the lack of success of We Ran Ronstadt kept moving towards this adult rock exploration In the summer of 1999 she released the album Western Wall The Tucson Sessions a folk rock oriented project with Emmylou Harris It earned a nomination for the Grammy Award for the Best Contemporary Folk Album and made the Top 10 of Billboard s Country Albums chart Still in print as of December 2016 it has sold 223 255 copies per Nielsen SoundScan citation needed Also in 1999 Ronstadt went back to her concert roots when she performed with the Eagles and Jackson Browne at Staples Center s 1999 New Year s Eve celebration kicking off the December 31 end of the millennium festivities As Staples Center Senior Vice President and general manager Bobby Goldwater said It was our goal to present a spectacular event as a sendoff to the 20th century and Eagles Jackson Browne and Linda Ronstadt are three of the most popular acts of the century Their performances will constitute a singular and historic night of entertainment for New Year s Eve in Los Angeles 143 In 2000 Ronstadt completed her long contractual relationship with the Elektra Asylum label The fulfillment of this contract commenced with the release of A Merry Little Christmas her first holiday collection which includes rare choral works the somber Joni Mitchell song River and a rare recorded duet with the late Rosemary Clooney on Clooney s signature song White Christmas Since leaving Warner Music Ronstadt has gone on to release one album each under Verve and Vanguard Records Your musical soul is like facets of a jewel and you stick out one facet at a time and I tend to work real hard on whatever it is I do to get it up to speed up to a professional level I tend to bury myself in one thing for years at a time Linda Ronstadt 37 In 2006 recording as the ZoZo Sisters Ronstadt teamed with her new friend musician and musical scholar Ann Savoy to record Adieu False Heart It was an album of roots music incorporating pop Cajun and early 20th century music and released on the Vanguard Records label But Adieu False Heart was a commercial failure peaking at number 146 in the U S despite her touring for the final time that year It was the last time Linda Ronstadt would record an album having begun to lose her singing ability as a result of a degenerative condition later determined to be progressive supranuclear palsy but initially diagnosed as Parkinson s disease in December 2012 Adieu False Heart recorded in Louisiana features a cast of local musicians including Chas Justus Eric Frey and Kevin Wimmer of the Red Stick Ramblers Sam Broussard of the Mamou Playboys Dirk Powell and Joel Savoy as well as an array of Nashville musicians fiddler Stuart Duncan mandolinist Sam Bush and guitarist Bryan Sutton The recording earned two Grammy Award nominations Best Traditional Folk Album and Best Engineered Album Non Classical In 2007 Ronstadt contributed to the compilation album We All Love Ella Celebrating the First Lady of Song a tribute album to jazz music s all time most heralded artist on the track Miss Otis Regrets 144 In August 2007 Ronstadt headlined the Newport Folk Festival making her debut at this event where she incorporated jazz rock and folk music into her repertoire It was one of her final concerts In 2010 Ronstadt contributed the arrangement and lead vocal to A La Orilla de un Palmar on the Chieftains studio album San Patricio with Ry Cooder This remains her most recent commercially available recording as lead vocalist Retirement In 2011 Ronstadt was interviewed by the Arizona Daily Star and announced her retirement 45 In August 2013 she revealed to Alanna Nash writing for AARP that she has Parkinson s disease and can no longer sing a note 145 Her diagnosis was subsequently re evaluated as progressive supranuclear palsy 24 Her memoir Feels Like Home A Song for the Sonoran Borderlands was published in 2022 146 Selected career achievements Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris receiving honors from Berklee 2009 On April 10 2014 Ronstadt was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 147 In July 2019 Ronstadt was selected as a Kennedy Center Honoree 148 On May 7 2022 during the International Mariachi Conference the Tucson Music Hall at the Tucson Convention Center was officially renamed as The Linda Ronstadt Music Hall 149 As of 2019 Ronstadt has earned three number one pop albums 10 top ten pop albums and 38 charting pop albums on the Billboard Pop Album Charts She has 15 albums on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart including four that hit number one Ronstadt s singles have earned her a number one hit and three number two hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart with 10 top ten pop singles and 21 reaching the Top 40 She has also scored two number one hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and two number one hits on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart Rolling Stone wrote that a whole generation but for her might never have heard the work of Buddy Holly Chuck Berry or Elvis Costello 82 She has recorded and released over 30 studio albums and has made guest appearances on an estimated 120 albums by other artists Her guest appearances included the classical minimalist Philip Glass s album Songs from Liquid Days a hit classical record with other major pop stars either singing or writing lyrics Ronstadt s two tracks on the album saw her singing lyrics written by Suzanne Vega and Laurie Anderson She also appeared on Glass s follow up recording 1000 Airplanes on the Roof She appeared on Paul Simon s Graceland where she sang a duet with Simon Under African Skies In that song there is a verse dedicated to Ronstadt her voice and harmonies and her birth in Tucson Arizona She voiced herself in The Simpsons episode Mr Plow and sang a duet Funny How Time Slips Away with Homer Simpson on The Yellow Album Ronstadt has also appeared on albums by a vast range of artists including Emmylou Harris the Chieftains Dolly Parton Neil Young J D Souther Gram Parsons Bette Midler Nitty Gritty Dirt Band Earl Scruggs the Eagles Andrew Gold Wendy Waldman Hoyt Axton Kate and Anna McGarrigle Ann Savoy Karla Bonoff James Taylor Jimmy Webb Valerie Carter Warren Zevon Maria Muldaur Randy Newman specifically his musical adaptation of Faust Nicolette Larson the Seldom Scene Rosemary Clooney Aaron Neville Rodney Crowell Hearts and Flowers Laurie Lewis and Flaco Jimenez As a singer songwriter Ronstadt has written songs covered by several artists such as Try Me Again covered by Trisha Yearwood and Winter Light which was co written and composed with Zbigniew Preisner and Eric Kaz and covered by Sarah Brightman Her three biggest selling studio albums to date are her 1977 release Simple Dreams 1983 s What s New and 1989 s Cry Like A Rainstorm Howl Like The Wind Each one has been certified by the Recording Industry Association of America for over three million copies sold Her highest selling album to date is the 1976 compilation Greatest Hits certified for over seven million units sold as of 2001 93 Ronstadt became music s first major touring female