Timmy Thomas (born Timothy E. Thomas in Evansville, Indiana, on 13 November 1944; died 11 March 2022) was an American R&B singer, keyboardist, songwriter, and record producer, best known for the hit anti-war song, "Why Can't We Live Together?" (the song subsequently being widely covered and sampled by artists including Canadian rapper Drake. Thomas first attracted interest for his work as an accompanist with Donald Byrd and Cannonball Adderley, before working as a session musician in Memphis, Tennessee, and releasing singles on the Goldwax Records label. He had little solo success until he moved to Glades Records in Miami, Florida, and in late 1972 he released "Why Can't We Live Together". This was a memorable and heartfelt message song distinguished by its soulful organ, stripped-down production with a simple drum machine, and impassioned vocals.The record topped the Billboard R&B chart, made the top three in the Billboard Hot 100, and Top Ten in many other countries including the UK.This disc sold over two mllion copies.Both the hit single and the LP including the 1972 hit are extremely rare and considered very collectible. The follow-up "People Are Changin'" made the charts the next year, and he continued to issue singles. The perception of him as a one-hit wonder is belied by his continued success in the R&B chart, where he had several further hits through to 1984. He also continued to work on sessions for TK Records artists, including Gwen McCrae , and in later years as a producer. Thomas appeared on Nicole McCloud's 1985 album "What about me", singing a duet with her called "New York Eyes", and on Joss Stone's The Soul Sessions album. His song "(Dying Inside) To Hold You" was a massive hit in the Philippines, and gained further popularity in 2017 when it was covered by Darren Espanto for the film All of You. In 2015, Canadian rapper Drake sampled Thomas' signature hit, "Why Can't We Live Together", on his single "Hotline Bling". Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

The Cars is a popular American new wave/power pop band that formed in 1976, after going through several different incarnations. The band was founded in Boston, Massachusetts and were signed to Elektra Records in 1977. The band originally consisted of David Robinson (drummer), Benjamin Orr (singer/bassist), Ric Ocasek (singer/rhythm guitarist), Elliot Easton (lead guitarist), Greg Hawkes (keyboardist). During their career, they have released seven albums: The Cars (1978), Candy-O (1979), Panorama (1980), Shake It Up (1981), Heartbeat City (1984), Door to Door (1987) and Move Like This (2011). The first five of these albums all were certified platinum by the RIAA, and their self-titled debut was one of the best-selling albums of the 1970s, remaining on the Billboard album charts for over a year. They experienced a second wave of popularity in 1984 with the album Heartbeat City and the popular MTV staples"You Might Think," "Magic," and "Drive," the last of which was their highest-charting single, peaking at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100. In 1985, the group released a greatest hits album, which contained "Tonight She Comes", a mega-hit that reached #1 on the Billboard 'Top Rock Tracks'. However, after that peak, they vanished from the public eye and worked on solo projects, and released one final album, Door to Door, before breaking up in early 1988. Benjamin Orr died of pancreatic cancer in October 2000. Guitarist Elliot Easton played in a surf music group and joined a touring act called Creedence Clearwater Revisted with ex-members of Creedence Clearwater Revival. Lead vocalist Ric Ocasek married supermodel Paulina Porizkova not long after The Cars' breakup and has since become a prolific producer, working on albums by such diverse artists as Bad Brains,Weezer, Guided by Voices and No Doubt. He has also released a number of solo albums, including 2005's Nexterday. Greg Hawkes and Elliot Easton have recently teamed up with Todd Rundgren and his rhythm section as The New Cars; they have released a live album and are currently touring. Ocasek gave the band his support but otherwise is not involved. The remaining members reunited in 2010 to record a new album, titled Move Like This, which was released on May 10, 2011. The first single from the album was Sad Song. It was released to radio on March 1, 2011. (Source Songfacts)

Aretha Louise Franklin (born March 25, 1942 – August 16, 2018) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist.[2] Referred to as the "Queen of Soul", she has twice been placed ninth in Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". With global sales of over 75 million records, Franklin is one of the world's best-selling music artists.[3] As a child, Franklin was noticed for her gospel singing at New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan, where her father C. L. Franklin was a minister. At the age of 18, she was signed as a recording artist for Columbia Records. While her career did not immediately flourish, Franklin found acclaim and commercial success once she signed with Atlantic Records in 1966. Hit songs such as "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)", "Respect", "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman", "Chain of Fools", "Think", and "I Say a Little Prayer", propelled Franklin past her musical peers.

