Linda Ronstadt (born July 15, 1946) is an American popular music singer. She has earned 11 Grammy Awards, three American Music Awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, an Emmy Award, an ALMA Award, and numerous United States and internationally certified gold, platinum and multiplatinum albums
An amazing ability to sing different styles of music captured me many long years ago and here i am today broad casting how much i enjoy what she has given to us
in 2013 Linda Ronstadt says she suffers from Parkinson's disease, which has robbed her the ability to sing and she said she was "completely shocked" when she finally saw a neurologist and was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. "I wouldn't have suspected that in a million, billion years
The pop singer was known for her romances with California Gov. Jerry Brown and filmmaker George Lucas
In April 1979, Newsweek magazine found the story of then California Gov. Jerry Brown and rock star Linda Ronstadt intriguing enough to make it a cover story
At age 18 in 1964, after meeting guitarist Bob Kimmel while attending University of Arizona briefly, the pair left for Los Angeles, joining guitarist and singer/songwriter Kenny Edwards to form the Stone Poneys
After three years the group broke up, but scored a Top 20 hit in 1967-68 with the Ronstadt-led “Different Drum.”
Following her stint with the Stone Poneys, Ronstadt then began a solo career, struggling for about five years, playing with various transient and backup musicians
Along the way, there were also difficult romantic entanglements and some cocaine use, a period of her life she sometimes refers to as the “bleak years.”
In March 1970, her second solo album, Silk Purse, was released, but it did not fare well on the music charts, However, one of its singles did – “Long Long Time,” rising in late-summer 1970 to No. 25 on the Billboard pop chart
“Long Long Time” earned her a Grammy Award nomination in early 1971, although Dionne Warwick took the prize that year for best contemporary female vocalist
One of Ronstadt’s backing bands in her early solo period featured musicians Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Bernie Leadon, and Randy Meisner, who went on to form the Eagles, one of the most successful American rock bands of the 1970s
They toured with her for a short period in 1971 and played on Linda Ronstadt, her self-titled third album. In those years she was beginning to define a new genre of music, sometimes called country rock
Still, by the end of 1972 Linda Ronstadt was in debt and paying commissions to two managers, Then came Peter Asher, formerly of the Peter & Gordon duet, who became her producer and manager
With Asher, she made two albums – the first, Don’t Cry Now, came out in 1973 which would sell 300,000 copies. It also included her first country hit, “Silver Threads and Golden Needles,” which broke into the Top 20
But the second album she made with Peter Asher, Heart Like a Wheel, became her big breakthrough album
Released shortly before Christmas 1974, Heart Like a Wheel hit No. 1 on both the Billboard albums chart and the Country & Western charts
A week after the Heart Like A Wheel album came out. That song hit No. 1 on the pop singles chart by February 15, 1975 and stayed in the Top 40 for ten weeks
“You’re No Good” was also a hit for Ronstadt in Australia (#15), the Netherlands (#17), and New Zealand (#24). The B-side, “I Can’t Help It If I’m Still in Love With You,” a Hank Williams cover, hit No. 2 on the C & W chart. That song would also win her a Grammy that year for Best Female Country Vocal Performance. Another song from Heart Like A Wheel – the follow-up single
The follow-up single, “When Will I Be Loved” – a 1960 Everly Brothers hit, was also a big Ronstadt hit
In May 1975, her uptempo version of when will i be loved hit No. 2 on the pop chart and No. 1 on the country chart
In September 1975, another Ronstadt album came out – Prisoner In Disguise – which quickly climbed into the top five on the Billboard chart and sold over a million copies
Asylum Records also issued a single from that album with a Ronstadt version of “Heat Wave,” a 1963 Motown/Martha & The Vandellas tune on the A-side, and Neil Young’s “Love Is a Rose” on the B-side
Ronstadt’s musical career was heading into the stratosphere, In August 1976 she released Hasten Down the Wind, an album that included her version of Buddy Holly’s “That’ll Be The Day,” the single for which hit No. 11 on both the Billboard and Cash Box charts
