POLL So Bad: The Linda Ronstadt Greatest Hits Volume II Poll

Blue Bayou

It gives me chills every time.

was just listening to it!

Vols. I & II may have been the greatest $2 I ever spent on used records. (Or maybe not, but it's up there.)

The definitive update to the excellent John Rockwell essay in Stranded. My generation knows her as the dulcet chansonniere responsible for "Somewhere Out There" and two Aaron Neville duets.

gotta mull this over & listen a bit but "It's So Easy" is my early choice, for her sassy growl on the chorus.

thinkin' "hurt so bad"... both of these GHs are so fine

Always flummoxed me that xgau preferred her "Tumbling Dice" over the Stones'. She really cooks, esp. towards the end. But the original fitting perfectly in its context (climaxing side one of Exile) has always sounded more passionate and revelatory than Ronstadt leaping out of hers (the FM soundtrack...on record and in the terrible film).

yeah terrible film, but man what a soundtrack album.

Even if it is basically a billboard top hits of the 70s thing

Blue Bayou. One of the few to ever do even a passable Orbison cover.

^^ this. My intro to Orbison as a kid. For lots of kids, Ronstadt was the gateway drug to LOTS of artists.

i love linda's first 2-3 records, this stuff is super competent and all but doesn't really move me. blue bayou i guess.

linda during her barefoot phase was pretty much the cutest thing ever

i love linda's first 2-3 records, this stuff is super competent and all but doesn't really move me. blue bayou i guess.

If you mean Hand Sown... Home Grown and Silk Purse from 1969-1970 and then the self-titled one from 1972 with the Eagles doing the backing I'm completely with you on that. And some Stone Poneys material foreshadows that phase... the single "Up to My Neck in High Muddy Water," for example. The stuff on this poll is of a different quality... it's smoother. The "Tumbling Dice" lyrics are enunciated nicely - maybe that's what's so appealing about her version. I voted "How Do I Make You."

Never owned any Linda albums but I suspect that both volumes I and II would give me more pleasure than I would imagine. "Blue Bayou" will probably win and probably deserves it, but I'm going with "Hurt So Bad", which sounds to me like a great lost Dusty Springfield track. With the noisiest, screechiest lead guitar in a soft-rocker since Big Brother's "Summertime".

I like that "Stranded" essay too (only Rockwell thing I've ever read.)

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

i lOVE her version of "tumbling dice" - that's where my vote goes. "how do i make you" is a dandy rocker, too

love the cover, "just hanging out in my silk wrap, looking at myself in the mirror"

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

I find this convicing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRTplUpErRM

i LOVE when LR belts it out as she does on that one and Tumbling Dice.
Billy Steinberg lived down the street from me where i grew up (palm springs, ca). never met him but my friend that worked at the record shop said he's a good egg.
his family owned/owns date orchards in Thermal hence his band named Billy Thermal Group that had a tune ("i'm gonna follow you" that Benatar covered) on a nice, old L.A. comp titled sharp cuts (that also had the Alleycats and Suburban Lawns iirc)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTTUHqsbHJY

love that karla bonoff song.

Plenty of dudes grew up lusting after her in rollerskates, but the Berry cover is is bleh.