Linda Ronstadt, The #24 Artist of the Rock Era, Part Four

 

(Continued from Part Three)

 

The following year, Ronstadt followed with the album Lush Life, which is nearing 2 million in sales.  "Sophisticated Lady" is a highlight.

 

We also want to feature "Skylark" from the album.

In 1986, Ronstadt released the album For Sentimental Reasons, which also went Platinum.

 

The following year, Ronstadt, Dolly Parton, and Emmylou Harris released the album Trio.  It has now sold over three million copies and was nominated for Album of the Year.  The three stars recorded a superb version of "To Know Him Is To Love Him", written by Phil Spector and a big hit in 1958 for Spector's group, the Teddy Bears.  Ronstadt has great memories of the project:

     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."

The three friends had attempted to collaborate in 1978 for an album but it didn't work out, although some of the recordings were included on solo albums of the three.  

In 1987, Linda released the album celebrating her Mexican heritage--Canciones De Mi Padre.  The album's title was a tribute to her father and his family.  Ronstadt's aunt, Luisa Espinel, had published a booklet of the same name in 1946.  Espinel was an international singer in the 1920's and '30's.  Songs on the album were carefully selected from those her grandfather Fred brought with him from Sonora.  

 

Linda's bold choice was another triumph. 

"Tu Solo Tu (You Only You)" is one of the highlights.

"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."

 

The album has sold over 2 million copies, making it the best-selling non-English album in U.S. history.  Linda won a Grammy Award for Best Mexican-American performance, and she starred on Broadway once again in the musical show adaptation of the album.  Ronstadt displays her incredible talent and vocal range on "Por Un Amor (For A Love)".

 

Ronstadt also produced and performed a theatrical show of the same name which she brought to concert halls throughout the U.S. and Latin America.  These shows were shown on Great Performances on PBS, earning Linda a Primetime Emmy Award for Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program, and were later released on DVD.  

 

Linda also sang with Paul Simon on his acclaimed album Graceland (Simon's lyrics pay tribute to Ronstadt:  "Take this child, Lord, from Tucson, Arizona...").  This is "Under African Skies".

 Ronstadt proved her uncanny ability to hop between vastly different genres without missing a beat when, on the heels of her big band jazz and mariachi recordings, she hit #2 with "Somewhere Out There", a duet with James Ingram from the animated movie An American Tail.  

"Somewhere Out There" went Gold, captured the Grammy for Song of the Year and was nominated for Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal and Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or Television, and was nominated for Best Original Song at the Academy Awards.

 

The 1989 album Cry Like A Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind was another huge success, giving Linda her 10th Top 10 album and selling over three million copies.  "Don't Know Much" with Aaron Neville (a remake of the great original by Bill Medley) was a smash #2 hit and #1 song on the AC chart.

 

The album featured the famous Tower of Power horns, the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir, and the Skywalker Symphony. "Don't Know Much" won Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal at the Grammy Awards, an honor replicated the following year for the second single "All My Life", another #1 on the AC chart that reached #11 overall.

 

Ronstadt received another Grammy nomination for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female for the album.

Ronstadt recorded "Dreams To Dream" for Steven Spielberg's animated sequel An American Tail:  Fievel Goes West.

In 1990, Linda performed along with other artists such as Hall & Oates, Natalie Cole, Lenny Kravitz, and Miles Davis at the Tokyo Dome to commemorate what would have been John Lennon's 50th birthday.  The recordings of that concert were released as the album Happy Birthday, John.

Ronstadt released two more Latin albums, Mas Canciones in 1991, which won a Grammy for Best Mexican/Mexican-American Album, and Frenesi, an album of Afro-Cuban songs that won the Grammy for Best Traditional Tropical Latin Album.

Also that year, Linda starred in the musical film La Pastorela, also shown on the PBS Great Performances series.  Ronstadt released the album Winter Light in 1993, featuring new age music.

