The band released their fourth album late in 1971, a legendary disc that came to be known as Four for the four symbols or runes which appeared on the record label. The four symbols are said to represent the four members of the band.
The album sold 500,000 copies upon release, and didn't reach one million until 1990, 11 years after their breakup. The classic album has now sold 23 million copies in the U.S. alone and 37 million worldwide. Never released as a single, "Stairway To Heaven" nonetheless became one of the most-demanded songs on radio and is one of The Top 500 Songs of the Rock Era*.
This classic standard came about as Zeppelin was recording at the Headley Grange mansion the group rented in Hampshire, England. The band was having trouble with "Four Sticks" as Bonham got upset with the drum part and began playing a totally different drum rhythm. The band immediately put "Four Sticks" aside and began working on a new song based on Bonham's playing, which they originally called "It's Been A Long Time". Page responded with his guitar part, and "Rock And Roll" was completed in about half an hour!
In 1927, Memphis Minnie wrote the lyrics to "When The Levee Breaks" based on The Great Mississippi Flood. Led Zep used numerous different recording techniques in the studio so it was difficult to mix. Bonham's drums, for instance, were recorded in a stairwell at Headley Grange with microphones placed three floors above him. The drum sound echoed upwards and was recorded on the mics.
Led Zeppelin toured the U.K., Australia, North America, and Japan for a year and a half, and the group was now playing larger concert halls.
"Going To California" is of the band's all-time best, written by Page and Plant to reflect their admiration for Joni Mitchell, and specifically her song "California".
The references to an earthquake "The mountains and the canyons started to tremble and shake" refer to the Sylmar earthquake on February 9, 1971. Page and Andy Johns flew that morning to Los Angeles to mix the album, with the area still feeling the aftershocks.
The serene surroundings of Headley allowed acoustic pieces such as "The Battle Of Evermore". Johns gave his observation of the recording process surrounding the track to Songfacts:
The band was sitting next to the chimney in
Headley, drinking tea, when Jimmy grabbed a
mandolin and started playing. I gave him a
microphone and stuck a Gibson echo on his
mandolin. Jimmy had brought this stuff before and
had asked me to take a look at it. Suddenly Robert
started singing and this amazing track was born
from nowhere.
The band released the album Houses of the Holy in 1973. The album showcased the continued growth of Plant's songwriting and the band's musicianship. This song evolved from an acoustic solo by Page when he was with the Yardbirds called "White Summer". Plant came up with lyrics to the song and "Over The Hills And Far Away" peaked at #51.
Houses of the Holy has now sold 11 million copies. The album went to #1 in in countries throughout the world, and the corresponding tour of North America broke records. "D'yer Maker" became one of the group's biggest career hits at #20.
The lyrics to "The Song Remains The Same" were derived from Plant's belief that music is universal, and no matter the style or the genre, what matters is if the music is good or bad.
Plant used the metaphor of seasons to describe a romantic relationship in "The Rain Song".
Jones wrote "No Quarter" along with Page and Plant and John Paul played piano as well on the track. The group began working on the song during sessions in 1971 for Led Zeppelin IV and this is a faster version of the one first recorded.
The conclusion of Led Zeppelin is tomorrow, exclusively on Inside The Rock Era!
"The Mighty sound of the Zeppelin will never...ever...be equaled."
"They changed Rock music forever."
"Legends pass away but legacies never die."
"The undisputed kings of Rock."
"Led Zeppelin: The Greatest Rock Band That Ever Was And Ever Will Be".
"They are iconic."
"This group is so unique and so talented."
"I will always love Led Zeppelin".
"Their body of work is unbelievable."
"Zeppelin FOREVER!"
"Timeless and brilliant."
"Rock and roll legends."
"The best of the best from British rock."
"One of the all-time greatest band of musicians ever."
"Led Zeppelin rocks the house down."
In 1966, session guitarist Jimmy Page joined the group the Yardbirds, giving the group two of the Top Guitarists of the Rock Era (with Page and Jeff Beck). Beck left later that year, and the remaining members were exhausted from a constant schedule of touring and recording. The group played their final show in 1968, but were still committed to several Scandinavia dates, so drummer McCarty and vocalist Keith Relf gave Page and bassist Chris Dreja permission to use the Yardbirds' name to fulfill their obligations.
