Linda Ronstadt (2)

Linda Ronstadt – You Can Close Your Eyes

By the time you reach the final track of Linda Ronstadt’s Heart Like a Wheel, you have been through something. The album, released in November 1974, is not an easy ride — it moves through betrayal, longing, and the grinding work of keeping yourself together when things keep falling apart. Ronstadt tears through “You’re No … Read more

Linda Ronstadt (44)

Linda Ronstadt – Poor, Poor Pitiful Me

The song “Poor Poor Pitiful Me,” from Zevon’s 1976 self-titled debut album — a record built on sardonic wit, emotional damage, and a very particular kind of Southern California darkness. Zevon had written it as a friendly jab at the “woe is me” earnestness that dominated the singer-songwriter scene, the melancholy circles around figures like … Read more

Linda Ronstadt (39)

Linda Ronstadt – Love Is a Rose

Neil Young had written “Love Is a Rose” in 1974 for an album called Homegrown, which he ultimately shelved and did not release to the public until 2020. His own recording sat in a vault. He offered the song to Ronstadt, and she took it immediately. Her version appeared as the B-side to “Heat Wave” … Read more

Linda Ronstadt (37)

Linda Ronstadt – Heat Wave

It was the summer of 1975, and Linda Ronstadt made something that felt inevitable — a record called Prisoner in Disguise, recorded between February and June 1975 at The Sound Factory in Hollywood, produced by Peter Asher, and released that September. On it, she ranged freely across Motown, country, rock, and gospel, as if the … Read more

Linda Ronstadt (35)

Linda Ronstadt – Somewhere Out There

The fall of 1986 was a strange moment for animated film. Animation was widely considered a dying medium — the great Disney machine had gone quiet, and the idea of a hand-drawn children’s movie generating a genuine pop hit felt like a category error. So when Steven Spielberg was producing An American Tail, a story … Read more

Linda Ronstadt (34)

Linda Ronstadt – Hurt So Bad

“Hurt So Bad” was written by Teddy Randazzo, Bobby Weinstein, and Bobby Hart, and first recorded by Little Anthony & The Imperials for their album Goin’ Out of My Head, where it became a top ten hit and a top five R&B record. The original is a soul-pop ballad built on pleading — a man … Read more

Linda Ronstadt (30)

Linda Ronstadt – Faithless Love

J.D. Souther wrote “Faithless Love” while living with Ronstadt in Beachwood Canyon — the same interlocking world of relationships, collaborations, and creative debts that would produce the Eagles, half of the decade’s great California rock, and enough material for a very long novel. Souther was already one of the scene’s quiet architects: he co-wrote some … Read more