Ronstadt, << RAHN stat, >> Linda (1946-…), an American singer, became a superstar in the 1970’s. Ronstadt won a number of Grammy Awards during her career. In 2011, Ronstadt, who is of Mexican descent, also won a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Latin Recording Academy.
Linda Ronstadt was born on July 15, 1946, in Tucson, Arizona. She began singing as a child. When Ronstadt was 14, she began performing locally with her older brother and sister in a folk trio. In 1965, Ronstadt moved to Los Angeles and formed a folk-rock trio called the Stone Poneys. Their 1967 recording of “Different Drum” became a hit.
In 1969, Ronstadt’s first solo album, Hand Sown…Home Grown, was released. Her second album, Silk Purse (1970), produced her first solo hit, “Long Long Time.” Ronstadt’s album Heart Like a Wheel, released in 1974, reached number one and made her a star. She had hits with her recordings of “It Doesn’t Matter Anymore,” “When Will I Be Loved,” and “You’re No Good.” She also won her first Grammy Award, for best female country vocal performance, for her version of “I Can’t Help It (If I’m Still In Love With You)” from that album. Simple Dreams (1977) became Ronstadt’s most successful album. It featured her versions of “Blue Bayou,” “Tumbling Dice,” and “Poor Poor Pitiful Me.”
From 1981 to 1982, Ronstadt starred in a Broadway revival of the comic opera The Pirates of Penzance. She also starred in a motion-picture version in 1983. Ronstadt released three successful collections of pop standards, beginning with What’s New in 1983. In 1987 and 1999, Ronstadt recorded two successful albums with the American country music singers Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris. Ronstadt also recorded successful Spanish-language albums in 1987, 1991, and 1992.
Ronstadt’s other hits include her versions of “Love Is a Rose,” “Heat Wave,” and “The Tracks of My Tears” (all 1975); “That’ll Be the Day” (1976); “It’s So Easy” (1977); “Alison,” “Just One Look,” and “Ooo Baby Baby” (all 1978); and “Hurt So Bad” (1980). She also had hit duets with the American singer James Ingram with “Somewhere Out There” from the animated feature An American Tail (1986) and “Don’t Know Much” (1989) with the American singer Aaron Neville.
Ronstadt retired in 2009. In 2013, she announced that she had been diagnosed with Parkinson disease , an illness that destroys cells in brain regions involved in movement. The disease left her unable to sing. That year, she published a memoir, Simple Dreams. Ronstadt was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014.