Page and Dreja started to assemble a new lineup. Page first dreamed of a supergroup with Beck and drummer Keith Moon and bassist John Entwistle of the Who. That dream fell apart, sending Page back to the drawing board. Jimmy's first choice for lead singer was Terry Reid, but Reid declined and instead suggested Robert Plant of the Band of Joy. Plant came aboard, and brought drummer John Bonham with him. When Dreja dropped out of the group to become a photographer, John Paul Jones asked about the vacant position of bassist. Page was already aware of Jones's ability when they were both session musicians, and the lineup was complete.
In August of 1968, the four musicians played together for the first time in a room below a record store on Gerrard Street in London. Before leaving to perform in Scandinavia, the group recorded "Jim's Blues" with P.J. Proby for Proby's album Three Week Hero. The band finished the tour billed as the New Yardbirds, making their live debut at Gladsaxe Teen Clubs in Denmark on September 7.
Based on their live sets, the group began recording their first album. But they had to change their name prior to the album's release as Dreja issued a cease and desist letter stating that Page was to use the New Yardbirds name only for the Scandinavia dates.
Back when the reformation of the Yardbirds was in its initial stages, Moon and Entwistle suggested that a supergroup with Page and Beck would go down like a "lead balloon". But that dismissal led to the name of one of the top groups in history. Manager Peter Grant liked that idea for a name change, but suggested the group drop the 'a' in lead so that those unfamiliar with the term would not pronounce it "leed". Further, the band replaced the word "balloon" with "zeppelin".
After changing their name, Led Zeppelin signed with Atlantic Records in a contract that gave them tremendous artistic freedom. The group had complete autonomy in deciding when they would release albums and when they would tour, and had the final say on the songs and design for each album. The contract also gave them an advance of $143,000 (over $1 million in today's dollars), the biggest deal ever for a new band. Zeppelin made another wise decision when they formed their own company, Superhype, which would control their publishing rights.
The group played its first show as Led Zeppelin at the University of Surrey in Battersea, England on October 25, 1968. Richard Cole organized their first tour of North America later in the year. The band released their self-titled debut album in 1969; it peaked at #6 in the U.K. and #10 in the U.S. The single "Good Times, Bad Times" received limited airplay and stalled at #80.
Bonham, one of The Top 100 Drummers of the Rock Era*, came up with a technique called a "triplet" to achieve what sounds like he is playing two bass drums. Bonham used the tip of his toe to hit the bass pedal back fast. Page explained how the song was constructed in the BBC book Guitar Greats:
"Good Times, Bad Times" came out of a riff with a
great deal of John Paul Jones on bass, and it
really knocked everybody sideways when they
heard the bass drum pattern, because I think
everyone was laying bets that Bonzo (Bonham) was
using two bass drums, but he only had one.
The flip side, "Communication Breakdown", is another highlight. It is one of the few times that Page sang backing vocals on a song. Jimmy developed the guitar riff while the group was performing in Scandinavia and still billed as the New Yardbirds. Page achieved the sound with a small, miked amplifier. He explained it this way to Guitar Player magazine in 1977:
I put it in a small room, a tiny vocal booth-type thing
and miked it from a distance. You see, there's a
very old recording maxim which goes, '"Distance
makes depth." I've used that a hell of a lot on
recording techniques with the band generally, not
just me. You're always used to them close-miking
amps, just putting the microphone in front, but I'd
have a mic right out the back, as well, and then
balance the two, to get rid of all the phasing
problems; because really, you shouldn't have to use
an EQ in the studio if the instruments sound right. It
should all be done with the microphones. But see, everyone has gotten so carried away with EQ pots
that they have forgotten the whole science of microphone placement.
Steve Erlewine of All Music Guide says that the album's memorable guitar riffs, lumbering rhythms, psychedelic blues, groovy, bluesy shuffles and hints of English folk music "made it a significant turning point in the evolution of hard rock and heavy metal."
Though most of its sales have been in the last few decades, the group's debut is now over the eight-million mark. Led Zeppelin's remake of the Willie Dixon tune "I Can't Quit You Baby" is a note-for-note copy, and the group performed it in concerts their first two years.