Hasten Down the Wind was Ronstadt’s third straight million-selling album – a feat no other female artist had then accomplished
The album earned her a Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Performance
linda once said I don’t know how good a sex symbol I am, but I do think I’m good at being sexy. The sexual aspect of my personality has been played up a lot, and I can’t say it hasn’t been part of my success
Back in 1977 Ronstadt’s eighth studio album, titled Simple Dreams, was released in September. Two months later it had replaced Fleetwood Mac’s long-running No. 1 album Rumours in the top spot
Simple Dreams stayed atop the Billboard albums chart for five consecutive weeks
On the Billboard country chart, Simple Dreams knocked Elvis Presley out of the No.1 slot. The album would sell over 3.5 million copies in less than a year in the U.S. alone, and would also hit No. 1 on Australia and Canada’s pop and country charts
Simple Dreams also spawned a string of hit singles including covers of Roy Orbison’s “Blue Bayou”; Buddy Holly “It’s So Easy,”and up-and-coming songwriter Warren Zevon’s “Poor Poor Pitiful Me.” Of the three, “Blue Bayou” – which included Don Henley of the Eagles singing backup – was the biggest hit, rising to No. 3 on the Billboard pop chart in late 1977, where it held for four weeks
By October 1977 Linda Ronstadt was pretty much at the top of the rock world. She had turned out five straight million-selling albums, was grossing something on the order of $60 million from those albums
That fall she was also asked by the Los Angeles Dodgers to sing the National Anthem on October 24, 1977 at game three of the World Series as the Dodgers hosted the New York Yankees
During 1978 Linda Ronstadt scored her third consecutive No.1 album with Living in the USA. It appeared on the Billboard album chart in September 1978 and was the first album by any recording act to ship over 2 million advance copies
It would eventually sell some 3 million copies in the U.S. alone and A major hit single from that album in October 1978 was a cover of Smokey Robinson & the Miracles’ “Ooh Baby Baby.” That single, in fact, appeared on all four of the major music charts – Pop (No. 7), Adult Contemporary (No. 2), Country, and R&B
In 1981 she went to Broadway as Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance, co-starring with Kevin Kline
In 1983, her estimated worth was placed at over $40 million, mostly from records, concerts and merchandising
For Ronstadt the 1980s proved to be just as commercially successful as the 1970s
Between 1983 and 1990, she turned out six additional million-selling albums; two of which sold more than three million U.S. copies
To date she has sold in excess of 100 million records worldwide and also became one of the top-grossing concert performers for over a decade
During her career she released over 45 albums, 30 of those studio productions. Among her singles, 38 charted on Billboard’s pop chart – 21 in the Top 40, ten in the Top 10, three at No. 2, and “You’re No Good” at No. 1. She has earned 11 Grammy Awards, two Academy of Country Music Awards, an Emmy Award, and an ALMA Award
But sadly, in August 2013, Ronstadt revealed she has Parkinson’s disease, leaving her unable to sing
An amazing ability to sing different styles of music captured me many long years ago and here i am today broad casting how much i enjoy what she has given to us
in 2013 Linda Ronstadt says she suffers from Parkinson's disease, which has robbed her the ability to sing and she said she was "completely shocked" when she finally saw a neurologist and was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. "I wouldn't have suspected that in a million, billion years
The pop singer was known for her romances with California Gov. Jerry Brown and filmmaker George Lucas
In April 1979, Newsweek magazine found the story of then California Gov. Jerry Brown and rock star Linda Ronstadt intriguing enough to make it a cover story
At age 18 in 1964, after meeting guitarist Bob Kimmel while attending University of Arizona briefly, the pair left for Los Angeles, joining guitarist and singer/songwriter Kenny Edwards to form the Stone Poneys
After three years the group broke up, but scored a Top 20 hit in 1967-68 with the Ronstadt-led “Different Drum.”
Following her stint with the Stone Poneys, Ronstadt then began a solo career, struggling for about five years, playing with various transient and backup musicians
Along the way, there were also difficult romantic entanglements and some cocaine use, a period of her life she sometimes refers to as the “bleak years.”
