A Birthday Tribute from Doug Draper
Posted July 15th, 2025 on Niagara At Large
Linda Ronstadt on the cover of her first album with her group, at the time, The Stone Poneys
Back about three hundred years ago when I was in my mid-teens, I picked up a record album by a group called the Stone Poneys and saw a young woman with long dark hair and big brown eyes on the cover who got my heart racing about 300 beats a minute.
And OH what a beautiful voice she had too!
The young woman’s name was Linda Ronstadt and a song on that 1967 album – ‘Different Drum’’ – became an instant hit and launched her on a decades-long solo career that racked up many more hits, numerous albums that went gold or platinum, 11 Grammy Awards, induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the list of honours goes on and on.
The film poster for ‘Linda Ronstadt – The Sound Of My Own Voice’
A fantastic self-narrated film documentary of her life and career, called ‘Linda Ronstadt: The Sound Of My Voice’ was released in theatres in 2019, and if you haven’t seen it, it is well worth seeking out.
Thankfully, Linda Ronstadt, who turned 79 this July 15, is still with us despite a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease in 2013 that drew and an end to her singing professionally.
The other good news is that all of those recordings going back to the late 1960s are also still here for the listening and I would put them up against any almost any recordings being released by female singers today.
Here is just one of her songs, released in the early 1970s on an album called ‘Silk Purse’ and that had not one, but two successfully runs up the Billboard charts. The song is called ‘Long, Long Time’ and you can watch her in a live 1972 performance of it by clicking on the screen immediately below ––
Finally, here is Linda talking about her career in an interview she did not so long ago –
The cover of a great ‘Best Of” collection
Happy Birthday, Linda! I am going to celebrate it by playing one of your earlier, most critically acclaimed albums – ‘Heart Like a Wheel’.
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