"Dazed And Confused" is a song that Jake Holmes used to perform and Page heard it at a venue that the New Yardbirds and Holmes shared. Although Jimmy completely changed the lyrics and much of the music, Holmes later sued the band in 2010. As a result of the settlement, the Led Zeppelin credit has to read "written by Jimmy Page. Inspired by Jake Holmes. Page talked about the album to Ray Padgett for the book Cover Me: The Stories Behind the Greatest Cover Songs of All Time:
Led Zeppelin was created in a very crisp
businesslike fashion,” Plant has said of the first
album. “Nobody really knew each other. The
record and the jamming was what it was, and it
was a very swift session.
"They were really well-rehearsed, engineer Glyn Johns said. "They'd picked all the material and they knew exactly what they were doing," he continued. "So half the job had already been done by them, and probably by Jimmy--who would certainly take the credit for it."
The band toured heavily to promote their album before recording much of their second album in North American studios, releasing Led Zeppelin II later in the year. Like its predecessor, it was largely the result of extended jams of Blues standards.
The album went to #1 in both the U.S. and U.K. Unlike many acts before and since, Led Zeppelin preferred not to re-edit existing tracks on their albums for single release. An edited version of "Whole Lotta Love" was released as a single in the U.S., hitting #4 and selling over one million copies. It would be the group's one and only Top 10 hit.
One of the most interesting sections of the song is when listeners can faintly make out Plant's whisper ("Way down...inside....woman...you need it.") This is an example of what is called a "backward echo", and it is one of the first uses of such a process, though it happened by accident.
While recording, a different take of Plant's vocal bled into the master vocal track, and when Page and engineer Eddie Kramer began to mix the song, they couldn't get rid of the background vocal. So they did the next best thing--they added reverb to bring attention to the "mistake", making it sound as if it was intentional.
Two important instruments made their debut in "What Is And What Should Never Be": Page's new Les Paul guitar, which can be heard jumping back and forth from one stereo channel to the other, and Bonham's Chinese gong, which can be heard in the middle section, which Bonham used as part of his drum kit in live shows.
The group also shied away from television appearances, preferring to perform for their fans in live concerts. They completed several more U.S. tours after the release of Led Zeppelin II, playing in clubs and ballrooms at first. Despite minimum material, the group still played many nights over four hours, featuring expanded versions of the songs in their repertoire.
Led Zeppelin II has been certified as a 12-million seller. Two of the Top Tracks of the Rock Era* are often featured together--"Heartbreaker" and "Living Loving Maid (She's Just A Woman)". The former, which Zeppelin often opened live shows with, features a solo from Page that it is in a slightly different pitch than the rest of the song. It was recorded in a different studio after the rest of the song was completed, and was added as an afterthought!
"Living Loving Maid" is a song about a groupie which bothered the group in their early days.
Members of the group that became so well known for their Blues numbers were all influenced by the genre. "Bring It On Home" is so similar to Willie Dixon's song of the same name that Led Zep now credits it as having been written by Dixon in a settlement over the song's royalties.
"Ramble On" is another Top Track* on the album. This is an example of where Plant's love of literary classics translated to disc. He wrote of his character going to "the darkest depths of Mordor" and encountering "Gollum and the evil one." Fans of Lord of the Ring will recognize those lines.
In 1970, Page and Plant holed up in Bron-Yr-Aur, a secluded cottage in Wales, to work on the group's next album, a much more acoustic and folksy effort. Although the building had no electricity nor running water, it was an inspiration for many of the songs. Led Zeppelin III also topped the Album charts in both the U.S. and U.K. and has now gone over six million in sales in the United States alone.
Plant's lyrics could be an entire subject of a course on songwriting. The line "the land of ice and snow" refers to Iceland, where the band performed in June of 1970 as guests of the Icelandic Government. The line "The hammer of the gods will drive our ships to new lands" was adopted by fans of the band who referred to Led Zep's sound as the "hammer of the gods."
"Immigrant Song" was released as a single against the group's wishes, and stalled at #20.
Limiting their single releases, Led Zeppelin sold albums, though not close to the level you see today. A vast majority of their career sales occurred towards the end of their run and afterwards. Without those unusually strong sales after their breakup, they would not be ranked near this high, but their popularity grew as the years went by.
This track was recorded for inclusion on the band's second album but lost out to "Whole Lotta' Love". By the time the group recorded it, they had perfected it in live shows, though Page said it was still one of the hardest songs on the album to record. Keen listeners can hear the squeak of Bonham's drum pedal on "Since I've Been Loving You".
