Throwing back to the week of June 27, 1956, we find Gogi Grant hanging on to the top spot with ‘The Wayward Wind,’ the unlikely hit that dethroned Elvis Presley’s ‘Heartbreak Hotel.’
At #2 that week was Pat Boone with ‘I Almost Lost My Mind.’ The song eventually reached #1, becoming Boone’s second chart-topping hit (of six total in his career).
That’s a wrap on my three-week Deep Dive into the career of Linda Ronstadt, one of popular music’s most versatile and talented performers. Thirty-one albums, 11 Grammys, more than 100 million record sales worldwide, and one gorgeous set of pipes.
Ronstadt found extraordinary success in a laundry list of genres: folk, country, pop, rock, soul, jazz, and Latin, not to mention Christmas music and the Great American Songbook. Time and time again, she defied the odds and turned strange artistic detours into triumphs.
I’ve now written about all but two of Linda Ronstadt’s 31 studio albums, and I thought the final two would group together nicely at the end.
First up is the oddest recording of her career, 1996’s Dedicated to the One I Love. This is a collection of rock songs performed in the style of children’s lullabies. If you’ve ever wanted to hear Queen’s ‘We Will Rock You’ sung against the backdrop of a crib mobile, this is the album for you.
Linda Ronstadt followed the excellent Winter Light with 1995’s Feels Like Home, a return to her country rock roots.
The album included a handful of tracks first recorded with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris for their initially abandoned second collaborative album. They would appear in remixed form on the Trio II album four years later.
Those tracks include a cover of Neil Young’s ‘After the Gold Rush’ and Randy Newman’s ‘Feels Like Home,’ two standouts that feel redundant on one album or the other depending on which you know better.
I veered outside of chronological order when I wrote about Linda Ronstadt’s Spanish-language releases last week, so today I’m returning to the timeline.
Two years after the major success of Canciones de Mi Padre, Ronstadt struck gold again with 1999’s triple-Platinum Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind. The album won three Grammys and joined Simple Dreams and What’s New as her top-selling releases.
Meet Me In Montauk 