artist to sell out sizeable venues she was also the top grossing solo female concert artist for the 1970s 39 She remained a highly successful touring artist into the 1990s at which time she decided to scale back to smaller venues In the 1970s Cashbox magazine a competitor of Billboard during that time period named Ronstadt the 1 Female Artist of the Decade 29 Rolling Stone s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time included Heart Like a Wheel 1974 at number 164 and The Very Best Of Linda Ronstadt 2002 at number 324 150 The 2012 revision kept only the compilation but raised it to the place once occupied by Heart Like a Wheel Ronstadt s album sales have not been certified since 2001 At that time Ronstadt s U S album sales were certified by the Recording Industry Association of America at over 30 million albums sold however Peter Asher her former producer and manager placed her total U S album sales at over 45 million 49 Likewise her worldwide albums sales are in excess of 100 million albums sold according to the former president of Warner Bros Records Joe Smith now a jury member of the Hit Parade Hall of Fame 151 Her RIAA certification audits paid for by record companies or artists for promotion tally as of 2001 totaled 19 Gold 14 Platinum and 7 Multi Platinum albums 93 She was the first female in music history to score three consecutive platinum albums and ultimately racked up a total of eight consecutive platinum albums 47 Her album Living in the USA was the first album by any recording artist in U S music history to ship double platinum over two million advanced copies 39 Her first Latin release the all Spanish 1987 album Canciones De Mi Padre stands as the best selling non English language album in American music history As of 2013 it had sold over 21 2 million U S copies Ronstadt has served as producer on albums from various musicians that include her cousin David Lindley Aaron Neville and singer songwriter Jimmy Webb 152 She produced Cristal Glass Music Through the Ages an album of classical music using glass instruments with Dennis James where she sang on several of the arrangements 153 In 1999 Ronstadt also produced the Grammy Award winning Trio II She has received a total of 27 Grammy Award nominations in various fields that include rock country pop and Tropical Latin and has won 11 Grammy Awards in the categories of Pop Country Tropical Latin Musical Album for Children and Mexican American In 2016 Ronstadt was again honored by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences with the Lifetime Achievement Grammy She was the first female solo artist to have two Top 5 singles simultaneously on Billboard magazine s Hot 100 Blue Bayou and It s So Easy By December of that year both Blue Bayou and It s So Easy had climbed into Billboard s Top 5 and remained there for the month s last four weeks 154 In 1999 Ronstadt ranked number 21 in VH1 s 100 Greatest Women of Rock amp Roll Three years later she ranked number 40 in CMT s 40 Greatest Women in Country Music Personal life Jerry Brown pictured had a high profile relationship with Ronstadt when he was the governor of California in the late 1970s Beginning in the mid 1970s Ronstadt s private life became increasingly public It was fueled by a relationship with then Governor of California Jerry Brown a Democratic presidential candidate They shared a Newsweek magazine cover in April 1979 155 as well as the covers of Us Weekly and People magazine In 1983 Linda Ronstadt dated comedian Jim Carrey for eight months 156 From the end of 1983 to 1988 Ronstadt was engaged to Star Wars director George Lucas 157 In December 1990 she adopted an infant daughter Mary Clementine Ronstadt 158 In 1994 she adopted a baby boy Carlos Ronstadt 159 Ronstadt has never married 160 Speaking of finding an acceptable mate in 1974 she told Peter Knobler in Crawdaddy he s real kind but isn t inspired musically and then you meet somebody else that s just so inspired musically that he just takes your breath away but he s such a moron such a maniac that you can t get along with him And then after that it s the problem of finding someone that can stand you 161 In the late 1980s after living in Los Angeles for 30 years Ronstadt moved to San Francisco because she said she never felt at home in Southern California 159 Los Angeles became too enclosing an environment she says I couldn t breathe the air and I didn t want to drive on the freeways to get to the studio I also didn t want to embrace the values that have been so completely embraced by that city Are you glamorous Are you rich Are you important Do you have clout It s just not me and it never was me 54 In 1997 Ronstadt sold her home in San Francisco and moved back to her hometown of Tucson Arizona to raise her two children 159 In more recent years Ronstadt moved back to San Francisco while continuing to maintain her home in Tucson In 2009 in honor of Ronstadt the Martin Guitar Company made a 00 42 model Linda Ronstadt Limited Edition acoustic guitar Ronstadt appointed the Land Institute as recipient of all proceeds from her signature guitar 162 In 2013 Simon amp Schuster published her autobiography 163 164 Simple Dreams A Musical Memoir as well as the Spanish version Suenos Sencillos Memorias Musicales 165 In August 2013 Ronstadt revealed she was diagnosed with Parkinson s disease leaving her unable to sing due to loss of muscular control which is common to Parkinson s patients She was diagnosed eight months prior to the announcement and had initially attributed the symptoms she had been experiencing to the aftereffects of shoulder surgery and a tick bite 166 167 In late 2019 it was reported her doctors had revised their diagnosis to progressive supranuclear palsy a degenerative disease commonly mistaken for Parkinson s due to the similarity of the symptoms 24 Ronstadt describes herself as a spiritual atheist 168 Political activism Ronstadt s politics received criticism and praise during and after her July 17 2004 performance at the Aladdin Theatre for the Performing Arts in Las Vegas Toward the end of the show as she had done across the country Ronstadt spoke to the audience praising Fahrenheit 9 11 Michael Moore s documentary film about the Iraq War she dedicated the song Desperado to Moore 169 Accounts say the crowd s initial reaction was mixed with half the crowd heartily applauding her praise for Moore and the other half booing 169 Following the concert news accounts reported Ronstadt was evicted from the hotel premises 170 Ronstadt s comments as well as the reactions of some audience members and the hotel became a topic of discussion nationwide Aladdin casino president Bill Timmins and Michael Moore each made public statements about the controversy 171 The incident prompted international headlines and debate on an entertainer s right to express a political opinion from the stage and made the editorial section of The New York Times 172 Following the incident many friends of Ronstadt s including the Eagles immediately cancelled their engagements at the Aladdin 55 Ronstadt also received telegrams of support from her rock n roll friends