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Linda Ronstadt

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Linda Ronstadt
File:Heartbreak On Wheels.jpg
Linda Ronstadt on the cover of the March 27, 1975, issue of Rolling Stone magazine
Background information
Years active1967 — present

Linda Maria Ronstadt (born July 15 1946) is an American singer most closely associated with the country rock genre prevalent in the 1970s. Though an occasional songwriter herself, she is better known as an interpreter of other songwriters' works.

Though she began her recording career singing folk music with her band the Stone Poneys in the mid- to late-1960s, Ronstadt has been credited as a solo artist with singing in extraordinarily diverse genres ranging from more traditional country to rhythm & blues and including, among others, new wave, opera and mariachi. In its biography on her artist page, Rolling Stone's Web site reads, "she doesn't succeed at every style she attempts, but that hasn't stopped her from exploring new avenues…. check out her Trio recordings with Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton; they are essential listening for fans of any kind of music."

Ronstadt's success is, in part, connected with the influence she had on or the influence she received from artists such as Harris, Parton, J.D. Souther, the Eagles, Andrew Gold, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Paul Simon, Mark Goldenberg, Karla Bonoff, Aaron Neville, James Taylor, Warren Zevon, Maria Muldaur, Nicolette Larson and Elvis Costello. Her reputation throughout the 1970s was of working with some of the most well-respected musicians in contemporary rock music but also of having her own strong sense of discipline.

Some of Ronstadt's better known hits are covers of songs by Zevon, Costello, Souther, the Rolling Stones, Mel Tillis, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, the Everly Brothers, George Jones, the Flying Burrito Brothers, Little Feat, Neil Young, the Miracles, Betty Everett and Buddy Holly and the Crickets.

Her work with producer Peter Asher from 1974 through the 1980s resulted in her greatest commercial success. By the end of the 1970s, Ronstadt had collected eight gold and four platinum certifications for her albums, a considerable feat at the time. She was often referred to then as the "highest paid woman in rock," able to command sell-out concerts in arenas hosting tens of thousands of fans despite a reputed stage shyness. In 1977, she appeared on the cover of Time magazine under the banner "Torchy Rock." Ronstadt has appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine six times.

Linda Ronstadt on the cover of her 2002 collection The Very Best of Linda Ronstadt

Her success was also propelled in the late 1970s by a relationship with then-Governor Jerry Brown of California, a Democratic presidential hopeful. Their romance became the subject of many magazine articles, including a Newsweek cover story in April 1979. In the 1980s, Ronstadt had a long relationship with director George Lucas. Despite association with several male celebrities over the years, she has never married, but she adopted two children.

As of the end of 2005, Ronstadt has earned three No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200, a No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100, 10 Top 10 albums and 10 Top 10 singles. Her highest-selling studio albums are her 1983 set What's New and her 1989 release Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind, each certified by the Recording Industry Association of America for 3 million units shipped. Her highest-selling album of all time is the 1976 Greatest Hits compilation, certified seven times platinum in 2001. In all, Ronstadt has been certified by the RIAA for 30 million copies of singles and albums shipped and has won 10 Grammy Awards in fields including pop, country, tropical Latin and Mexican-American.

Early career

Linda Ronstadt was born in Tucson, Arizona to a father of Mexican and German ancestry and a mother of Dutch Jewish-English descent. While she was a student at the University of Arizona, she met guitarist Bob Kimmel. The duo moved to Los Angeles, where guitarist/songwriter Kenny Edwards joined the pair. Calling themselves the Stone Poneys, the group became a leading attraction on California's folk circuit, recording their first album in 1967. She scored her first hit single in 1967, as singer for the Stone Poneys, with the song Different Drum, written by Monkees member Michael Nesmith. [1]

Her first solo hit single came in 1970, with the country rock crossover single, Long Long Time. She achieved her greatest commercial success during the 1970s, with a string of platinum albums, as she branched out from the earlier country rock sound to include more conventional rock, often covering early classics from the 1950s and early 1960s.

