# How many of Linda Ronstadt hits are not covers? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 15, 2006, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-linda-ronstadt-hits-are-not-covers/348508 "2006-03-15T20:01:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-linda-ronstadt-hits-are-not-covers/348508/21 "2006-03-16T13:41:51Z")
> [@jasonh300](#): > > (Anyone know what song Gloria Jones recorded in 1964?) Yep - “Tainted Love.” And it’s a _great_ soul record, not an insipid piece of white person pop trash played by people with one-finger keyboard skills. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-linda-ronstadt-hits-are-not-covers/348508/22 "2006-03-16T13:46:04Z")
> [@ouryL](#): > > You mean besides Mike Nesmith’s version :wally Nesmith didn’t record the song until after Ronstadt did: the Stone Ponies version was released in 1967; Nesmith’s in 1972. I’m guessing he wrote it for the Monkees, but it wasn’t considered commercial enough. However, it appears the Greenbriar Boys’ version came before Ronstadt’s; they weren’t listed in the All-Music Guide as performing the song, so I missed it. The idea of performers being required to write their own songs really didn’t begin until the late 50s. Elvis, for instance, had an entire career of songs by other people (I don’t think he wrote any of his own songs, though he does have songwriting credit on some of them – but it wasn’t unusual in those days for a big star to demand songwriting credit in return for recording the song). As rock came it, the idea that you only performed your own songs caught on, and once the Beatles hit it big, it was expected that performers wrote nearly all of the songs they performed. About the only people to become rock stars doing covers are Ronstadt and Joe Cocker, and, to a smaller degree Rod Stewart and Janis Joplin (though the latter two also wrote for themselves). The pendulum seems to be swinging back. Britney Spears and Clay Aiken (and most other _American Idol_ stars) show that people don’t care about who wrote the song (or, for that matter, who sung it). ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-linda-ronstadt-hits-are-not-covers/348508/23 "2006-03-16T14:38:32Z")
> [@jasonh300](#): > > “Get Together” by the Youngbloods, “Aquarius” which was from the musical “Hair” and then recorded by The Fifth Dimension, “Good Morning Starshine” by Oliver You could get into a book-length tangent based on those first three words, especially if you included the story of Dino Valenti’s other most famous composition, “Hey Joe.” “Good Morning Starshine” is, of course, also originally a song from “Hair.” ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-linda-ronstadt-hits-are-not-covers/348508/24 "2006-03-16T14:43:01Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > About the only people to become rock stars doing covers are Ronstadt and Joe Cocker, and, to a smaller degree Rod Stewart and Janis Joplin (though the latter two also wrote for themselves). Joe Cocker also wrote a few of his own hits (with Chris Stainton): “Black-Eyed Blues,” “High Time We Went” and “Woman to Woman” are all Cocker/Stainton tunes. ---
**Author:** ![PoorYorick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PoorYorick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorYorick)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-linda-ronstadt-hits-are-not-covers/348508/25 "2006-03-16T17:03:19Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > _Long Long Time_ (#25 in 1970) And that’s why I fell in love with her when I was 13. I’d totally forgotten that song. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-linda-ronstadt-hits-are-not-covers/348508/26 "2006-03-16T17:05:15Z")
> [@PoorYorick](#): > > And that’s why I fell in love with her when I was 13. When you heard the song or when you saw the album cover? ---
**Author:** ![PoorYorick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PoorYorick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorYorick)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-linda-ronstadt-hits-are-not-covers/348508/27 "2006-03-16T17:25:21Z")
> [@Biffy the Elephant Shrew](#): > > When you heard the song or when you saw the album cover? Yes 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Shayna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shayna/32/17976_2.png) [@Shayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shayna)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-linda-ronstadt-hits-are-not-covers/348508/28 "2006-03-16T20:09:38Z")