around the world like the Rolling Stones the Eagles and Elton John Amid reports of mixed public response Ronstadt continued her praise of Moore and his film throughout her 2004 and 2006 summer concerts across North America At a 2006 concert in Canada Ronstadt told the Calgary Sun that she was embarrassed George Bush was from the United States He s an idiot He s enormously incompetent on both the domestic and international scenes Now the fact that we were lied to about the reasons for entering into war against Iraq and thousands of people have died it s just as immoral as racism Her remarks drew international headlines In an August 14 2007 interview she commented on all her well publicized outspoken views in particular the Aladdin incident by noting If I had it to do over I would be much more gracious to everyone you can be as outspoken as you want if you are very very respectful Show some grace 173 In 2007 Ronstadt resided in San Francisco while also maintaining her home in Tucson 174 That same year she drew criticism and praise 175 from Tucsonans for commenting that local city council s failings developers strip mall mentality greed and growing dust problem had rendered the city unrecognizable and poorly developed 176 In August 2009 Ronstadt in a well publicized interview to PlanetOut Inc titled Linda Ronstadt s Gay Mission championed gay rights and same sex marriage and stated homophobia is anti family values Period end of story 177 On January 16 2010 Ronstadt converged with thousands of other activists in a National Day of Action Ronstadt stated that her dog in the fight as a native Arizonan and coming from a law enforcement family was the treatment of illegal aliens and Arizona s enforcement of its illegal immigrant law especially Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio s efforts in that area 178 On April 29 2010 Ronstadt began a campaign including joining a lawsuit 179 against Arizona s new illegal immigration law SB 1070 calling it a devastating blow to law enforcement the police don t protect us in a democracy with brute force something she said she learned from her brother Peter who was Chief of Police in Tucson 180 Ronstadt has also been outspoken on environmental and community issues She is a major supporter and admirer of sustainable agriculture pioneer Wes Jackson saying in 2000 the work he s doing right now is the most important work there is in the United States 157 and dedicating the rock anthem Desperado to him at an August 2007 concert in Kansas City Kansas 181 National arts advocacy In the United States we spend millions of dollars on sports because it promotes teamwork discipline and the experience of learning to make great progress in small increments Learning to play music together does all this and more Congressional testimony from Linda Ronstadt 182 In 2004 Ronstadt wrote the foreword to the book The NPR Curious Listener s Guide to American Folk Music 183 and in 2005 she wrote the introduction to the book Classic Ferrington Guitars about guitar maker and luthier Danny Ferrington and the custom guitars that he created for Ronstadt and other musicians such as Elvis Costello Ry Cooder and Kurt Cobain 184 Ronstadt has been honored for her contribution to the American arts On September 23 2007 she was inducted into the Arizona Music amp Entertainment Hall of Fame along with Stevie Nicks Buck Owens and filmmaker Steven Spielberg 185 On August 17 2008 Ronstadt received a tribute by various artists including BeBe Winans and Wynonna Judd when she was honored with the Trailblazer Award presented to her by Placido Domingo at the 2008 ALMA Awards 186 a ceremony later televised in the U S on ABC In 2008 Ronstadt was appointed artistic director of the San Jose Mariachi and Mexican Heritage Festival 187 188 On March 31 2009 in testimony that the Los Angeles Times termed remarkable 189 Ronstadt spoke to the United States Congress House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior Environment amp Related Agencies attempting to convince lawmakers to budget 200 million in the 2010 fiscal year for the National Endowment of the Arts 188 In May 2009 Ronstadt received an honorary doctorate of music degree from the Berklee College of Music for her achievements and influence in music and her contributions to American and international culture 190 Mix magazine stated that Linda Ronstadt has left her mark on more than the record business her devotion to the craft of singing influenced many audio professionals and is intensely knowledgeable about the mechanics of singing and the cultural contexts of every genre she passes 56 Awards and nominationsGrammy Awards Year Category Nominated work Result Ref 1971 Best Contemporary Vocal Performance Female Long Long Time Nominated 191 1976 Album of the Year Heart Like a Wheel NominatedBest Contemporary Vocal Performance Female NominatedBest Country Vocal Performance Female I Can t Help It If I m Still in Love with You Won1977 Best Contemporary Vocal Performance Female Hasten Down the Wind Won1978 Blue Bayou NominatedRecord of the Year Nominated1981 Best Rock Vocal Performance Female How Do I Make You Nominated1983 Get Closer NominatedBest Female Vocal Pop Performance Get Closer Nominated1984 What s New Nominated1986 Lush Life Nominated1988 Album of the Year Trio with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris NominatedBest Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal WonBest Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals Somewhere Out There with James Ingram Nominated1989 Best Mexican American Performance Canciones de Mi Padre Won1990 Best Female Vocal Pop Performance Cry Like a Rainstorm Howl Like the Wind NominatedBest Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals Don t Know Much with Aaron Neville Won1991 All My Life with Aaron Neville Won1993 Best Tropical Latin Album Frenesi WonBest Mexican American Album Mas Canciones Won1997 Best Musical Album for Children Dedicated to the One I Love Won2000 Best Country Album Trio II with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris NominatedBest Contemporary Folk Album Western Wall The Tucson Sessions with Emmylou Harris NominatedBest Country Collaboration with Vocals After the Gold Rush with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris Won2007 Best Traditional Folk Album Adieu False Heart with Ann Savoy Nominated2016 Lifetime Achievement Award Won2021 Best Music Film Linda Ronstadt The Sound of My Voice WonIn 1981 the album In Harmony A Sesame Street Record won the Grammy for Best Album for Children Ronstadt was one of the various artists featured on the album The Grammys were awarded to the producers David Levine and Lucy Simon Latin Grammy Awards Year Category Nominated work Result Ref 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award Won 192 Primetime Emmy Awards Year Category Nominated work Result Ref 1989 Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program Canciones de Mi Padre Great Performances Won 193 Tony Awards Year Category Nominated work Result Ref 1981 Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical The Pirates of