The “most beautiful” song Linda Ronstadt ever sang
Singers like Linda Ronstadt don’t have to be the greatest composer in the world to become a star.
Bob Dylan may have been able to make brilliant tunes and sing them perfectly in his time, but Ronstadt was the perfect sonic interpreter half the time, and getting music from everyone from JD Souther to Warren Zevon was the perfect way for her to showcase her voice. Even if all came down to how she sang, the occasional song almost seemed too perfect to be a traditional rock and roll tune.
But even in her prime, Ronstadt could make the best rock and roll songs sound like a ray of sunshine whenever she opened her mouth. The Everly Brothers had already made tunes like ‘When Will I Be Loved’ into masterpieces, but for a tune all about heartache, Ronstadt sounds like her heart is about to leap out of her chest when she’s singing the tune on Heart Like A Wheel.
That kind of vocal tone may have served her well when she reached outside her comfort zone, but it’s not like there wasn’t room for that kind of singing in rock and roll. All other female rockers may have zeroed in on what Janis Joplin had done a few years before, but if you listen to people like Stevie Nicks and Joni Mitchell, there was plenty of room for artists with a far prettier take on rock and roll than what everyone else was doing.
Then again, making pretty melodies was never exactly taboo in rock and roll, either. Led Zeppelin was already one of the biggest names in music by the time Ronstadt began, but even they had tunes like ‘Thank You’ and ‘The Rain Song’, and it’s not like anyone was going to forget the countless tunes that The Beatles created throughout the 1960s and into their solo careers.
By the standards of musical beauty, though, Brian Wilson is really a one-off in music history. Although it would take a true genius to come up with anything close to ‘California Girls’ or any of the deep cuts off of their later records, the fact that Wilson could think of the prettiest melodies and continue to have a conversation with someone as he was writing it made him look like a modern-day Beethoven writing tiny musical symphonies.
And while Ronstadt did have a fair chunk of classics at her disposal, she admitted that getting the opportunity to sing ‘Don’t Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder)’ was among the finest melodies that she ever got to perform, saying, “‘Don’t Talk’ is one of the most exquisite and beautifully constructed songs I’ve ever sung; the range and the melody came right out of the faerie bowers. In Ireland they say the faerie’s music was the most beautiful of all. ‘Don’t Talk’ is just such a beautiful melody and such a sophisticated song coming out of a young person, especially at a time when the culture didn’t support that approach to music particularly.”
But the reason why the song works is because it was so different from the other albums that were coming out at the time. Many artists weren’t brave enough to open themselves up in this way, but when Wilson showed his tender heart to the world, those that were willing to listen reminded him of what made music so beautiful in the first place.
Even though Ronstadt fit more into the country-rock side of music during her prime, a melody like this would have been too perfect for any singer of her calibre to ignore. There were many different avenues for her to go down, but beyond the California sunshine angle, the reason why Wilson’s melodies work so well is because they feel hopeful. The worst day in history could be unfolding, and yet Wilson was there to remind us all that everything would be okay.
