As a straightforward welding together of two previously available big-selling best ofs onto a single disc, there’s little here to excite longtime fans who’ll already have the material, nor attract latecomers more enamoured with the adventurousness of Ronstadt’s recent work. She may have been lumped in with the singersongwriter scene of 70s LA (Jackson Browne, Eagles, Tom Waits, Warren Zevon), but it was sparkling retreads of other people’s songs that brought her a slew of platinum discs.
A competent, if not especially inspired, interpreter, Ronstadt scaled the US charts by covering the greats, be it Smokey Robinson (twice), Buddy Holly (thrice!), Orbison, the Everlys and Chuck Berry. At times she may come across as an ultra-classy American Idol contestant, but there’s no denying the purity and passion of the voice. She made Mike Nesmith’s Different Drum her own, gave Warren Zevon’s career a legup with her version of Poor Poor Pitiful Me, and even her carbon copy of the Stones’ Tumbling Dice has its merits.
Today she’s more inclined towards rural folk releases and the occasional Spanish language album, but it was arguably these early moneyspinners which afforded her the luxury to take the risks that have marked out the latter part of her career.
