Linda Ronstadt

Linda Ronstadt's career has spanned five decades and a dizzying array of stylistic shifts. She kicked it into overdrive in the '70s, becoming rock's first female to achieve full-fledged superstardom. How'd it all happen? With time-tested hits like these. It takes a big voice to tackle Roy Orbison, but his longing "Blue Bayou" gained a new lease on life when poured through Ronstadt's knockout pipes. Rough-edged renegade Warren Zevon's "Poor, Poor Pitiful Me" made a sneak attack on the pop charts courtesy of her sexy, sassy version. Meanwhile, the Everly Brothers and the Me Generation proved a match made in heaven when rock's First Lady scored a blockbuster hit with her amped-up take on "When Will I Be Loved?"

The queen of pop was a country gal, too — find out more in Next Steps.

Linda Ronstadt wasn't born a pop phenomenon — she emerged from the legendary Laurel Canyon folk/country-rock scene (her backup band went on to become the Eagles), and she always honored her country roots, even after becoming rock radio's darling, with albums and singles doing double duty on the pop and country charts. In Ronstadt's reading, the honky-tonk heartbreak of Hank Williams' "I Can't Help It (If I'm Still In Love With You)" feels like a whole new case of high-lonesome blues. She turns one of Ray Price's signature songs, "Crazy Arms," from a whiskey-soaked barroom shuffle into a full-blown tearjerker, squeezing out every drop of sorrow. Of course, Ronstadt reached back to roots of an older, deeper kind by celebrating her Mexican heritage, reliving her mariachi memories of childhood with "The Laurels" and "For a Love."

Hear Linda pick partners to play musical chairs, in Deep Cuts.

The mind-reeling range of Linda Ronstadt's gifts showed itself in her seamless string of partnerships with artists from all musical corners. In the '80s, she had what amounted to a whole new career with a series of standards albums, putting her own sultry swing into Great American Songbook staples like "When I Fall In Love" with help from Sinatra's right-hand man Nelson Riddle. Over the years, the restless Ronstadt did some memorable moonlighting as one-third of a titanic trio with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris, delivering heavenly harmonies on chill-inducing ballads like "High Sierra." Our tireless traveler found her feet in New Orleans, too — "Adieu False Heart" is the blues-flecked, bayou-approved title track of her duet album with Cajun crooner Ann Savoy.

Linda Ronstadt's been doing it her way for five decades. She first emerged as a folk-rock ingenue with the Stone Poneys, hitting big in '67 with Monkee Mike Nesmith's "Different Drum." By the '70s, she was the sound of pop radio, taking Buddy Holly and Martha Reeves & The Vandellas into the Top 40 in the days of satin jackets and designer jeans. Over the years, she transcended her early sex-symbol status by becoming the consummate American singer, proving herself a crack shot at country, rock, jazz, pop . . . heck, she even tackled Gilbert & Sullivan on Broadway. From her barefoot-country-gal beginnings, through her reign as L.A. rock royalty, to her sleek, sophisticated torch-singer turn and beyond, here's the ultimate aural document of Linda Ronstadt's tall, multi-tiered tower of song.