Linda Ronstadt Album: “Very Best of Linda Ronstadt [Bonus Tracks]”

I first realized that the U.K. version of this disc had more tracks upon leafing through the latest issue of ICE magazine. The review above does not tell you that this version omits 2 songs on the U.S. version: "Love Is A Rose" and "Adios." The former is a Neil Young tune that reached #63 here as the flip side of "Heat Wave;" the latter is a beautiful cut from "Cry Like A Rainstorm, Howl Like The Wind" featuring background vocals from Brian Wilson.

What's here manages to blend all of Ronstadt's biggest hits with some excellent lesser hits and album tracks. "Love Has No Pride" and "Just One Look" did not do as well on the charts as, for example, "Get Closer" or her version of "Tumbling Dice," but they are clearly the superior records.

Ronstadt has been both praised and vilified for her many remakes (almost all her Top Tens); on one hand she was the first to bring songwriters like Warren Zevon, Karla Bonoff, Kate and Anna McGarrigle to the masses. On the other hand, some of her remakes are thought to lack feeling. Dave Marsh, in the good version of the Rolling Stone Record Guide, called Ronstadt a "horrid interpreter of...rock and soul material, frequently missing the essence...and never cutting below the surface." Scathing, and possibly accurate regarding "Tumbling Dice" (probably why it's not included here) and "Back In The U.S.A." I would side with Linda, however, on the hypnotically-beautiful "Ooh Baby Baby" and the uptempo hits "When Will I Be Loved," "That'll Be The Day," and the #1 "You're No Good." Of course, the duets with Aaron Neville are stunning--welcome comebacks for both singers--and I have always liked both "Somewhere Out There" and James Ingram. Although the song, an omnipresent #2 pop radio staple in 1986, made most people I know very, very ill.

I hope that Warner/Elektra/Asylum(?) issues a "Best of Volume 2," as they did with Rod Stewart (here, anyway). I'd still like to see a compilation of the remaining hits, even "Tumbling Dice," on disc, as well as the Nelson Riddle I-am-too-mature-for-rock-and-so-what-if-I-gain-a-few-pounds era songs "What's New" and "I've Got A Crush On You," and the gorgeous "Heartbeats Accelerating" from "Winter Light." In addition to "Get Closer," other fine singles from Ronstadt wanting to be anthologized include "I Knew You When," "Someone To Lay Down Beside Me," "Easy For You To Say," "It Doesn't Matter Anymore," "Alison" (yep, the Elvis Costello song, from "Back in the U.S.A."), "Silver Threads and Golden Needles," and "I Can't Let Go." O.K., one more: the non-single duet with James Taylor, "I Think It's Gonna Work Out Fine" from "Get Closer."

Regardless, this is the best collection ever likely to be assembled on one CD. Even a fussy completist like me recommends it highly.

The Very Best Of Linda Ronstadt is, in my opinion, exactly that! I have been a fan of Ms Ronstadt's since the early 1970s, and the best songs of hers--the ones I had hoped would be on this album--are. It also includes some of her best "newer" songs, all of which display Ms Ronstadt's incredible vocal and emotional range. For those of us who heard these songs the first time around, the digital mastery of these recordings makes them sound as if we're hearing them again for the first time (probably with even better sound).

Ms Ronstadt fully deserves all the accolades she has received, as the listener to this album will agree. It is a must for any Linda Ronstadt fan, young or old.

This UK version of the compilation has a completely different running order to the USA version. Love is a rose and Adios have been dropped but four other songs have been included - After the goldrush, Love has no pride, How do I make you and Desperado. Whether these changes make the import price worthwhile is for you to decide. What follows is my review of the UK version of the album.

Linda Ronstadt began her career in the sixties and continued making great music into the new millennium. Perhaps there is more to come - who knows? However, this collection mostly focuses on her period of greatest commercial success - the seventies.

During the seventies, Linda established her reputation mainly with exquisite covers of classic pop songs such as When Will I Be Loved (Everly brothers), It's so easy, That'll Be The Day (both Buddy Holly), Back In The U.S.A. (Chuck Berry), Hurt so bad (Little Anthony'), Blue bayou (Roy Orbison), Ooh baby baby (Smokey Robinson), Desperado (Eagles) and Heat wave (Martha Reeves and the Vandellas), all of which are included here. She also had success with a cover of Poor poor pitiful me (Warren Zevon), though it is Linda who is normally associated with this song. Indeed, Warren Zevon owes his reputation to Linda, who recorded several of his songs.

A few songs from other periods are included. Different drum and Long long time represent her folk-country music of the sixties. Two duets with Aaron Neville and one with James Ingram represent the eighties. Winter light and After the goldrush represent the nineties. Linda's Great American Songbook recordings with Nelson Riddle, her Spanish music and her Trio work with Dolly and Emmylou are conspicuous by their absence. They are readily available elsewhere for those who want them.

If you want a single CD of Linda's pop and rock recordings, this (or the standard USA edition) is the one to go for. To do justice to her whole career would take a boxed set (and one is indeed available) but this will satisfy most people.