|
|
|
|
| Birth Name(s) : Linda Marie Ronstadt |
Date of Birth: July 15, 1946 |
| Status:
N/A
|
Partner:
N/A |
| Profession:
Actor/Musician |
Official Site
Go to the Linda Ronstadt Official Homepage |
| << Add Linda Ronstadt To Your Favorites |
|
Full Linda Ronstadt Biography
With roots in the Los Angeles country and folk-rock scenes, Linda Ronstadt became one of the most popular interpretive singers of the '70s, earning a string of platinum-selling albums and Top 40 singles. Throughout the '70s, her laid-back pop never lost sight of her folky roots, yet as she moved into the '80s, she began to change her sound with the times, adding "new wave" influences. After a brief flirtation with pre-rock pop, Ronstadt settled into a pattern of adult contemporary pop and Latin albums, sustaining her popularity in both fields.
While Ronstadt was a student at Arizona State University, she met guitarist Bob Kimmel. The duo moved to Los Angeles, where guitarist/songwriter Kenny Edwards joined the pair. Calling themselves the Stone Poneys, the group became a leading attraction on California's folk circuit, recording their first album in 1967. The band's second album, Evergreen, Vol. 2, featured the Top 20 hit "Different Drum," which was written by Michael Nesmith. After recording one more album with the group, Ronstadt left for a solo career at the end of 1968.
Ronstadt's first two solo albums -- Hand Sown Home Grown (1969) and Silk Purse (1970) -- accentuated her country roots, featuring several honky tonk numbers. Released in 1971, her self-titled third album was a pivotal record in her career. Featuring a group of session musicians that would later form the Eagles, the album was a softer, more laid-back variation of the country-rock she had been recording. With the inclusion of songs from singer/songwriters like Jackson Browne, Neil Young, and Eric Anderson, Linda Ronstadt had folk-rock connections as well. Don't Cry Now, released in 1973, followed the same formula to greater success, yet it was 1974's Heart Like a Wheel that perfected the sound, making Ronstadt a star. Featuring the hit covers "You're No Good," "When Will I Be Loved," and "It Doesn't Matter Anymore," Heart Like a Wheel reached number one and sold over two million copies.
Released in the fall of 1975, Prisoner in Disguise followed the same pattern as Heart Like a Wheel and was nearly as successful. Hasten Down the Wind, released in 1976, suggested a holding pattern, even if it charted higher than Prisoner in Disguise. Simple Dreams (1977) expanded the formula by adding a more rock-oriented supporting band, which breathed life into the Rolling Stones' "Tumbling Dice" and Warren Zevon's "Poor Poor Pitiful Me." The record became the singer's biggest hit, staying on the top of the charts for five weeks and selling over three million copies. With Living in the U.S.A. (1978), Ronstadt began experimenting with new wave. recording Elvis Costello's "Alison"; the album was another number one hit. On 1980's Mad Love, she made a full-fledged new wave record, recording three Costello songs and adopting a synth-laden sound. While the album was a commercial success, it signalled that her patented formula was beginning to run out of steam. That suspicion was confirmed with 1982's Get Closer, her first album since Heart Like a Wheel to fail to go platinum.
Sensing it was time to change direction, Ronstadt starred in the Broadway production of Gilbert & Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance, as well as the accompanying movie. Pirates of Penzance led the singer to a collaboration with Nelson Riddle, who arranged and conducted her 1983 collection of pop standards, What's New. While it received lukewarm reviews, it was a considerable hit, reaching number three on the charts and selling over two million copies. Ronstadt's next two albums -- Lush Life (1984) and For Sentimental Reasons (1986) -- were also albums of pre-rock standards recorded with Riddle.
At the end of 1986, Ronstadt returned to contemporary pop, recording "Somewhere Out There," the theme to the animated An American Tail, with James Ingram; the single became a number two hit. She also returned to her country roots in 1987, recording the Trio album with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris. That same year, Ronstadt recorded Canciones de Mi Padre, a set of traditional Mexican songs that became a surprise hit. Two years later, she recorded Cry Like a Rainstorm - Howl Like the Wind -- her first contemporary pop album since 1982's Get Closer. Featuring four duets with Aaron Neville, including the number two hit "Don't Know Much," the album sold over two million copies. Ronstadt returned to traditional Mexican and Spanish material with Mas Canciones (1991) and Frenesi (1992). She returned to pop with 1994's Winter Light, which failed to generate a hit single, as did 1995's Feels Like Home. In 1996, she released the children's album Dedicated to the One I Love; We Ran followed in 1998. Two years later, Ronstadt delivered the holiday collection A Merry Little Christmas. |
|
|
Additional Linda Ronstadt Biography
Linda Ronstadt (born Linda Marie Ronstadt, spanish translation Maria Linda Ronstadt on July 15, 1946 in Tucson, Arizona) is an American popular vocalist and entertainer who has earned multiple Grammy Awards, numerous multi-platinum albums, an Emmy Award, and Tony Award and Golden Globe nominations. A singer-songwriter and record producer, she is better known as a definitive interpreter of songs. She has recorded over 30 studio albums, and has made guest appearances on over 100 other albums.