Penzance NominatedGolden Globe Awards 1983 Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical or Comedy Linda Ronstadt in The Pirates of PenzanceYear Category Nominated work Result Ref 1983 Best Actress Motion Picture Comedy or Musical The Pirates of Penzance NominatedArizona Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame 2007 Inducted for her significant impact on the evolution and development of the entertainment culture in the state of ArizonaAcademy of Country Music 1974 Best New Female Artist 1987 Album of the Year Trio Dolly Parton Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou HarrisCountry Music Association 1988 Vocal Event of the Year Trio Dolly Parton Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou HarrisAmerican Latino Media Arts 2008 Trailblazer Award for Contribution to American Music 194 Lo Nuestro nominations 1989 Regional Mexican Female Artist Regional Mexican Album Canciones de Mi Padre and Crossover Artist 195 1992 Regional Mexican Female Artist 196 1993 Tropical Female Artist Regional Mexican Female Artist and Tropical Song Perfidia 197 Kennedy Center 2019 Kennedy Center HonoreeDiscographyMain article Linda Ronstadt discography Studio albums Hand Sown Home Grown 1969 Silk Purse 1970 Linda Ronstadt 1972 Don t Cry Now 1973 Heart Like a Wheel 1974 Prisoner in Disguise 1975 Hasten Down the Wind 1976 Simple Dreams 1977 Living in the USA 1978 Mad Love 1980 Get Closer 1982 What s New 1983 Lush Life 1984 For Sentimental Reasons 1986 Canciones de Mi Padre 1987 English translation Songs of My Father Cry Like a Rainstorm Howl Like the Wind 1989 Mas Canciones 1991 English translation More Songs Frenesi 1992 English translation Frenzy Winter Light 1993 Feels Like Home 1995 Dedicated to the One I Love 1996 We Ran 1998 A Merry Little Christmas 2000 Hummin to Myself 2004 Live albums Live in Hollywood 2019 Duets and trios Trio 1987 Emmylou Harris Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt Trio II 1999 Emmylou Harris Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt Western Wall The Tucson Sessions 1999 with Emmylou Harris Adieu False Heart 2006 with Ann Savoy The Complete Trio Collection 2016 Emmylou Harris Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt Compilation albums Different Drum 1974 Greatest Hits 1976 A Retrospective 1977 Greatest Hits Volume 2 1980 Round Midnight 1986 2 CD set The Linda Ronstadt Box Set 1999 4 CD set The Very Best of Linda Ronstadt 2002 Mi Jardin Azul Las Canciones Favoritas 2004 English translation My Blue Garden The Favorite Songs The Best of Linda Ronstadt The Capitol Years 2006 2 CD set Standards with Nelson Riddle Orchestra 2008 The Collection 2011 British 2 CD set Duets 2014 Just One Look Classic Linda Ronstadt 2015 2 CD set Like A Rose The Classic 1976 Broadcast Recording 2021 FilmographyFilm television and theater Year Title Role Notes1968 1969 It s Happening herself 2 episodes1969 1971 The Johnny Cash Show herself 4 episodes1970 Hee Haw herself episode 1 28 1970 Playboy After Dark herself singer 2 episodes1970 The Darin Invasion herself television film1975 Cher herself episode 1 10 1977 1989 Saturday Night Live herself musical guest 4 episodes1978 FM herself Concert Performance Movie1980 The Pirates of Penzance Mabel Stanley television film1980 The Muppet Show herself episode 5 23 1981 1982 The Pirates of Penzance Mabel Stanley nominated Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical1983 The Pirates of Penzance Mabel Stanley nominated Golden Globe Award for Best Actress Motion Picture Musical or Comedy1984 La boheme Mimi1987 Corridos Tales of Passion and Revolution La Chata and Adelita1988 Canciones de Mi Padre vocalist winner Primetime Emmy Award for Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program1989 Sesame Street herself musical guest 1 episode1991 Great Performances San Miguel episode La Pastorela 1992 The Simpsons herself Episode Mr Plow 1993 The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles Peggy singing voice episode Young Indiana Jones and the Scandal of 1920 2019 Linda Ronstadt The Sound of My Voice Herself both in person and archive footage2020 Linda and the Mockingbirds Herself both in person and archive footageBooksRonstadt Linda 2013 Simple Dreams A Musical Memoir First Simon amp Schuster hardcover ed New York Simon amp Schuster ISBN 978 1 4516 6872 8 OCLC 829743967 Ronstadt Linda 2022 Feels Like Home A Song for the Sonoran Borderlands New York Heyday Books ISBN 978 1597145794 OCLC 1290245461 Explanatory notes Ronstadt was initially diagnosed with Parkinson s disease which she publicly revealed in 2013 However it was reported in late 2019 that doctors have revised their diagnosis to progressive supranuclear palsy which is commonly mistaken for Parkinson s due to the similarity of symptoms References Erlewine Stephen Thomas Linda Ronstadt gt Biography AllMusic Retrieved December 13 2009 Linda Ronstadt Grammys com Archived from the original on January 2 2020 Retrieved March 10 2019 2014 Induction Ceremony The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum Rock and Roll Hall of Fame October 16 2013 Archived from the original on October 17 2013 Retrieved October 16 2013 President Obama Honors Linda Ronstadt Jeffrey Katzenberg Others in Art and Humanities Ceremony Daily News New York Associated Press July 28 2014 Archived from the original on November 25 2015 Retrieved November 23 2015 Silverman Stephen M July 20 2004 Ronstadt Booted After Pro Moore Comment People Archived from the original on July 29 2018 Retrieved July 28 2018 Interview Linda Ronstadt defends her politics Edmonton Sun August 10 2006 Archived from the original on January 15 2013 Retrieved October 2 2015 Kruger Debbie July 19 1998 Everlasting Linda The Weekend Australian Archived from the original on October 31 2015 Retrieved October 2 2015 Linda Ronstadt Female Rocker Fusion December 26 1969 Archived from the original on March 14 2012 Retrieved October 2 2015 A Heart To Heart with Linda Ronstadt Creem December 1976 Archived from the original on October 13 2014 Retrieved October 2 2015 Interview The San Diego Union Tribune Archived from the original on May 4 2012 Retrieved October 2 2015 Linda Ronstadt rocks with jazz sophistication August 4 2007 Archived from the original on September 30 2007 Retrieved October 2 2015 Linda Ronstadt lets wisdom strike notes The Honolulu Advertiser March 31 2006 Archived from the original on January 3 2016 Retrieved October 2 2015 Linda Ronstadt Melancholy Baby Esquire October 1985 Archived from the original on March 16 2015 Retrieved October 2 2015 a b c d e f Not My Job Linda Ronstadt Wait Wait Don t Tell Me NPR April 28 2007 Archived from the original on October 3 2015 Retrieved October 2 2015 Some of the content of the lead section is supported by these news items 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Hermanson Wendy June 26 2018 Faith Hill Dolly Parton Emmylou Harris Linda Ronstadt Getting Stars on Hollywood Walk of Fame Taste of Country Archived from the original on June 27 2018 Retrieved October 9 2020 Powerful Country Women Getting Stars on Hollywood Walk of Fame Taste