bobbo428's Full Review: Greatest Hits by Linda Ronstadt
Throughout the years, Linda Ronstadt has given us memorable albums in many genres, from folk to country, from old standards to Mexican, and from California rock to new wave. Through it all, she has put her indelible stamp on many rock classics, interpreting it in her own way.
I first heard of Linda back in the late-'60s, when she had her unforgettable folk-tinged smash, "Different Drum," written by Mike Nesmith of The Monkees and performed by Ronstadt's group, the Stone Poneys. This song features a quasi-psychedelic break and the brutal honesty that folk lyrics are known for. For many years, I thought she was singing that they traveled to a beat of a different drum from most people yet were on the same wavelength with each other. The fact was, this song was a cry for freedom--Linda was not ready for someone "trying to pull the reins in on me." It was an anthem declaring freedom from the drudgery of being controlled by a possessive mate.
Grade for "Different Drum": 92
After "Different Drum," Ronstadt failed to make the top-40 for another two and a half years. She resurfaced with the plaintive ballad, "Long Long Time," which may very well be the saddest song I've ever heard (Other candidates include Dickey Lee's 1962 hit, "Patches," Tom Jones' "Green Green Grass of Home," and The Shangri-Las' 1965 "I Can Never Go Home Again," among others. "Long Long Time" tells of unrequited love, and Ronstadt does an excellent rendition of this song. There is an incredible coincidence linked to this song: A woman that I had an unrequited longing for in 1998 was 28 years old at the time, and this woman just happened to be 28 days old the day "Long Long Time" made the Billboard Hot 100 (Aug. 15, 1970). As a result, the song has a special meaning to me.
Grade: 92
"Love Has No Pride" was a 1973 release sung in the same vein. The singer is willing to swallow all of her pride to see her ex-mate again. This song is sung with a lot of genuine emotion and should have been a much bigger hit.
Grade: 89
In 1974, Ronstadt had a minor hit with her cover of The Springfields' early-'60s folk hit, "Silver Threads and Golden Needles." Linda's rendition stays faithful to the original. Like "Love Has No Pride," this song was much underrated on the chart.
Grade: 87
Around this time, Linda covered the Eagles' "Desperado." This song epitomized the California sound of jaded disillusionment in the 1970s (see my Eagles review of last Sept. 15). It was refreshing to hear a version other than the Eagles'--a change of scenery often does us good.
Grade: 86
By late 1974, Ronstadt had gone seven years without a top-20 hit, despite recording a lot of good material. She longed to update her sound so she could achieve her long overdue breakthrough. She teamed up with producer Peter Asher (of the 1960s folk duo "Peter and Gordon," and the result was the tour de force album called "Heart like a Wheel." This album produced Linda's biggest hit ever, a remake of the Betty Everett song, "You're No Good." When I heard this song for the first time, in January 1975, I knew it was a smash--it had a defiant attitude, an incisive melody, a killer hook, and a moody instrumental interlude that drove the song into the stratosphere. The song hit #1 in February 1975 and would end up being her only #1 pop hit.
Grade: 95
Linda'a followup was "When Will I Be Loved," a remake of the 1950s hit by the Everly Brothers. I could relate to this song well because of my difficulties with my peers at school at the time. This song reached #2 in June, being kept from the summit by the Captain and Tennille's "Love Will Keep Us Together." It was the first of three #2 hits by Ronstadt, the other two being "Somewhere Out There" (1987) and "Don't Know Much" (1989).
Grade: 82
The B-side of "Loved" was a cover of Buddy Holly's "It Don't Matter Anymore." Her version has a country-folk feel to it, as well as a moody melancholia and a touch of irony. I actually liked it better than the A side.
Grade: 85
In September 1975, Ronstadt released a single that was a cover of the Neil Young composition, "Love Is a Rose." When my mom first heard it, she thought it was called "Love Is a Road." This was a well-sung if detached folky reading of the song. It was originally intended as the "A" side, but it would soon be overwhelmed by the B-side,---
Grade: 86
"Heat Wave." This rollicking remake of the Martha & the Vandellas reached the top five in the fall of 1975. The weather that fall in the Northeast cooperated--it was unseasonably warm, making the song apropos. While many of Linda's hits were melancholy, Linda was in high spirits with this remake of a Motown hit.
Grade: 87
Speaking of Motown, Ronstadt's next single was another remake, "Tracks of My Tears." This song had originally been a top-20 hit for The Miracles in 1965 (and a top-10 hit for Johnny Rivers in '67). Linda's version wasn't quite up to par to those first two, but it was a good version in its own right. It had a plaintive winter feel to it, and it was a big mid-winter hit in 1976.
Grade: 83
The most recent hit on this album was "That'll Be the Day," a remake of The Crickets' 1958 hit. It just missed the top-10 in the fall of 1976. I enjoyed the a cappella intro to this song, and it has a rockabilly feel.
Grade: 79
One bone the critics had with Ronstadt, especially in the 1970s, was that most of her hits were covers of earlier songs. I can recall a writer in ROLLING STONE's BOOK OF ROCK LISTS lamenting that Linda Ronstadt covered everything. This was not far from true, because she did remake almost everything, with varying degrees of success. Once a writer in BILLBOARD wished she would try some songwriting.
Ronstadt had a song that I enjoyed, the 1971 single, "Very Lovely Woman" which is an obscure favorite of mine. I had hoped it would be included on this disk, but it was excluded, probably because it only reached the 70s on the chart.
All criticisms aside, Ronstadt has done a god job interpreting others' material. She chooses her songs carefully and has a lot of emotion in her delivery.
Note: I wanted this epinion to be about Ronstadt because (a) my favorite of hers, "Long Long Time," was a hit in 1970; (b) The coincidence regarding this song and my unrequited three-year crush on a woman named Theresa, and (c) a close relative of mine passed away on this date in 1970, 25 years to the date after President Franklin Roosevelt had died (Apr. 12, 1945, a Thursday as was today--and 56 years, a multiple of 28). There's that number 28 again!
P.S.: I also wrote this opinion--#70--because the temperature was nearing 70 degrees outside as I was writing it. Ironically, this day, the day of my 70th epinion, the high temperature was 70 degrees on the dot! It was our first 70-degree day around here since Oct. 27, the day I wrote my epinion on The Weather Channel. Irony prevails!
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