Every Motown song Linda Ronstadt ever covered
Throughout her career, Linda Ronstadt became a beloved star largely due to her interpretations of other people’s songs, and while sometimes she would experience success with her own original material, it was largely with cover versions that she made her biggest impressions.
Sometimes, it wasn’t even well-known songs that she was choosing to cover, such as her biggest hit, ‘You’re No Good’, which was barely given any notice prior to her choosing to release her rendition, but on other occasions, she saw fit to deliver her take on massive songs from other genres.
One area that those who regularly perform and record cover versions love to venture into is the Motown vaults, and because the catalogue of hits is so vast and ripe to be revisited on any occasion, Ronstadt saw fit to dive into their archive and pick out a handful of songs to deliver her own versions of them. As someone who was a versatile vocalist who could adapt to a range of different styles, she always used to pick out tracks that best suited her strengths.
However, having recorded almost 300 different covers throughout her lengthy career, you’d think that her Motown covers discography would’ve been more extensive than it is, with the actual number only accounting for approximately 1% of her total cover version count. That being said, the three occasions she did choose to jump into a Motown hit, she did so with an unbelievable amount of panache and professionalism.
Famously, Ronstadt was one of many non-Motown artists who was brought onto the stage for the ‘Motown 25’ anniversary concert in 1983, which saw several acts from the label’s history celebrate a quarter-century of the Detroit institution. During a medley segment, she was brought out to do two songs alongside Motown legend Smokey Robinson, and while she was celebrated for this, these were not the only contributions she made to the Motown covers archive.
The two tracks of Robinson’s that she performed on the night alongside the singer were two that she had already contributed recorded covers of prior to the anniversary concert. Firstly, she released her interpretation of The Miracles’ ‘The Tracks of My Tears’ on her 1975 album, Prisoner in Disguise, which turned out to be a masterful version of the ballad that placed a handful of folk and country inflexions in place of where Robinson and co would have added more soul.
The other track, which was originally credited to Smokey Robinson and The Miracles, was ‘Ooh Baby Baby’, which Ronstadt first had a stab at in 1978 on her Living in the USA album. Here, she stays closer to the original version, keeping the backing vocals and instrumental in the same soulful vein as The Miracles did on their own track.
However, Ronstadt’s greatest dive into Motown classics comes courtesy of her version of Martha and The Vandellas’ ‘Heat Wave’, which also appeared on her Prisoner in Disguise album. Turning it into more of a boogie-woogie rock and roll track, Ronstadt captures the same ebullient energy that Martha Reeves delivered on the original version, and clearly demonstrates her affinity for the soulful style that Motown was always known and celebrated for.
It might seem unusual for an artist like her to dive into Motown classics on multiple occasions, but knowing how adept Ronstadt was at covering anyone’s material, it’s no surprise that she was able to do this trio of songs an unbelievable amount of justice, and that the artists themsevles respected her enough to invite her to be a part of the label’s anniversary celebrations.
