At one point, Linda Ronstadt made the declaration that she would never again sing rock and roll. She proved it by creating some of the most insipid (albeit profitable) pop blather to ever been committed to vinyl (with Aaron Neville as her co-conspirator).

My theory has long been that once she couldn’t make the Cub Scout uniform work for her, she decided she’d had enough rock and roll. Satin disco jackets, roller skates and meit badges notwithstanding, the seventies Ronstadt is the only Ronstadt for me.

Written by Phil Everly and recorded by the Everly Brothers in 1960 (and backed with Be Bop A Lula), Linda’s version of When Will I Be Loved arrived on her Heart Like A Wheel record. With the help of a virtual who’s-who in SoCal rock (Peter Asher, Andrew Gold, the Eagles and on and on), the record went double platinum for Asylum. She covered Lowell George and Buddy Holly, too, but it was the plaintive wail of desire of this song that stood out.

A year after Warren Zevon put it on his first album, Linda did her version of Poor, Poor Pitiful Me, complete with a change in gender and electronic SynDrums courtesy of Andrew Gold (and maybe the satin disco jacket?).

The last decent album to come from Linda was her 1980 stab at new wave, Mad Love, which took on, among other things, a trio of tunes by Elvis Costello. But, the standout was her version of the Little Anthony hit, Hurts So Bad, equalling L.A. for pure sex appeal, whispering “I know you/Don’t know what I’m going through,” still enough to make a man’s heart stop.

These are the three best songs by Linda Ronstadt:

Linda Ronstadt – When Will I Be Loved
Linda Ronstadt – Poor Poor Pitiful Me
Linda Ronstadt – Hurts So Bad