Fame and success

Her breakthrough year was 1974, when she released a series of hits beginning with the single You're No Good, followed by When Will I Be Loved, Heat Wave, That'll Be the Day, and It's So Easy. She reached number one on the Billboard magazine charts with her 1974 album Heart Like a Wheel, and followed that up with the number-one albums Simple Dreams in 1977 and Living in the U.S.A. in 1978. In 1980 she released an album of new wave covers of such artists as Elvis Costello and The Cretones, an album which continued her streak of hits with Hurt So Bad, How Do I Make You, and I Can't Let Go.

Throughout this period Ronstadt was perhaps the leading female sex symbol in rock music, reaching the peak of attention in 1976 when Rolling Stone published an alluring collection of photographs taken by Annie Leibovitz. Ronstadt later said that she had mixed and troubled feelings about this level of attention. [2] Ronstadt gained further general media focus when she dated Jerry Brown, then Governor of California, in the late 1970s.

In addition to pop-rock hits such as her popular version of the Roy Orbison hit, "Blue Bayou", and duets with Aaron Neville that received much critical acclaim, her long singing career has been filled with an eclectic mix of recordings, including Big Band sounds, Mexican canciones, an album of old-time country music, an album of Latin music, and an album of rock classics redone as lullabies. Her recording of three albums of pop standards with Nelson Riddle helped spark a revival of that form among younger audiences in the early-mid 1980s.

After appearing in the Broadway play, in 1983 she co-starred with Kevin Kline and Angela Lansbury in The Pirates of Penzance, a motion picture based on a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta.

In 1987, Ronstadt, Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris released their long-awaited Trio album, which they first conceived ten years earlier, to critical acclaim. The album won a Grammy and spawned four top-ten country singles. (They followed it up with a second album, Trio 2 in 1999.)

Showing her versatility yet again, in 1996 Ronstadt released Dedicated to the One I Love, an album of children's music. In a career spanning four decades, she has recorded more than forty albums, her latest a return to her roots in pop-rock ballads.

Ronstadt caused some controversy among conservative Christian groups by telling the San Diego Union-Tribune in an interview published July 15 2004: "It's a real conflict for me when I go to a concert and find out somebody in the audience is a Republican or fundamental Christian. It can cloud my enjoyment. I'd rather not know."

Controversy

On July 18, 2004, during a performance at the Aladdin Casino in Las Vegas, Ronstadt praised Michael Moore and his documentary film Fahrenheit 9/11. It was reported that some members of the audience walked out, tore down posters, threw drinks, and demanded she be removed from the stage. Initial reports were that Aladdin president Bill Timmins escorted her out of the premises without having a chance to go to her hotel suite to obtain her property, and vowed that, as long as he was running the casino, she would no longer be welcome. At the same time, it was reported that the angry shouts and boos were overpowered by cheers and people clapping. However, Ronstadt says that the media reports were inaccurate. She was not aware of anyone throwing drinks, was not escorted off the premises, and it wasn't until later that she learned Aladdin's management was angry. "I didn't know they were mad at me until we were gone, and I didn't know what they were mad at me about until about an hour later, when apparently they called up one of the people that was traveling with us and went, 'She's talking about Michael Moore, and this is a place for entertainment, not politics'" Ronstadt said. Ronstadt had previously been quoted in the Las Vegas Review-Journal that she was not fond of playing in Vegas, and hoped that she would annoy them enough to not ask her back.

The Aladdin is undergoing bankruptcy proceedings, however, and Robert Earl, CEO of Planet Hollywood, the corporation which will be taking controlling interest of the Aladdin when it emerges from bankruptcy protection, was quoted as saying that he would like to take Moore up on the film maker's offer to join Ronstadt on the Aladdin stage to sing America the Beautiful.

Albums

Grammy Nominations and Awards

Note: The year shown is the year for which the award was given, not the year in which it was given. Categories in bold are Grammy wins, others nominations.

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