> [@Little Nemo](#): > > > [@Shayna](#): > > > > It’s an interesting observation about [her], though, that I hadn’t ever thought about before. Can you imagine a newcomer to today’s music scene rising to that kind of popularity pretty much only doing covers? > > Kelly Clarkson? I know she’s listed as co-writer on some of her songs, but all of her major hits have been written by other people. Not the same thing. To “cover” a song means to record a song that someone else has previously _recorded_, not just to sing something written by someone else. Since I don’t know anything about Clarkson’s music, I’ll use another American Idol alum as an example; Clay Aiken. Every song on his CD, “Measure of a Man”, was written by someone other than Clay Aiken, as he’s not a songwriter. However, not a single one was previously recorded by any other artist, so they are all “original” to Clay Aiken. If another artist records any of those songs, then they’d be considered “covers” of Clay Aiken’s songs. > [@elfkin477](#): > > > [@Shayna](#): > > > > Also, “I Knew You When” was not original to Ronstadt, either. It was originally recorded by Billy Joe Royal in 1965 on his “Down in the Boondocks” album. [Cite](http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE47E17DC49A97220C7932B43C0A67FA458FE4AED81106E495AD1A930499F0563F240A6C6CCB4E577B479A9B329AE5B06D9CAEF469CA1&sql=17:702242~T00C). > > Acording to Wendell Wagner’s cite, Royal is the one who did the cover. Sorry, but Wendell Wagner’s cite is wrong. If you pay close attention you’ll see that they list Billy Joe Royal’s “20 Greatest Hits” album, which came out in 1988, as the “cover” one, ignoring the fact that it previously appeared on his “Down in the Boondocks” album, released in 1965, which is how it _became_ one of his 20 greatest hits, and which preceeded Ronstadt’s recording by 17 years (her version on “Closer” came out in 1982). There are several errors on that site, and I have emailed the administrator the corrections. ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-linda-ronstadt-hits-are-not-covers/348508/29 "2006-03-16T21:14:03Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > Acording to Wendell Wagner’s cite, Royal is the one who did the cover. > > Several years ago I noticed the same thing that jasonh300 did and interrogated my father about the subject before doing some research of my own. There were tons of songs done back in the 60s that were recorded by everyone and his brother - and it seems as though some versions were released at nearly the same time, too. > > I have trouble imagining that happening now, although the Postal Service and Iron & Wine came pretty close with “Such Great Heights.” However, that’s probably only because the Postal Service version took a while to catch on despite the year and a half between the albums the song was released on. Doing covers was the norm back in the early sixties. ---
**Author:** ![YaWanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/bbce88/32.png) [@YaWanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YaWanna)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-linda-ronstadt-hits-are-not-covers/348508/30 "2006-03-16T21:26:22Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Nesmith didn’t record the song until after Ronstadt did: the Stone Ponies version was released in 1967; Nesmith’s in 1972. I’m guessing he wrote it for the Monkees, but it wasn’t considered commercial enough. But there is film of him _performing_ the song (or an early version of it) which was used as a short clip on the “Monkees” television program. I don’t know the date of the original airing of the episode, but I imagine it may have beat the Stone Ponies recording’s release by a little bit. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-linda-ronstadt-hits-are-not-covers/348508/31 "2006-03-16T22:49:10Z")
As with nearly everything else worth talking about, **The Master** has addressed this, too. Notice the artists and titles mentioned in [this snippet of his wisdom](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_324b.html). > [@](#): > > The composer’s one inalienable right is to decide who will record his song first. Bob Dylan pulled this one in the notorious case of “Mr. Tambourine Man”: the song was originally set to be issued in a version that Dylan had recorded live at a folk festival, but Dylan wasn’t happy with the results. Unfortunately, his contract with Columbia didn’t give him the right to decide on what material the company released, so Bob didn’t seem to have much of a choice. But then, the Poet of Our Generation remembered his first issue rights and denied a mechanical license to his own record company. The album was killed. > > Meanwhile, the Brothers Four, a once beloved folk group that had fallen on hard times, had recorded a highly commercial cover version of the song–a guaranteed comeback. But when Dylan’s anticipated first version failed to appear, the group was caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place, unable to release their dynamite single. It sat in the vaults until Dylan issued his approved version some months later–but in the meantime, the Byrds had recorded their cover version, and that was the one that went to the Top of the Pops. Such are the vagaries of fortune. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-of-linda-ronstadt-hits-are-not-covers/348508.md?page=1)