The song Linda Ronstadt called the best ever made: “Perfect”
When it comes to Linda Ronstadt, there was no such thing as a perfect vocal take for her.
She was always insanely critical of her own singing, and even when she made some of her classics, there were always those few moments where she hoped she could have sung one of her tunes a little bit better than what ended up on the record. But if she was going to take on material that was more sophisticated than rock and roll, she was going to need to get herself into the best vocal shape that she could.
It was hard enough getting that kind of guttural shout when singing a tune like ‘You’re No Good’, but that’s not where Ronstadt felt the most comfortable most of the time. She liked the idea of singing beautiful ballads for as long as she could, and a lot of them came from singing songs that came from the pre-rock and roll era. This probably explains why she took so well to Broadway later down the line.
Her work on Pirates of Penzance was almost enough for her to walk away from rock and roll altogether, but even if she did have songwriters that she loved like Jackson Browne and newcomers at the time like Elvis Costello, nothing was going to compare with her working on some of the classics from the Great American Songbook. These were the tracks that she listened to as a kid, but it wasn’t going to be a walk in the park singing them.
Getting the chance to work with the same team behind some of Frank Sinatra’s best albums was one hell of a compliment, but it was also one that brought a lot of trepidation. No one just says that they are going to sing on the same level as ‘Ol’ Blue Eyes’ just because they feel like it, so when Ronstadt got the chance to see what Nelson Riddle had to offer her on some of her songs, she felt that it was best to start off with something that she knew from back to front.
Every single artist of Ronstadt’s generation had been familiar with Tin Pan Alley, and when looking through some of those first records, Ronstadt felt that ‘What’ll I Do’ would be a great way to break the ice. Irving Berlin was known for penning some of the finest American tunes ever made, but Ronstadt didn’t pick it because it was easy. She wanted a challenge, and she needed to be able to do the song justice.
Compared to everything else on the record, Ronstadt considered ‘What’ll I Do’ to be one of the best pieces of music that she had ever heard, saying, “I thought to myself, Nelson Riddle is coming to my house today, we’re going to sit down at the piano, and we’re going to work out an arrangement for ‘What’ll I Do?’ which I consider to be one of the exquisitely perfect songs ever written. And I’d never had a chance to sing it, and I was going to actually get to sing it that morning, that was going to be what I did that morning. And I’ve never had a better feeling waking up, ever, about anything that I’ve ever done, was the fact that Nelson was going to come over.”
That song may have been what kicked her into gear, but the entire standards record that she did was where she really showed her chops. ‘I’ve Got a Crush On You’ and ‘Someone to Watch Over Me’ are practically a part of musical culture these days, and so to hear these tunes with no problem was like watching her carve out a completely different lane for herself when she started singing.
But that’s the point of all great artists, isn’t it? No one’s supposed to feel stagnant the whole thing, and it’s more important for people like Ronstadt to make music that reflects how she’s feeling in the moment instead of relying on playing the same country rock tunes that she was known for. That was part of her past, and as far as she could tell, the future was a lot more exciting.