of Country Archived from the original on September 4 2018 Retrieved August 24 2018 Linda Ronstadt Official Charts Company Archived from the original on May 8 2019 Retrieved September 25 2009 Don t Know Much Official Charts Company Archived from the original on June 3 2015 Retrieved September 25 2009 Disc 2 October 1969 Featuring Linda Ronstadt Joe Cocker Billy Eckstine Mort Sahl and Sid Caesar God Bless the Child Linda Ronstadt and Billy Eckstine Duet Playboy After Dark DVD Collection Archived from the original on August 21 2006 Retrieved December 13 2012 Partridge Tony September 12 2006 Linda Ronstadt Guest Appearances and Unique Recordings PDF Archived from the original PDF on May 9 2008 Retrieved August 30 2007 http lyricswww ronstadt linda com guestapp doc Archived November 24 2015 at the Wayback Machine Ward Bruce December 27 2013 Musical memoirs hit some high notes Ottawa Citizen Archived from the original on February 21 2014 Retrieved February 14 2014 a b Loudon Christopher December 2004 Linda Ronstadt Hummin to Myself Verve JazzTimes Archived from the original on April 13 2007 Retrieved April 19 2007 a b c d McCarthy Ellen December 3 2019 Linda Ronstadt never stopped singing The Washington Post Archived from the original on December 4 2019 Retrieved December 4 2019 Ronstadt Linda 2013 Simple Dreams A Musical Memoir Simon amp Schuster ISBN 978 1 4516 6872 8 OCLC 829743967 Borderman Memoirs of Federico Jose Maria Ronstadt University of Arizona Press 2003 Archived from the original on February 10 2007 Retrieved May 7 2007 Bego Mark 1990 Linda Ronstadt It s So Easy Eakin Press pp 9 11 ISBN 0 89015 775 8 Ronstadt Deborah J 1953 Gilbert Ronstadt Was Born in 1911 Family Circle Archived from the original on September 29 2007 Retrieved May 17 2007 a b c d e f g h Vallely Jean April 1980 Playboy Interview Linda Ronstadt Playboy Archived from the original on December 5 2007 Retrieved May 7 2007 Tucson s Ronstadt Family Through Our Parents Eyes History and Culture of Southern Arizona Arizona Library Archived from the original on February 23 2007 Retrieved April 9 2007 The Ronstadt Family The University of Arizona Archives Archived from the original on September 4 2006 Retrieved October 3 2007 The People Early Pioneers of Tucson September 2011 Archived from the original on June 18 2006 Retrieved May 16 2007 McLeese Don June 1992 Songs from Her Heart Ford Times Archived from the original on December 5 2007 Retrieved October 30 2006 http www ronstadt linda com ford times html Archived March 5 2016 at the Wayback Machine Bluestein T August 1991 Tucson Opens Ronstadt Transit Center Bus World Vol 13 no 4 Retrieved June 5 2010 Ronstadt Linda 2013 Simple Dreams a Musical Memoir New York Simon amp Schuster p 2 ISBN 978 1 4516 6872 8 LloydCopeman com Prolific U S Inventor LloydCopeman com Archived from the original on April 13 2007 Retrieved April 9 2007 a b c d e f g DeYoung Bill February 21 2003 Home at Last The Journey of Linda Ronstadt Goldmine No 589 Archived from the original on September 24 2015 Retrieved April 28 2014 a b c d e McGrath T J June July 2003 Linda Ronstadt Silver Threads amp Golden Needles Dirty Linen Issue No 106 Archived from the original on July 17 2004 Retrieved November 15 2012 a b c d e f Hirshey Gerri June 2002 We Gotta Get Out of This Place The True Tough Story of Women in Rock Grove Press p 86 ISBN 9780802138996 Archived from the original on January 3 2016 Retrieved May 11 2007 a b c d Herbst Peter October 19 1978 Rock s Venus Takes Control of Her Affairs as reprinted in Herbst The Rolling Stone Interviews 1989 Rolling Stone ISBN 9780312034863 Archived from the original on January 3 2016 Retrieved November 15 2012 via Google Books a b Hamill Pete July 21 1980 Linda Ronstadt Pirate Queen p 23 Archived from the original on January 3 2016 Retrieved November 15 2012 Connelly Christopher October 13 1983 What s New Album Reviews Rolling Stone Archived from the original on August 16 2017 Retrieved November 15 2012 Gioia Michael August 26 2013 Tony Nominee and Grammy Winner Linda Ronstadt Diagnosed with Parkinson s Disease and Is Unable to Sing Playbill Archived from the original on October 4 2013 Retrieved October 3 2013 Bruns Mary Ellin January 8 1984 Ronstadt The Gamble Pays Off Big Family Weekly Archived from the original on January 5 2008 Retrieved April 9 2007 a b Burch Cathalena E April 22 2011 Ronstadt Legacy Belongs 100 Percent to Nelson Arizona Daily Star Archived from the original on July 22 2013 Retrieved September 4 2013 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint bot original URL status unknown link RIAA Gold amp Platinum Searchable Database Recording Industry Association of America Archived from the original on January 4 2013 Retrieved November 15 2012 Search for Ronstadt Linda a b c Linda Ronstadt Top Pop Albums Joel Whitburn presents the Billboard Albums 6th ed 2007 ronstadt linda com Retrieved April 19 2007 Linda Ronstadt Record Sales Page lindaronstadt de Linda Ronstadt DE fan site Archived from the original on November 8 2010 Retrieved November 15 2010 dubious discuss a b c Kruger Debbie June 17 1998 Linda Ronstadt Interview 17 June 1998 at Linda s home in Tucson Arizona debbiekruger com Archived from the original on September 28 2007 Retrieved July 6 2007 a b c Leach Anita Mabante August 2007 Linda Ronstadt The music legend opens up to AARP Segunda Juventud Online Archived from the original on December 22 2008 Retrieved November 25 2012 a b Burlingame Burl Silver threads golden moments After 35 years Linda Ronstadt returns to sing in Diamond Head Crater Honolulu Star Bulletin Archived from the original on August 8 2010 Retrieved April 9 2007 McGrath T J Linda Ronstadt Silver Threads amp Golden Needles No 106 June July 2003 Dirty Linen Archived from the original on March 5 2016 Retrieved November 15 2015 Sanity on the Line Every Show Hit Parader February 1971 Archived from the original on March 31 2016 Retrieved May 7 2007 a b Holden Stephen April 19 1995 At Lunch With Linda Ronstadt And This Is What 48 Looks Like The New York Times Archived from the original on May 18 2013 Retrieved September 5 2011 a b c Linda Ronstadt Forum with Michael Krasny MP3 transcript KQED FM radio July 19 2006 Archived from the original on September 29 2007 Retrieved July 6 2007 a b c d e f g Daley Dan December 1 2000 Linda Ronstadt Mix Archived from the original on November 13 2005 Retrieved May 7 2007 http www mixonline com news profiles linda ronstadt 365380 Archived March 4 2016 at the Wayback Machine a b c Barnard Russ October 1978 Linda Ronstadt The Queen of Rock amp Roll is also a Queen of Country Music Country Music Archived from the original on August 8 2007 Retrieved May 11 2007 a b Lewis Randy August 20 2010 Linda Ronstadt remembers Kenny Edwards A beacon to me Los Angeles Times Archived from the original on August 23 2010 Retrieved September 4 2010 a b c d Orloff Katherine 1974 Rock n Roll Woman Nash Pub Archived from the original on September 27 2007 Retrieved May 8 2007 Claire Vivian 1978 Linda Ronstadt New York Flash Books p 10 ISBN 0 8256 3918 2 Linda Ronstadt Rhapsody Archived from the