Linda Ronstadt’s tour through the Great American Songbook was inspired by the records her mother played for her as a child. In the late 80s, she decided it was time to honor the music of her father.
Ronstadt’s Mexican roots trace back through her father, Gilbert, whose grandfather emigrated from Germany to Mexico and met his wife there. Mexican music was a major part of both Gilbert’s and Linda’s childhoods.
In 1981, Linda Ronstadt recorded a session for a planned album of standards. Unhappy with the results, she shelved them and got to work on her country rock album Get Closer.
Two years later, she was ready to revisit the idea, and this time she coaxed semi-retired legendary composer Nelson Riddle to arrange and conduct the material. Their collaboration spanned her next three albums: 1983’s What’s New, 1984’s Lush Life, and 1986’s For Sentimental Reasons.
In 1980, between her albums Mad Love and Get Closer, Linda Ronstadt decided her next challenge would be live theater. The soprano didn’t make it easy on herself, taking on the challenging role of Mabel in Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance.
Opposite Kevin Kline and Rex Smith, she made her Broadway debut to rave reviews, eventually earning a Tony nomination for Lead Actress in a Musical. The show ran on Broadway for nearly two years and was made into a feature film, for which Ronstadt was nominated for a Golden Globe.
I’m always fascinated to see how major 70s artists navigated the musical and cultural shift to the 80s. Many a legend ended up with embarrassing fashion and production detours into the gaudy excess of the neon era.
Linda Ronstadt made the transition relatively unscathed.
Her 1978 release Living in the U.S.A. still felt very much of its decade, with Ronstadt on roller skates sporting short shorts and a tight perm. The song selection skewed a little more rock than her previous releases and included covers of a couple of Elvises: Presley’s ‘Love Me Tender’ and Costello’s ‘Alison.’
Continuing my deep dive into the career of Linda Ronstadt…
I wrote about Ronstadt’s eighth album, Simple Dreams, during my Decades look at the year 1977. But it holds such an important place in her career that I had to give it another post today.
This is the best-selling album in her catalog, going 3X Platinum and knocking Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours from the #1 spot after 29 straight weeks. It was her fifth straight million-selling album (a record for a female artist) and the second highest seller by a woman after Carole King’s Tapestry.
Meet Me In Montauk 