Along with their reputation for influential, professional, groundbreaking music was their reputation for destruction and debauchery off the stage and at hotels they stayed at. They traveled in a private jet, drank and used drugs all night, and such was the damage to one room at the Tokyo Hilton that the group was banned from that hotel for life.
"Bron-Y-Aur Stomp", named after the place where the album was recorded but spelled differently, was written for Plant's dog Strider, who accompanied his owner to the cottage. There's yet another homage to Lord of the Rings--Strider is an alias of Aragon, one of the heroes of the novel.
The group arguably reached their peak with the next album, which is next in Part Two!
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.
In 1978, Linda released the album Living in the USA, and by going to #1, Linda tied a female record set by Carole King in 1974 with three consecutive #1 albums. Ronstadt pulled a song from the Chuck Berry catalog, "Back In The U.S.A", and took it to #16.
Her remake of the Miracles hit "Ooo Baby Baby" accomplished the rare feat of making all four major charts--Popular (#7), Adult Contemporary (#2), R&B (#77), and Country (#85).
The album shipped Double Platinum (her fifth consecutive Platinum album) and eventually sold over three million copies in the U.S. alone. Linda took a song originally recorded by Doris Troy and made popular by the Hollies, "Just One Look", and reached #5 on the Adult Contemporary chart.
Billboard awarded Ronstadt with three #1 awards: Female Artist of the Year, Pop Female Singles Artist of the Year, and Pop Female Album Artist of the Year.
Linda toured to promote the album and according to the book We Gotta' Get Out of This Place: The True, Tough Story of Women in Rock by Gerri Hershey, Ronstadt by this time was the "highest-paid woman in rock". In 1978 alone, Ronstadt made over $12 million (the equivalent of nearly $48 million in 2020 dollars).
By 1979, Ronstadt had already achieved four multi-platinum albums, six Platinum, and eight Gold, an unprecedented feat for a female performer at the time. Cashbox bestowed upon Linda a Special Decade Award as the top-selling female singer of the '70's.
In 1980, Ronstadt released her compilation Greatest Hits, Volume 2, which has now sold over one million copies.
As great as her success had been to this point, Linda was about to prove her worth as an all-time great by amazing the world with her versatility and ability to enjoy success in multiple genres in the decades to come.
In 1980, Ronstadt released the new wave album Mad Love. She recorded a live concert for an HBO special to promote the album. She also was featured on the cover of Rolling Stone for a record-setting sixth time.
Mad Love debuted in the top five and rose to #3, becoming her record sixth straight Platinum album. The first single was a song Billy Steinberg wrote called "How Do I Make You", which landed at #10. It was Steinberg's first hit as a songwriter--he would go on to write the big hits "Like A Virgin" for Madonna, "Eternal Flame" for the Bangles and "True Colors" for Cyndi Lauper.
Linda was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female for the album. With guitar from Danny Kortchmar, Ronstadt released her remake of the Little Anthony & the Imperials song "Hurt So Bad" and once again achieved the most successful version of it.
Linda recorded the Hollies song "I Can't Let Go" with double tracking on the chorus. It was written by Al Gorgoni and Chip Taylor, who also wrote "Wild Thing" for the Troggs.
That summer, Linda was awarded a spot in the Broadway musical The Pirates of Penzance with Kevin Kline. The play was a hit for nearly two years, and led to a film version as well. Linda was nominated for a Golden Globe award for her role in the movie and she also was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical. The Pirates of Penzance won several Tonys, including one for Best Revival. See and hear Ronstadt shine like a diamond in "Poor Wandering One".
Ronstadt released the album Get Closer in 1982, her only album between 1975 and 1990 not to go Platinum. "Get Closer" stopped at #29.
Linda was nominated for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female, for the title song and for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female, for the album. "I Knew You When", her remake of a hit by Billy Joe Royal, was chosen as the next single.
Ronstadt promoted the album with a tour of North America. Her concert in Dallas, Texas in November was broadcast live via satellite to NBC radio stations in the U.S. Linda also scored a Top 10 AC hit with "Easy For You To Say".