original on July 4 2011 Retrieved April 1 2009 Remington Electric Razor The Linda Ronstadt Download Center westhamptonpg personal webpage Archived from the original on December 17 2005 Retrieved June 16 2007 Linda Ronstadt s 1969 1974 Capitol Records Solo Output Presented in New 2 CD Collection The Best Of Linda Ronstadt The Capitol Years PR Newswire November 8 2005 Archived from the original on October 11 2007 Retrieved September 30 2007 a b c Shapiro Gregg February 1 2003 The Very Best Linda Ronstadt Windy City Times Archived from the original on November 21 2006 Retrieved July 31 2008 Eliot Marc December 29 2004 To the Limit The Untold Story of the Eagles Da Capo Press pp 119 ISBN 978 0 306 81398 6 Retrieved December 15 2016 Crowe Cameron December 2 1976 Linda Ronstadt The Million Dollar Woman Rolling Stone Archived from the original on July 6 2008 Retrieved July 31 2008 Knobler Peter Linda Ronstadt It s Not That Easy Being the Pretty Girl on the Block Archived March 5 2016 at the Wayback Machine Crawdaddy June 1974 a b Senoff Pete December 26 1969 Female Rocker Roundup Linda Ronstadt Lynn Carey Lydia Pense Nansi Nevins Part 1 Fusion Archived from the original on March 14 2012 Retrieved November 25 2012 a b Senoff Pete December 26 1969 Female Rocker Roundup Linda Ronstadt Lynn Carey Lydia Pense Nansi Nevins Part 2 Fusion Magazine Archived from the original on March 14 2012 Retrieved November 25 2012 Part 1 Archived March 14 2012 at the Wayback Machine jason May 20 2007 Swampwater Swampwater The Rising Storm Archived from the original on June 9 2007 Retrieved June 14 2007 Roberts John May 2003 John Beland The Barking Spider Archived from the original on August 3 2007 Retrieved June 14 2007 Gib Guilbeau 1970 1972 Swampwater Archived from the original on June 9 2007 Retrieved June 14 2007 See generally Tom King The Operator David Geffen Builds Buys and Sells the New Hollywood p 159 173 Broadway Books New York 2001 a b c d e Fong Torres Ben 1999 Linda Ronstadt Heartbreak on Wheels Rolling Stone March 27 1975 Not Fade Away A Backstage Pass to 20 Years of Rock amp Roll pp 209 220 ISBN 978 0 87930 590 1 Archived from the original on January 11 2014 Retrieved November 25 2012 a b And then there were two Linda Ronstadt talks about her friend Emmylou Harris and about the unhappy end of the Trio project Goldmine August 2 1996 Archived from the original on September 27 2007 Retrieved May 11 2007 a b Ryder Caroline October 2007 Peter Asher Interview Swindle Archived from the original on October 25 2007 Retrieved November 25 2012 Listen To Me Buddy Holly Tribute CD Out Sept 6th AltSounds com July 26 2011 Archived from the original on October 3 2012 Retrieved July 26 2011 Gypsy Eyes Interview 1968 Cleveland Scene Archived from the original on August 8 2007 Retrieved May 8 2007 Sexy new sweetheart for country western Country Western Stars March 1970 Archived from the original on January 9 2008 Retrieved April 8 2008 Varga George November 21 2004 A song interpreter for her times Linda Ronstadt is ready to give jazz another whirl U T San Diego Archived from the original on December 25 2008 Retrieved August 1 2008 a b Courageous singer plunges back into pop music mainstream Chicago Sun Times Archived from the original on November 6 2012 Retrieved April 6 2008 a b Artists Linda Ronstadt Bio Pictures Video Rolling Stone Archived from the original on December 2 2017 Retrieved November 24 2012 Linda Ronstadt s New Old Flame Mexican Music 1 I m Not Good at Doing What I m Told American Way April 1 1988 Archived from the original on May 9 2008 Retrieved July 31 2008 Caffery Joshua Clegg July 26 2006 Songbird Sisters South Louisiana s Ann Savoy teams up with pop icon Linda Ronstadt for their new CD Adieu False Heart The Independent Weekly Archived from the original on September 28 2007 Retrieved May 13 2007 Everlasting Linda Interview 17 June 1998 in Tucson AZ Linda Ronstadt Archived from the original on September 28 2007 Retrieved July 6 2007 Greeley Andrew 1989 14 Ronstadt and Mellencamp The Search for Roots God in Popular Culture Thomas More Press p 214 ISBN 978 0 88347 234 7 Retrieved November 25 2012 The Very Best of Linda Ronstadt September 24 2002 Official Amazon Review Retrieved May 14 2007 Cashbox Special Decade Award Archived from the original on August 8 2007 Retrieved June 24 2007 Kaye Elizabeth Linda Ronstadt Why Is She the Queen of Lonely Redbook Archived from the original on August 8 2007 Retrieved May 7 2007 a b Linda Down The Wind Time subscription required February 28 1977 Archived from the original on September 28 2008 Retrieved August 2 2008 a b Windeler Robert November 17 1975 When Will She Be Loved Linda Ronstadt Finds the Time at Last Is Now People Archived from the original on January 7 2007 Retrieved May 18 2007 Caulfield Keith April 18 2014 Linda Ronstadt Rocks Highest Charting Album in 24 Years Billboard Archived from the original on August 27 2014 Retrieved December 8 2014 a b c d e f g h i RIAA RIAA Gold amp Platinum Recording Industry Association of America Archived from the original on February 12 2018 Retrieved February 28 2016 a b c d e f Bronson Fred The Billboard Book of Number 1 Hits ISBN 0 8230 7677 6 The GRAMMYs Past Winners Search Archived from the original on December 25 2010 Retrieved February 28 2016 Billboard Jan 17 2009 Billboard Vol 121 no 2 January 17 2009 p 37 ISSN 0006 2510 Retrieved December 20 2015 Ronstadt Facts Investigative International Sales Linda Ronstadt Record Sales Information Page German Site Archived from the original on November 8 2010 Retrieved April 17 2007 Linda Ronstadt Singing the National Anthem at Game three of World Series Archived from the original on July 22 2013 Retrieved August 11 2007 via YouTube Rockwell John October 14 1977 Linda Ronstadt Her Soft Core Charms New Times Archived from the original on October 13 2014 Retrieved April 26 2014 Rockwell John Living in the USA In Greil Marcus ed Stranded Rock and Roll for a Desert Island Archived from the original on December 5 2007 Retrieved May 7 2007 a b Homecoming Queen April 1995 Mojo Archived from the original on September 27 2007 Retrieved May 11 2007 Linda Ronstadt CBS News December 5 2004 Archived from the original on August 9 2007 Retrieved July 12 2007 Congratulations Billboard December 23 1978 Archived from the original on August 8 2007 Retrieved June 24 2007 Tour Reflections and Simple Dreams The Hit Parader Interview March 1978 Archived from the original on October 3 2015 Retrieved December 29 2010 Ronstadt and Rolling Stones July 21 1978 Photos iorr org forum Archived from the original on June 13 2011 Retrieved December 9 2010 Why Linda Ronstadt Still Matters to Tucson September 12 2013 Archived from the original on May 29 2015 Retrieved May 28 2015 Rolling Stones U S Tour 1978 MyEtymology com SpeedyLook July 21 1978 Archived from the original on July 14 2011 Retrieved December 9 2010 Linda Ronstadt Black amp White Photo Aug 16 1978 New Haven Veterans Memorial Coliseum New Haven CT Archived March 4 2016 at the Wayback Machine wolfgangsvault com a b The Inflation Calculator The following form adjusts any given amount of