# Too Good for Pop: Does Anybody Top Linda Ronstadt?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-good-for-pop-does-anybody-top-linda-ronstadt/514396
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [October 19, 2009, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-good-for-pop-does-anybody-top-linda-ronstadt/514396 "2009-10-19T21:58:41Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@11811](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/11811)
#### Post date: [October 19, 2009, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-good-for-pop-does-anybody-top-linda-ronstadt/514396/1 "2009-10-19T21:58:41Z")
Dopers:
Can you think of any musician with a reasonable amount of popular success who has turned their back on and turned their nose up at their past as thoroughly as Linda Ronstadt?
The last interview with her that I read gave me the impression she wanted to disown the country/pop stylings that gave her all her hits.
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### Author:  [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)
#### Post date: [October 19, 2009, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-good-for-pop-does-anybody-top-linda-ronstadt/514396/2 "2009-10-19T22:20:40Z")
There are a number of artists who look down upon their earlier work on grounds they were the product of a callow, undeveloped, immature, and overweeningly pretentious mindset. I know, for example, Paul Simon has said about some of his early hit songs and I’m sure there are others.
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### Author:  [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)
#### Post date: [October 20, 2009, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-good-for-pop-does-anybody-top-linda-ronstadt/514396/3 "2009-10-20T01:35:58Z")
Linda Ronstadt has nothing on Yusuf (Cat Stevens) Islam.
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### Author:  [@Savannah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Savannah)
#### Post date: [October 20, 2009, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-good-for-pop-does-anybody-top-linda-ronstadt/514396/4 "2009-10-20T03:11:59Z")
**Too Good for Pop: Does Anybody Top Linda Ronstadt?**
I thought this would be a thread in praise of Ms. Ronstadt’s vocal career. I guess not.
If I re-read some of the stuff I wrote when I was first beginning to write, and it is so bad that I feel queasy and ashamed. Maybe it’s natural as one developes and changes, to scorn the first fumbling steps.
Maybe Linda Ronstadt doesn’t care for her early stuff, but I still love it. Right back to the Stone Poneys stuff and the very first solo records, along with still being fond of pretty much everything she’s done up to today.
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### Author:  [@Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellis_Aponte_Jr)
#### Post date: [October 20, 2009, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-good-for-pop-does-anybody-top-linda-ronstadt/514396/5 "2009-10-20T15:32:00Z")
**Scott Walker** went from singing Righteous Brothers-type pop with teenager appeal in the 1960s to making abrasive avant-garde music in the 1990s.
Anyway, I don’t see the Linda Ronstadt transition as all that radical. She’s still singing popular music - standards and Mexican rancheras, I’m assuming - just in different styles. When it comes to singing the old hits, I’m sure boredom sets in after 30 years or so. I recently saw an Aretha Franklin concert where she only sang about two of her many hits of the '60s/'70s that people would’ve recognized.
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### Author:  [@Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellis_Aponte_Jr)
#### Post date: [October 20, 2009, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-good-for-pop-does-anybody-top-linda-ronstadt/514396/6 "2009-10-20T15:43:59Z")
**Rosemary Clooney** did a similar thing & gave up singing songs like “Come On-a My House” in favor of more of a jazz singer’s repertoire.
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### Author:  [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)
#### Post date: [October 20, 2009, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-good-for-pop-does-anybody-top-linda-ronstadt/514396/7 "2009-10-20T16:04:21Z")
> [@NDP](#):
>
> I know, for example, Paul Simon has said about some of his early hit songs…
The ones he recorded with whatshisname, I’ll bet. 😛
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### Author:  [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)
#### Post date: [October 20, 2009, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-good-for-pop-does-anybody-top-linda-ronstadt/514396/8 "2009-10-20T16:38:15Z")
As I go through my record collection burning them to CDs I just finished a Stone Poneys album and a Linda Ronstadt album and then I see this thread.
Anyway, didn’t John Lennon at one point say that he hated everything he did with the Beatles?
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### Author:  [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)
#### Post date: [October 20, 2009, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-good-for-pop-does-anybody-top-linda-ronstadt/514396/9 "2009-10-20T16:46:29Z")
I just melt when I listen to her sing **What’s New**.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [October 20, 2009, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/too-good-for-pop-does-anybody-top-linda-ronstadt/514396/10 "2009-10-20T17:21:25Z")
Michelle Branch had a pretty solid career as a pop singer when she decided to join up with Jessica Harp and switch to country music.