Listening to Linda

My Suzy Bogguss post of yesterday motivated me to find some Linda Ronstadt material. Ronstadt is high on my list of favorite female American singers. Is Ronstadt the most talented female American singer of our time? Possibly. Is she one of the best? No question. She has 11 Grammy Awards, 2 Academy of Country Music Awards, an Emmy Award, an ALMA Award, an ACM Music Award, numerous gold, platinum and multiplatinum albums, as well as Tony Award and Golden Globe nominations. She has charted 36 albums, 10 Top 10 albums, and 3 No. 1 albums on the Billboard Pop Album Charts. Linda can hold her own with any singer. She has a great voice and can put a lot of power into it.

Rummaging through the first dozen albums in an old box of LPs turned up a half dozen Ronstadt albums from the ‘70s and ‘80s. My favorites were Greatest Hits and Living in the USA. She has so many great songs that it’s hard to pick one song and call it my favorite, but here goes anyhow: Easy For You to Say. If you have it on CD or can find an MP3, put on your headphones (or plug in your ear buds), close your eyes, and listen to Linda belt out this Jimmy Webb song (a Top 10 Adult Contemporary hit in the spring of 1983). If you don’t have it, then YouTube will have to do. This is Linda singing Easy For You to Say in a live TV performance in 1983. (The studio performance on CD is even more perfect – as would be expected.)

Also-ran favorites:

All of these songs are found on Linda’s Living in the USA album.

Livin’ in the USA : this live performance with Chuck Berry sounds very much like track #1 on the album.

Alison : one of many great songs written by Elvis Costello.

Mohammed’s Radio : one by the late, great Warren Zevon.

White Rhythm & Blues : a beautiful ballad by J. D. Souther.