money for inflation according to the Consumer Price Index Archived from the original on May 29 2008 Retrieved August 10 2009 a b c Ward Ed February 21 1978 The Queens of Rock Ronstadt Mitchell Simon and Nicks talk of their men music and life on the road The New York Times Archived from the original on October 16 2015 Retrieved November 25 2012 On the Charts and in Men s Hearts Linda Ronstadt is No 1 With a Bullet People October 24 1977 Archived from the original on August 8 2007 Retrieved May 7 2007 Years after giving up singing Linda Ronstadt is back on the charts with Live in Hollywood Los Angeles Times February 9 2019 Archived from the original on July 15 2019 Retrieved July 15 2019 Pat Benatar Rock s Reluctant Sex Symbol Record Review December 1980 Archived from the original on September 28 2007 Retrieved July 5 2007 Rock Queen Conquers Broadway and Lives Happily Ever After Hit Parader September 1981 Archived from the original on September 27 2007 Retrieved May 8 2007 Linda Ronstadt Internet Broadway Database Archived from the original on October 15 2007 Retrieved May 8 2007 http www ibdb com Person View 58306 Archived March 21 2016 at the Wayback Machine Kroll Jack December 10 1984 A Pop Star Goes Puccini Newsweek Archived from the original on September 27 2007 Retrieved May 8 2007 Linda Ronstadt Live On Radio advertisement Billboard The Source NBC 1982 Archived from the original on November 28 2007 Retrieved November 4 2007 Linda Ronstadt s Canciones Internet Broadway Database Archived from the original on July 13 2007 Retrieved May 8 2007 http www ibdb com Person View 58306 Archived March 21 2016 at the Wayback Machine Saitowitz Paul May 31 2007 Linda Ronstadt to Play at Fantasy Springs Press Enterprise Riverside California Archived from the original on September 29 2007 Retrieved June 6 2007 What s New with Linda Ronstadt She s Singing Her Love Songs to Star Wars Czar George Lucas People March 26 1984 Archived from the original on February 27 2012 Retrieved November 24 2012 Latham Aaron August 18 1983 Linda Ronstadt Snow White in South Africa Rolling Stone Retrieved January 29 2013 subscription required Christgau Robert 1990 Subjects for Further Research Archived March 27 2016 at the Wayback Machine Christgau s Record Guide The 80s Pantheon Books ISBN 0 679 73015 X via robertchristgau com Retrieved January 29 2013 Santoro Gene March 12 1988 Miriam Makeba Music column dead link The Nation Wilson John M May 19 1985 UN s Register Of Performers Raises Blacklist Spectre In S Africa Boycott Archived April 26 2016 at the Wayback Machine Chicago Tribune Retrieved January 29 2013 Fricke David October 23 1986 Paul Simon African Odyssey Rolling Stone DeYoung Bill Goldmine 589 February 21 2003 Home at Last The Journey of Linda Ronstadt Retrieved July 31 2008 Boone M July 18 2007 Great Musicians and Their Legions of Paying Fans Deserve a Great Venue Gazette Montreal Archived from the original on October 15 2007 Retrieved July 20 2007 Cocks Jay Worrell Denise September 26 1983 Linda Leads the Band Time Archived from the original on November 7 2012 Retrieved June 6 2009 Bloom Steve July 1985 An Intimate Conversation with Linda Ronstadt DownBeat Archived from the original on May 9 2008 Retrieved August 18 2008 a b The Peter Levinson Interview Jerry Jazz Musician April 20 2002 Retrieved June 14 2007 Varga George November 2004 A song interpreter for her times U T San Diego Archived from the original on December 25 2008 Retrieved August 1 2008 Music Linda Leads the Band Time subscription required September 26 1983 Archived from the original on March 7 2008 Retrieved September 29 2007 a b Peter Levinson Interview jerryjazzmusician com April 20 2002 Retrieved June 14 2007 a b Holden Stephen September 4 1983 Linda Ronstadt Celebrate the Golden Age of Pop The New York Times Archived from the original on March 5 2016 Retrieved May 10 2007 Griffith James S The Singing Ronstadts and Canciones de mi Padre A Musical Family Tucson sRonstadtFamily Archived from the original on June 15 2007 Retrieved May 30 2007 American Way Linda Ronstadt s New Old Flame Mexican Music Archived from the original on August 8 2007 Retrieved May 7 2007 Herbst Peter The Rolling Stone Interview Rolling Stone Archived from the original on October 22 2006 Retrieved October 19 2006 GRAMMY Hall Of Fame Welcomes 2021 Inductions A Tribe Called Quest Billie Holiday Journey Patti Smith Bruce Springsteen And More Recording Academy December 21 2020 Retrieved February 16 2021 Artist Linda Ronstadt Recording Academy Grammy Awards Archived from the original on January 2 2020 Retrieved October 23 2018 Thibodeaux Ron February 11 2007 Home Grown The Times Picayune Suzuki Hisataka MacKenzie Shiona November 9 2001 John Lennon Super Live Japan Dream Power Archived from the original on May 28 2007 Retrieved May 12 2007 Lannert John March 30 1993 Secada Lead Latin Noms Following Grammy Win Billboard Vol 105 no 10 p 10 Archived from the original on January 3 2016 Retrieved January 3 2013 The Eagles to Perform at Staples Center Staples Center May 6 1999 Archived from the original on September 28 2007 Retrieved November 25 2012 Linda Ronstadt Archived October 24 2016 at the Wayback Machine Rock on the Net Mansfield Brian August 23 2013 Linda Ronstadt has Parkinson s Disease The Grammy Winning Singer Revealed Her Condition to AARP Friday Archived August 18 2017 at the Wayback Machine USA Today Retrieved September 4 2013 Brown Jeffrey Jackson Lena I October 5 2022 Singer Linda Ronstadt reflects on her roots in new book PBS NewsHour PBS Retrieved October 5 2022 Linda Ronstadt Archived August 24 2016 at the Wayback Machine Linda Ronstadt inducted in 2014 The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum Sally Field Linda Ronstadt and Sesame Street Among 2019 Kennedy Center Honorees Variety July 18 2019 Archived from the original on July 24 2019 Retrieved July 25 2019 Kelly Presnell May 8 2022 The Tucson Music Hall renamed for Grammy and Emmy Award winner Linda Ronstadt The Arizona Daily Star Retrieved May 8 2022 The RS 500 Greatest Albums of All Time Archived January 4 2009 at the Wayback Machine Rolling Stone Linda Ronstadt Hit Parade Hall of Fame March 4 2016 Archived from the original on March 4 2016 Retrieved August 24 2018 Homecoming Queen Mojo April 1995 Archived from the original on September 27 2007 Retrieved May 13 2007 Bailey Rich January 2002 Dennis James interview Archived from the original on March 17 2007 Retrieved May 8 2007 McAleer Dave 2001 The Book of Singles Top 20 Charts 1984 to Present Day ISBN 0 87930 666 1 Mathews Tom Kasindorf Martin Huck Janet April 23 1979 The Pop Politics of Jerry Brown The Ballad of Jerry and Linda Newsweek Archived from the original on December 5 2007 Retrieved November 12 2006 Movie Star Jim Carrey Stops By Interview Interviewed by Howard Stern October 28 2014 Archived from the original on October 31 2014 Retrieved November 4 2014 a b Schwartz Jonathan Linda Ronstadt Checking in with the Ex Flower Child at Home in Tucson Us Weekly Archived from the original on October 8 2007 Retrieved May 5 2007 Fink Mitchell September 16 1991 The Insider