by Kevin Burton
Gilbert Ronstadt was the owner of Ronstadt’s Hardware Store in Tucson, Arizona. He loved to play his guitar for this three children, two girls and a boy.
The kids formed a group called “The Three Ronstadts” and played at functions in the area.
One of the girls, you will have heard of, Linda Ronstadt. She turns 79 today.
Those early family facts come from The Billboard Book of Number One Hits, so you know Linda reached the top. That was with “You’re No Good” from the album “Heart Like A Wheel” in 1975. Both the song and the artist had been around a while before Ronstadt’s huge breakthrough hit.
The song was written by Clint Ballard Jr., who wrote for Connie Francis and the Hollies among others, according to SongFacts. It was first recorded by Dee Dee Warwick, sister of Dionne Warwick, in 1963.
Ronstadt began charting as a member of the Stone Poneys in 1967, singing “Different Drum”, a song written by Michael Nesmith of the Monkeys.
Her biggest solo hit before “You’re No Good” was “Long, Long Time”, which reached number 25 in 1970.
Ronstadt became a top-10 fixture with the help of producer Peter Asher who (hello!) listened to her ideas.
Asher himself had reached the top spot in 1964 with his duo Peter & Gordon, singing “A World Without Love”, a song written by Paul McCartney which was rejected by the other Beatles.
“I may have listened to her with a bit more attentiveness than others had in the past,” Asher told SongFacts. “There was, particularly back in that era, an element of, ‘Don’t you worry your pretty little head about that, I know what’s best.’ Linda knew a lot and was not given credit for it.”
“Peter was the first person willing to work with me as an equal,” Ronstadt told Rolling Stone, “even though his abilities were far superior to mine. I didn’t have to fight for my ideas. All of a sudden making records became so much more fun.”
And that fun was passed on to music fans in the 70s and into the 80s. She followed up her chart-topper with “When Will I Be Loved”, number 2 in 1975, and a remake of Martha and the Vandellas’ “Heat Wave”, which reached number 5.
I remember her next song “Love Is A Rose,” as being all over the radio, but it reached only number 63, according to Wikipedia.
She followed that with “Tracks of my Tears” (number 25), and “That’ll Be The Day” (number 11).
“She became one of the biggest stars of the ’70s, known for her musical versatility and impressive vocal range,” SongFacts wrote.
Few artists were hotter in the mid-70s. And for fans of that era, the “hotter” part did not pertain only to her music.
“ She doesn’t have the tortured genius of Joni (Mitchell) or the raspy charm of Bonnie Raitt, but she reigns as the rock queen of love-gone-wrong,” wrote Carl Arrington in a 1976 piece in Creem Magazine.
“Her primary tool is a voice that can deliver her polished fascination with emotional upheaval. Yet it is smooth without being glossy; vulnerable without being fragile. Like a valentine laser it has an ability to focus directly on the spot where old romances seem to settle.”
“These days people no longer buy Ronstadt’s albums for her picture on the cover, though that’s still reason enough,” Arrington wrote. “After all, there were a few of her early LPs that were more pleasant to look at than listen to. But ever since Heart Like A Wheel the most important part has been inside the jacket.”
Ronstadt didn’t do a lot of interviews during her peak years, but she told Creem that she had religion “crammed down my throat,” as a youth, and has been famously hostile to it since.
In her later career Ronstadt moved from rock and roll to light opera and pop standards, her booming voice now soaring. She wowed fans no matter what the genre.
“She’s about the best girl singer in the world in my prejudiced view,” Asher told Fred Bronson in the Billboard book. “She can sing anything and does so incredibly well.”
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