Ronstadt is a major supporter and admirer of Salina, Kansas' sustainable agriculture pioneer Wes Jackson, saying in 2000 "the work he's doing right now is the most important work there is in the (United States)," and dedicating the rock anthem Desperado to him at a August, 2007 Kansas City, Kansas concert of hers.
Following the incident, many friends of Linda Ronstadt, including The Eagles, immediately cancelled their engagement at the Aladdin.. Likewise, Ronstadt received immediate telegrams of support from her rock n roll friends around the world, such as The Rolling Stones, The Eagles, and Elton John.
At age fourteen, she formed a folk trio with her brother Peter and her sister Suzy. They called themselves The New Union Ramblers, and the trio played around coffeehouses, fraternity houses, and small joints. Their repertoire included the music they grew up on - folk, country, bluegrass, and Mexican. But increasingly, Linda wanted to make a union of folk music and rock 'n' roll, and in 1964, at 17, she decided to move on to Los Angeles.
While Ronstadt was a student at Arizona State University, she met guitarist Bob Kimmel. Together they moved to Los Angeles. In 1964, guitarist-songwriter Kenny Edwards joined the pair, co-writing several folk-rock songs with Kimmel. They recorded "So Fine" for Curb Records. The record company wanted them to sing surf music, which the trio chose not to do. The trio was discovered and signed with Nick Venet and Capitol Records, with Ronstadt as the lead singer. They became a leading attraction on California's folk circuit, recording their first album in the fall of 1966. The Stone Poneys acted as a supporting act for The Doors on tour; "The Lizard King" didn't exactly endear himself to Ronstadt, she remarked... "We thought they were a good band, but we didn't like the singer",
Immediately, Rolling Stone magazine put her on its cover in March, 1975 for the first time. The cover was the first of six Rolling Stone magazine covers and photographed by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz. It also included her as featured artist with a full photo layout and an article by Ben Fong-Torres, discussing her many struggling years in rock n roll, home life and what it meant to be a women on tour in a decidedly all-male environment.
By this stage of her career, Ronstadt's disc covers were big, bold and memorable. Living in the USA was no exception, showing the singer with a newly short haircut and on roller skates on the album cover. Ronstadt continued this theme on concert and tour promotional posters but this time there were photos of Ronstadt on roller skates and Ronstadt in a dramatic pose with a large American flag in the background. By this stage of her career, with every album released Ronstadt was going out and thoroughly promoting the album with posters because her image was just as famous as her music and concerts - which at the time were even famously recorded live on radio and/or tv. Ronstadt was also featured in the 1978 film FM, where the plot involved disc jockeys attempting to illegally record and broadcast live, a Linda Ronstadt concert. The movie also showed Ronstadt live and in concert singing the hit song Tumbling Dice.
In the summer of 1980, Ronstadt began rehearsals for the first of several leads in Broadway musicals. Joseph Papp cast her as the lead in the New York Shakespeare Festival production of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance, alongside Kevin Kline. However, this endeavor wasn't, to Ronstadt, as far a left field endeavor as it might have appeard to Ronstadt's popular music audience. She recounts that singing Gilbert and Sullivan was a natural choice for her, since Grandfather Fred Ronstadt is credited with creating Tucson’s first orchestra, the Club Filarmonico Tucsonense and had once created an arrangement of Pirates of Penzance, likewise, her mother, Ruth Mary Copeman Ronstadt, owned a large Gilbert and Sullivan collection.
Ronstadt produced and performed a theatrical stage show in concert halls across the United States and Latin America to both hispanic and non-hispanic audiences, including on the Great White Way. She called the stage show by the same name Canciones de mi Padre. These performances were released on DVD. Ronstadt elected to return to the Broadway stage, 4 years after she performed La Boheme, for a limited run engagement. PBS Great Performances aired the celebrated stage show during its annual fund drives and the show was a hit with audiences, earning Ronstadt an Emmy Award for Individual Performance In A Variety Or Music Program.
Signaling a recording return to more folksy roots, Ronstadt released several folk rock records with a more adult rock-oriented edge during this decade as well, including: Winter Light (1993), Feels Like Home (1995), |
|
| Add Linda Ronstadt Biography (SuperUSERS) + |
Linda Ronstadt Quote(s)
| Be regular and orderly in your life, in order that you may be violent and original in your work. |
|
| Add Linda Ronstadt Review/Comment
|
HQ Linda Ronstadt Pictures (1) | Random Linda Ronstadt Picture
|
| << Back to the Linda Ronstadt Homepage |
|