People Weekly Vol 1991 no 33 p 33 Singer Linda Ronstadt quietly became a single parent earlier this year She has adopted an infant girl and named her Mary Clementine Ronstadt a b c Walsh Diana September 25 1997 Linda Ronstadt home for sale San Francisco Examiner Retrieved November 25 2012 Harata Wayne March 31 2006 Linda Ronstadt lets wisdom strike notes Archived March 4 2016 at the Wayback Machine The Honolulu Advertiser Retrieved November 25 2012 Knobler Peter Linda Ronstadt It s Not That Easy Being the Pretty Girl on the Block Archived March 5 2016 at the Wayback Machine Crawdaddy June 1974 The 00 42 Linda Ronstadt Signature Edition PDF The Sounding Board Martin amp Co January 2009 Archived PDF from the original on March 5 2016 Retrieved February 28 2016 Quick Takes Linda Ronstadt plans memoir Los Angeles Times July 29 2011 Retrieved August 7 2011 Deutsch Lindsay July 29 2011 Trailblazing rocker Linda Ronstadt to publish memoir USA Today Archived from the original on September 9 2012 Retrieved August 7 2011 AUTHORS 1 1 of 1 Ronstadt Linda Simon amp Schuster August 24 2013 Archived from the original on August 24 2013 Retrieved August 24 2013 Mansfield Brian August 23 2013 Linda Ronstadt has Parkinson s Disease USA Today Archived from the original on August 26 2013 Retrieved August 24 2013 Linda Ronstadt Says She Has Parkinson s Disease CBS San Francisco Bay Area August 24 2013 Archived from the original on August 24 2013 Retrieved August 24 2013 Asked about her religious beliefs on The Tavis Smiley Show September 26 2013 she replied I m a spiritual atheist a b Rothschild Matthew July 21 2004 The Progressive Linda Ronstadt Gets the Hook at Aladdin Archived from the original on September 27 2007 Retrieved May 12 2007 Weatherford Mike July 20 2004 Aladdin officials defend eviction of singer after political comments Las Vegas Review Journal Archived from the original on September 23 2012 Retrieved December 13 2012 Open Letter to Bill Timmins President Aladdin Casino and Hotels Michael Moore Archived from the original on March 19 2006 Retrieved June 24 2007 Desperadoes The New York Times July 21 2004 Archived from the original on May 18 2013 Retrieved May 12 2007 Dunham Nancy August 14 2007 Interview Linda Ronstadt Blogcritics Archived from the original on October 14 2008 Retrieved November 25 2012 Selvin Joel July 28 2006 Linda Ronstadt at 60 is back in San Francisco raising kids and singing what she wants to sing San Francisco Chronicle Archived from the original on June 20 2012 Retrieved November 25 2012 Linda Ronstadt draws readers ire Arizona Daily Star June 7 2007 Archived from the original on January 17 2013 Retrieved November 24 2012 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint bot original URL status unknown link Burch Cathalena E June 2 2007 Ronstadt Dust drove me away Arizona Daily Star Archived from the original on January 17 2013 Retrieved November 25 2012 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint bot original URL status unknown link Stewart Jenny August 26 2009 Linda Ronstadt s Gay Mission Planet Out Archived from the original on March 29 2012 Retrieved April 30 2010 Lemons Stephen December 29 2009 Linda Ronstadt Calls Joe Arpaio a Sadistic Man Will Participate in Anti Arpaio Human Rights March Saturday January 16 Phoenix New Times Archived from the original on February 6 2010 Retrieved March 21 2010 Cooper Jonathan J Davenport Paul April 30 2010 Linda Ronstadt joins group filing suit against Arizona law The Christian Science Monitor Associated Press Archived from the original on October 22 2012 Retrieved November 25 2012 Fischer Howard April 29 2010 2 lawsuits challenge Arizona s immigration law Arizona Daily Star Capitol Media Services Archived from the original on May 3 2010 Retrieved April 30 2010 Strand Michael October 1 2007 Ex Interior Department secretary says The Land Institute on right track Salina Journal Archived from the original on December 24 2008 Retrieved November 25 2012 Bedard Paul Schwab Nikki March 31 2009 Linda Ronstadt Wynton Marsalis and Josh Groban Pitch Congress Submitted by Linda Ronstadt Singer House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior Environment amp Related Agencies Archived from the original on March 18 2012 Retrieved March 19 2012 Lornell Kip Ronstadt Linda 2004 The NPR Curious Listener s Guide to American Folk Music Perigee Trade ISBN 978 0 399 53033 3 Ronstadt Linda Introduction Giel Kate ed Classic Ferrington Guitars Barnes amp Noble Archived from the original on September 29 2007 Retrieved May 17 2007 Past Inductions 2007 Induction Arizona Music amp Entertainment Hall Of Fame Archived from the original on June 17 2019 Retrieved September 13 2019 2008 NCLR ALMA Awards Recipients National Council of La Raza Archived from the original on February 27 2012 Retrieved December 13 2012 Brown Patricia Leigh September 19 2008 Once a Rock Star Now a Matriarch of Mariachi The New York Times Archived from the original on January 9 2018 Retrieved April 5 2009 a b Opinion Arts Advocacy Day testimony from Linda Ronstadt The Mercury News March 30 2009 Archived from the original on July 1 2018 Retrieved September 13 2019 Swed Mark April 1 2009 Linda Ronstadt hails Gustavo Dudamel in testimony on Capitol Hill Los Angeles Times Archived from the original on April 4 2009 Retrieved April 5 2009 Smokey Robinson at Commencement May 9 Berklee College of Music Archived from the original on April 16 2009 Retrieved April 14 2009 Linda Ronstadt The Recording Academy Retrieved August 27 2021 Morris Christopher July 26 2011 Ronstadt Draws Lifetime Award Latin Recording Academy Also Honors Feliciano Variety Archived from the original on November 8 2012 Retrieved September 4 2013 Linda Ronstadt Television Academy Retrieved August 27 2021 ALMA Award Archived from the original on July 7 2015 Retrieved August 1 2011 via YouTube Coto Juan Carlos May 28 1989 Univision Launches Latin Music Awards The Miami Herald Ana Gabriel leads nominees for Latin Music Awards Billboard Vol 104 no 13 March 28 1992 Lannert John March 30 1993 Secada Lead Latin Noms Following Grammy Win Billboard Vol 105 no 10 p 10 Retrieved January 3 2013 External linksLinda Ronstadt at Wikipedia s sister projects Media from Commons News from Wikinews Quotations from Wikiquote Texts from Wikisource Textbooks from Wikibooks Resources from Wikiversity Data from Wikidata Official website Linda Ronstadt at IMDb Linda Ronstadt at the Internet Broadway Database Linda Ronstadt at the Internet Off Broadway Database Image of Linda Ronstadt reclining on a porch railing in Los Angeles California 1974 Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive Collection 1429 UCLA Library Special Collections Charles E Young Research Library University of California Los Angeles Portals Arts Biography Film Rock music Hispanic and Latino Americans Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Linda Ronstadt amp oldid 1136981097, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

article

, read, download, free, free download, mp3, video, mp4, 3gp, jpg, jpeg, gif, png, picture, music, song, movie, book, game, games.