How many albums has Linda Ronstadt sold?
People used to come from all over for a chance to be in LA’s Troubadour scene. Linda Ronstadt, Doug and Ronnie Dillard and others would sit in their own corner singing bluegrass, before the alcohol set in and made everything sound a whole lot better.
“The drunker everybody got, the nicer it sounded,” Ronstadt later quipped. “We got to know each other’s music that way.” At this point, Ronstadt was also observing bands that would become a part of her origin story, like Longbranch Pennywhistle, before JD Souther went on to do his own thing, leaving her orbiting ever closer to a new group that would go on to define the entire genre of country rock.
Even on the road with Glenn Frey and Don Henley, Ronstadt was realistic about it and knew it “wouldn’t last” – mostly because it wasn’t what she was looking for, either. She’d turned to Frey and told him he’d be something one day, but that joining her was a way to make ends meet in the meantime. All of it was on the foundation that they’d simply “have a great time”, which is a pretty extraordinary mindset to have, considering how precious and competitive most people who crossed the threshold of the Troubadour had become.
But this attitude is something Ronstadt has had since a young age. She’d always had an air of whatever happens, happens about her, even when she’d found herself stuck in the midst of wanting it so badly. But wanting it badly was never something obscured or misconstrued; instead always focused on how much she loved to be a singer, and wanted to be a singer, no matter what that actually meant – whether it was in cafés and pubs or on big stages.
How many records has Linda Ronstadt sold?
She carried this humility that appreciated situations for what they were without casting dark shadows over them because they’d one day be no more. She’d perform with people she liked and respected, but never felt protective or possessive over them because she was happy to have a spotlight among them. And this attitude is what ultimately made her so successful, even as someone who famously rarely wrote her own songs.
Across her entire career, Ronstadt has achieved album sales of over 50million, culminating in over 100m sales across albums and singles. Her best-selling album was her 1976 compilation Greatest Hits, released in the early stages of her success and giving her a significant level of prominence before she’d even had her “real” breakthrough. Before she felt she could even sing, which apparently came after 1980.
As Ronstadt concluded in a conversation with The Guardian: “When I listen to all my old stuff, I tend to be horrified. I feel as if I really started learning how to sing in around 1980. […] I don’t like any of [my albums], but there are moments on some records that I like.”
