Linda Ronstadt Greatest Hits I & II (CD)

(Warner Music) 23 tracks, including all her killers: Blue Bayou, It's So Easy, Hurt So Bad...Essential!

Linda Ronstadt dominated popular music in the 1970s with a voice of enormous range and power. She was one of the most important voices in the emergence of country rock, partly because she knew how to sing traditional country songs like “Silver Threads And Golden Needles”. In the 70s, she regularly made it into the country charts, a rarity for female rock singers. Working with producer Peter Asher, Ronstadt developed a repertoire of songs that ranged across rock history, which she interpreted with beautiful, precise phrasing. Ronstadt was particularly good at singing early rock'n'roll; she had a long string of hits that revived interest in the pioneers of rock: Roy Orbison's “Blue Bayou”, “When Will I Be Loved” by the Everly Brothers and “That'll Be The Day” by Buddy Holly are among them. She felt just as at home in Motown music as she did in the early days of New Wave. Her best work was the series of four consecutive platinum albums in the mid-70s: Heart Like A Wheel (1974), Prisoner In Disguise (1975), Hasten Down The Wind (1976) and Simple Dreams (1977).

In the 80s, she expanded her musical vocabulary by recording songs from the classic American songbook (What's New, Lush Life) and Mexican music she had heard as a child in Tucson, Arizona (Canciones De Mi Padre). This work proved as successful as her rock albums; she is the only artist to have won a Grammy Award in the pop, country, Mexican American and tropical Latin categories. This diversity reflects her approach to singing: she was always looking for the best song, regardless of category.