LINDA RONSTADT It's So Easy (Long Mix) HAPPY BIRTHDAY LINDA!

The one, the only Linda Ronstadt turns 76 today (July 15, 2022) and this clip and a couple to follow are to celebrate this most beloved American singer and performer. It has always been so easy to love Linda, and hence why I have chosen her 1977 recording 'It's So Easy' (one of my favourites of hers) to mark the occasion. The pop breakthrough of Linda Ronstadt perfectly timed with my discovery of music, so her songs and her wondrous voice and her beauty have accompanied the last 50 years (or thereabouts - yikes I feel old) for me and my life journey. You're No Good released in 1974 was just a cool and emphatic statement that Linda Ronstadt was an artist to be embraced and indeed she was. A string of critically acclaimed and best selling albums made her one of the most famous singers of the 1970's, and 'It's So Easy' was found on her most successful album 'Simple Dreams' which was among the very first full length vinyl records I owned. I spent hours pored over the sleeve and covers and had an almighty crush on the gorgeous and talented singer. As I grew up and appreciated music for more than just a catchy refrain or a memorable melody, I noticed just what an artist this lady was, not just a pop singer. Linda turned her hand to an incredibly diverse set of genres and music forms in her long career. After her folky beginnings with The Stone Poneys, Linda Ronstadt's early 70's tracks were more in the country lane, but after 1976, a more pop/rock fusion arose, whilst still dabbling in an array of music styles. As one music critic noted about 1977's 'Simple Dreams', Linda could tackle Mick Jagger and Dolly Parton, Buddy Holly and Warren Zevon as well as Roy Orbison. That is quite the lolly shop of songwriters. There simply aren't enough words or space to describe the place in music history that Linda Ronstadt fills, but her 11 Grammy awards, 24 studio albums, 38 charted singles, 100 million sales and many Lifetime Achievement Awards in a nutshell tell a story about the reverence that this brilliant vocalist has engendered. Her dazzling skill and courage to venture into music forms that contemporary record labels would have discouraged for any other artist made her a standout in an industry filled with wannabees and carbon copies. Linda Ronstadt has recorded new wave, pop, rock, country, standards, jazz, bluegrass, Mexican Folk, Opera...you name it, Linda has done it and done it with style and class. Linda Ronstadt's story is not just one of dizzying heights, sadly illness has forced her to retire from performing and recording, but her gargantuan discography and the huge outpouring of love for this woman all around the world keeps her name and her voice well and truly heard. The 2019 documentary Linda Ronstadt: The Sound Of My Voice, brilliantly chronicled and explored her career, but it was also quite the tear jerker as the final scenes are among the most moving and profound I have seen in a music doco. It is on youtube and worth a look if you are a fan or a keen musicologist as I know so many youtubers are. For now, a very Happy Birthday to perhaps the greatest female pop singer of the 20th Century. Linda Ronstadt is without peer, for her incredible voice, her impressive record sales, her artistry in exploring so many forms of music and for the pure gold that glistens when she sings. Long may your spirit shine, Linda and thank you for all the amazing music.