In March 1970, her second solo album, Silk Purse, was released, but it did not fare well on the music charts, However, one of its singles did – “Long Long Time,” rising in late-summer 1970 to No. 25 on the Billboard pop chart
“Long Long Time” earned her a Grammy Award nomination in early 1971, although Dionne Warwick took the prize that year for best contemporary female vocalist
One of Ronstadt’s backing bands in her early solo period featured musicians Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Bernie Leadon, and Randy Meisner, who went on to form the Eagles, one of the most successful American rock bands of the 1970s
They toured with her for a short period in 1971 and played on Linda Ronstadt, her self-titled third album. In those years she was beginning to define a new genre of music, sometimes called country rock
Still, by the end of 1972 Linda Ronstadt was in debt and paying commissions to two managers, Then came Peter Asher, formerly of the Peter & Gordon duet, who became her producer and manager
With Asher, she made two albums – the first, Don’t Cry Now, came out in 1973 which would sell 300,000 copies. It also included her first country hit, “Silver Threads and Golden Needles,” which broke into the Top 20
But the second album she made with Peter Asher, Heart Like a Wheel, became her big breakthrough album
Released shortly before Christmas 1974, Heart Like a Wheel hit No. 1 on both the Billboard albums chart and the Country & Western charts
A week after the Heart Like A Wheel album came out. That song hit No. 1 on the pop singles chart by February 15, 1975 and stayed in the Top 40 for ten weeks
“You’re No Good” was also a hit for Ronstadt in Australia (#15), the Netherlands (#17), and New Zealand (#24). The B-side, “I Can’t Help It If I’m Still in Love With You,” a Hank Williams cover, hit No. 2 on the C & W chart. That song would also win her a Grammy that year for Best Female Country Vocal Performance. Another song from Heart Like A Wheel – the follow-up single
The follow-up single, “When Will I Be Loved” – a 1960 Everly Brothers hit, was also a big Ronstadt hit
In May 1975, her uptempo version of when will i be loved hit No. 2 on the pop chart and No. 1 on the country chart
In September 1975, another Ronstadt album came out – Prisoner In Disguise – which quickly climbed into the top five on the Billboard chart and sold over a million copies
Asylum Records also issued a single from that album with a Ronstadt version of “Heat Wave,” a 1963 Motown/Martha & The Vandellas tune on the A-side, and Neil Young’s “Love Is a Rose” on the B-side
Ronstadt’s musical career was heading into the stratosphere, In August 1976 she released Hasten Down the Wind, an album that included her version of Buddy Holly’s “That’ll Be The Day,” the single for which hit No. 11 on both the Billboard and Cash Box charts
Hasten Down the Wind was Ronstadt’s third straight million-selling album – a feat no other female artist had then accomplished
The album earned her a Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Performance
linda once said I don’t know how good a sex symbol I am, but I do think I’m good at being sexy. The sexual aspect of my personality has been played up a lot, and I can’t say it hasn’t been part of my success
Back in 1977 Ronstadt’s eighth studio album, titled Simple Dreams, was released in September. Two months later it had replaced Fleetwood Mac’s long-running No. 1 album Rumours in the top spot
Simple Dreams stayed atop the Billboard albums chart for five consecutive weeks
On the Billboard country chart, Simple Dreams knocked Elvis Presley out of the No.1 slot. The album would sell over 3.5 million copies in less than a year in the U.S. alone, and would also hit No. 1 on Australia and Canada’s pop and country charts
Simple Dreams also spawned a string of hit singles including covers of Roy Orbison’s “Blue Bayou”; Buddy Holly “It’s So Easy,”and up-and-coming songwriter Warren Zevon’s “Poor Poor Pitiful Me.” Of the three, “Blue Bayou” – which included Don Henley of the Eagles singing backup – was the biggest hit, rising to No. 3 on the Billboard pop chart in late 1977, where it held for four weeks
By October 1977 Linda Ronstadt was pretty much at the top of the rock world. She had turned out five straight million-selling albums, was grossing something on the order of $60 million from those albums
That fall she was also asked by the Los Angeles Dodgers to sing the National Anthem on October 24, 1977 at game three of the World Series as the Dodgers hosted the New York Yankees
During 1978 Linda Ronstadt scored her third consecutive No.1 album with Living in the USA. It appeared on the Billboard album chart in September 1978 and was the first album by any recording act to ship over 2 million advance copies
It would eventually sell some 3 million copies in the U.S. alone and A major hit single from that album in October 1978 was a cover of Smokey Robinson & the Miracles’ “Ooh Baby Baby.” That single, in fact, appeared on all four of the major music charts – Pop (No. 7), Adult Contemporary (No. 2), Country, and R&B
In 1981 she went to Broadway as Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance, co-starring with Kevin Kline
In 1983, her estimated worth was placed at over $40 million, mostly from records, concerts and merchandising
For Ronstadt the 1980s proved to be just as commercially successful as the 1970s
Between 1983 and 1990, she turned out six additional million-selling albums; two of which sold more than three million U.S. copies
To date she has sold in excess of 100 million records worldwide and also became one of the top-grossing concert performers for over a decade
During her career she released over 45 albums, 30 of those studio productions. Among her singles, 38 charted on Billboard’s pop chart – 21 in the Top 40, ten in the Top 10, three at No. 2, and “You’re No Good” at No. 1. She has earned 11 Grammy Awards, two Academy of Country Music Awards, an Emmy Award, and an ALMA Award
But sadly, in August 2013, Ronstadt revealed she has Parkinson’s disease, leaving her unable to sing