The song Linda Ronstadt called one of the best pop vocals ever
Half of what made Linda Ronstadt a phenomenal singer was keeping her ears open to everything.
Whenever anyone closes themselves off from a specific genre of music, they’re going to be limiting their palette before they’ve even had the chance to make a decent record, but Ronstadt was unafraid from the moment she started singing in Los Angeles. She could have cared less whether her favourite genres weren’t the coolest thing in the world, because a great singer could practically sell anything to her if they had the right song to work with.
Even during the days of working with The Stone Ponys, Ronstadt knew how far a singer could go if they believed what they were singing. Aretha Franklin could practically wrap her voice around anything that was thrown at her, and while Bob Dylan might not be known for having the greatest set of pipes that anyone has ever worked with, there’s no one doubting whether he believes every single thing that he’s saying.
And that logic isn’t even limited to the world of classic rock, either. Ronstadt might not have been the first person that people thought of to go into the world of old standards from the Great American Songbook, but when listening to What’s New, the reason why it works so well is because you can hear the passion that she had for everything she was working on. The right attitude goes a long way, but her genius was more as an interpreter than a proper songwriter half the time.
She could still write the odd song when she wanted to, but her versions of songs like ‘When Will I Be Loved’ and especially Eagles’ ‘Desperado’ are some of the greatest covers anyone has ever done. The latter might not have done anything when Eagles first released, but Ronstadt’s take on the song feels a lot more real, almost sounding like it’s coming from a concerned lover watching her other half choose a life of a drifter.
But the music world wasn’t limited to the same singer-songwriter tunes that Ronstadt was known for. The MTV generation wasn’t exactly something that she seemed all that excited about when she entered the 1980s, but once the next decade began, she was taken aback by what Sinead O’Connor could do when she heard her version of Prince’s ‘Nothing Compares To You’.
Prince was already a musical genius before the decade had even ended, but Ronstadt felt that O’Connor’s take on the song was far beyond anything that she heard on the pop charts, saying, “I just don’t think there is anybody that can quite do what she does in that way that she does it. I haven’t listened to her albums that much. I think ‘Nothing Compares To You’ is one of the great pop vocals of all time, though. If I had to rate vocals in the second half of the century, Sinead’s would be one or two, I think. She’s just great.”
Granted, you have to give Prince a little bit of the credit for writing such an emotional vehicle for a singer, but O’Connor brought a certain vulnerability that he couldn’t. Say what you want about Prince’s version that ended up on The Originals later on, and his version is a lot more straightforward. It might have been a guide for when The Family ultimately recorded it, but O’Connor took the song and put as much raw pain into her voice as ‘The Purple One’ did when he made ‘Sometimes It Snows in April’.
And while Ronstadt had long since graduated to easy listening by the time O’Connor was becoming a star, the fact that she could spot a future classic shows you how much she kept her ears open. Anyone can practice their heart out trying to be the best singer they could possibly be, but there’s nothing that can replace a vocalist that is truly embodying every single word that they’re singing.