Meanwhile, Linda had the desire to record an album of pop standards that would bring back the Great American Songbook and she asked 62-year-old conductor Nelson Riddle to help her do so. Ronstadt had to convince her astonished record company to release the album--it was unprecedented for a rock artist to do so. Elektra relented, and the result was not one but three such albums. In 1983, Linda released What's New. The title song (#1 among adults in Canada and #5 on the AC chart in the U.S.) is phenomenal.
The album has now sold nearly 4 million copies. It reached #3, kept out of the top spot only by Michael Jackson's Thriller and Can't Slow Down by Lionel Richie, and remained on the Album chart for 81 weeks. Her version of the Gershwin song "I've Got A Crush On You" is one of the reasons why.
Ronstadt received a Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.
Another of the most famous Gershwin tunes, "Someone To Watch Over Me".
In 1984, Ronstadt and Riddle performed songs from the album in concert halls throughout the U.S., Australia, and Japan, including several nights at prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall and Radio City Music Hall.
Ronstadt appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine in March of '75, the first of six covers she would be featured on. The article describes Linda's struggle to succeed in rock & roll and what it was like to be a woman in what then was a musical style that favored male performers. The title song is another worthy track.
In 1975, Ronstadt went on tour with the Eagles and Jackson Browne. She appeared on The Mike Douglas Show and The Johnny Cash Show, among others.
Later in the year, Linda released the album Prisoner in Disguise. The album reached the Top Five and sold over one million copies. She released the Neil Young song "Love Is A Rose" as the opening single.
The song was doing well when Asylum noticed that "Heat Wave", Linda's remake of the hit by Martha and the Vandellas, was receiving quite a bit of airplay as the "B" side. By this time, Andrew Gold ("Thank You For Being A Friend" and "Lonely Boy") played all the instruments on this song. Asylum pulled the "Love Is A Rose" 45 and issued "Heat Wave" instead, with the latter hitting #5.
Ronstadt lived up to her name as the "remake queen" with her cover of the Miracles and Johnny Rivers hit "Tracks Of My Tears", which ranked #4 among adults and #25 overall.
We also want to feature Linda's version of "Roll Um Easy", written by Lowell George and recorded by Little Feat in 1973.
Ronstadt released the album Hasten Down the Wind in 1976, a #3 album. Her remake of the Buddy Holly song "That'll Be The Day" hit #2 in Canada and #11 in the United States.
Linda continued her amazing ability to spot potential in a song and her decision to record it offered tremendous exposure for aspiring songwriters. She included three songs by Karla Bonoff on her album but one stands out. On "Someone To Lay Down Beside Me", Ronstadt goes from a whisper to a passionate cry and back that leaves the listener begging for more as the last note fades. With a peak of #42, it is another of The Top Unknown/Underrated Songs of the Rock Era*.
Linda collaborated with her father to write "Lo siento mi vida", included on the album. It was a homage to him and Ronstadt's Mexican roots that she would explore further with her 1988 album Canciones de Mi Padre.
Linda won the Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for her work on the album, and when it earned her a third consecutive Platinum album, Ronstadt became the first female artist to achieve that feat. But she was far from finished.
Linda released her Greatest Hits package later in the year, which has now topped seven million in sales. Ronstadt appeared on the covers of Rolling Stone and Time, respectively, in 1976 and 1977. She sang the U.S. National Anthem at the 1977 World Series in Los Angeles.
The 1977 album Simple Dreams became Ronstadt's most successful studio album, reaching #1 for five weeks in the U.S. and also hitting #1 in Canada and Australia. It sold over 3.5 million copies that year alone, giving her a record fourth consecutive Platinum LP's. "Blue Bayou", written and originally recorded by Roy Orbison, went Platinum and was nominated for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female.
Simple Dreams was nominated for Record of the Year. Ronstadt again covered Buddy Holly with the smash "It's So Easy". It rose to the Top Five while "Blue Bayou" was at #3, making Linda the first female recording artist to place two songs in the Top 10 simultaneously (and both were in the Top 5 simultaneously), joining the Beatles as the only other act to achieve the feat at the time.
She then released a song written by Warren Zevon--"Poor Poor Pitiful Me", which did very well in Canada among adults (#9) but stalled everywhere else.
Linda also worked her magic on the Rolling Stones song "Tumbling Dice", which is included on the soundtrack for the movie FM, which Ronstadt appeared in. On July 21, 1978, she joined the group onstage in Tucson to sing the song.
Be sure to catch Part Three on Inside The Rock Era!