In 1994, Ronstadt, Parton, and Harris recorded a follow-up album to Trio but just as it had in 1978, conflicting schedules and priorities delayed the release indefinitely.  Ronstadt released several recordings she and Harris had made on her 1995 album Feels Like Home.

The following year, Linda recorded the album Dedicated to the One I Love, a project of classic rock & roll hits remade as lullabies, which won the Grammy for Best Musical Album for Children.  In 1998, Ronstadt released the album We Ran, featuring remakes of songs by Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and others.

In 1999, the planned reunion of Linda, Parton, and Harris finally happened with the release of the album Trio II, which went Gold and won a Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with vocals.  The three were also nominated for Best Country Album.

Later in the year, Ronstadt and Harris combined again for the album Western Wall:  The Tucson Sessions, which was nominated for Best Contemporary Folk Album at the Grammys.  Linda joined her former backing musicians, the Eagles, and Jackson Browne for a New Year's Eve concert at the Staples Center in Los Angeles to celebrate the new millennium.

In 2000, Linda recorded the holiday album A Merry Little Christmas, which features her version of the Joni Mitchell song "River".

In 2002, Ronstadt completed another fascinating project when she produced and sang on the album Cristal--Glass Music Through the Ages, a classical album using glass instruments with Dennis James.

In 2006, Linda recorded the album Adieu False Hart with Ann Savoy, a project of Pop, Cajun, and early 20th-century music.  It was nominated for Best Traditional Folk Album.  

The following year, Ronstadt recorded "Miss Otis Regrets" for the tribute album We All Love Ella:  Celebrating the First Lady of Song.  In August, Linda headlined the Newport Folk Festival, in what turned out to be one of her final concerts.

Linda curtailed her singing after 2000 when she felt her voice deteriorating.  She released her last studio album, Hummin' to Myself, a return to traditional jazz, in 2004 and performed her last concert in 2009.  In 2011, Ronstadt announced her retirement and revealed that she is no longer able to sing as a result of what was later determined to be progressive supranuclear palsy.  

In 2009, Ronstadt received an honorary doctorate of music degree from the prestigious Berklee College of Music.  Linda testified to the United States Congress House Appropriations Subcommittee attempting to convince Representatives to budget $200 million in 2010 for the National Endowment of the Arts.

In 2013, Linda published the autobiography Simple Dreams:  A Musical Memoir.  Ronstadt's 1975 album Heart Like a Wheel was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically important".  In 2019, she released the great documentary based on her memoirs, Linda Ronstadt:  The Sound of My Voice.

In 2014, Linda was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and was awarded the National Medal of Arts and Humanities.   In 2016, Ronstadt was given the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

In 2019, Ronstadt received the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors for lifetime achievements and Linda, Parton, and Harris received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for their collaboration.  

Linda said:

     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.  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 authen-

     ticity are a direct result of the music played 

     in that Tucson living room.

     Music is meant to lighten your load. By sing-

     ing it ... you release (the sadness). And 

     release yourself ... an exercise in 

     exorcism. ... You exorcise that emotion ... 

     and diminish sadness and feel joy.

Linda has released 24 studio and 15 compilation albums.  She has charted 36 albums, with 10 of those going Top 10 and three to #1.  Nineteen of those albums have gone Gold, 14 have reached Platinum status, and 7 have enjoyed Multi-Platinum success.  Ronstadt appears on 120 albums, including those recorded by the Eagles, James Taylor, Dolly Parton, Bette Midler, Neil Young, former backing singer Andrew Gold, Emmylou Harris, and many others. 

Ronstadt has enjoyed 21 career hits, with one #1, three #2's and 10 Top 10's.

Although Ronstadt's album sales have not been certified since 2001 (when they were shown to be 30 million), producer and manager Peter Asher says that her U.S. sales now top 45 million and Joe Smith, former president of Warner Brothers Records, has said Linda's worldwide sales are over 100 million.

Ronstadt has won 10 Grammy Awards among an incredible 27 nominations, three American Music Awards, and an Emmy Award.  She has also received nominations for a Golden Globe and a Tony Award.