Gordon Meredith Lightfoot Jr. CC OOnt (born November 17, 1938) is a Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist who achieved international success in folk, folk-rock, and country music. He is credited with helping to define the folk-pop sound of the 1960s and 1970s. He is often referred to as Canada's greatest songwriter and is known internationally as a folk-rock legend. Lightfoot's songs, including "For Lovin' Me", "Early Morning Rain", "Steel Rail Blues", "Ribbon of Darkness"—a number one hit on the U.S. country chart with Marty Robbins's cover in 1965—and "Black Day in July," about the 1967 Detroit riot, brought him wide recognition in the 1960s. Canadian chart success with his own recordings began in 1962 with the No. 3 hit "(Remember Me) I'm the One", followed by recognition and charting abroad in the 1970s. He topped the US Hot 100 or AC chart with the hits "If You Could Read My Mind" (1970), "Sundown" (1974); "Carefree Highway" (1974), "Rainy Day People" (1975), and "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" (1976), and had many other hits that appeared in the top 40. Several of Lightfoot's albums achieved gold and multi-platinum status internationally. His songs have been recorded by renowned artists such as Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Hank Williams Jr., The Kingston Trio, Jerry Lee Lewis, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, Barbra Streisand, Johnny Mathis, Herb Alpert, Harry Belafonte, Sarah McLachlan, Eric Clapton, John Mellencamp, Peter, Paul and Mary, Glen Campbell, The Grateful Dead, Nico, and Olivia Newton-John. Robbie Robertson of the Band described Lightfoot as "a national treasure". Bob Dylan, also a Lightfoot fan, called him one of his favorite songwriters and, in an often-quoted tribute, Dylan observed that when he heard a Lightfoot song he wished "it would last forever". Lightfoot was a featured musical performer at the opening ceremonies of the 1988 Winter Olympic Games in Calgary, Alberta. He received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Trent University in Spring 1979 and was made a Companion of the Order of Canada in May 2003. In November 1997, the Governor General's Performing Arts Award, Canada's highest honour in the performing arts, was bestowed on Lightfoot. On February 6, 2012, Lightfoot was presented with the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal by the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario. June of that year saw his induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. On June 6, 2015, Lightfoot received an honorary doctorate of music in his hometown of Orillia from Lakehead University. As an individual, apart from various awards associated with his albums and singles, Gordon Lightfoot has received sixteen Juno Awards—for top folk singer in 1965, 1966, 1968, 1969,[67] 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976 and 1977, for top male vocalist in 1967, 1970, 1971, 1972 and 1973, and as composer of the year in 1972 and 1976. He has received ASCAP awards for songwriting in 1971, 1974, 1976, and 1977, and has been nominated for five Grammy Awards. In 1974 Lightfoot's song "Sundown" was named pop record of the year by the Music Operators of America. In 1980 he was named Canadian male recording artist of the decade, for his work in the 1970s. Lightfoot was chosen as the celebrity captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs for the NHL's 75th anniversary season in 1991–1992. Lightfoot was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1986 and the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame in 2001. He was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame in 1998. In May 2003 he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada, the country's highest civilian honour. Lightfoot is a member of the Order of Ontario, the highest honour in the province of Ontario. In 1977, he received the Vanier Award from the Canadian Jaycees. In 2007 Canada Post honoured Lightfoot and three other Canadian music artists (Anne Murray, Paul Anka, and Joni Mitchell) with postage stamps highlighting their names and images. On June 24, 2012, Lightfoot was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in a New York City ceremony, along with Bob Seger. Between 1986 and 1988, Lightfoot's friend Ken Danby (1940–2007), the realist painter, worked on a large (60 × 48 inches) portrait of Lightfoot dressed in the white suit he wore on the cover of the album East of Midnight. The picture was backlit by the sun, creating a visually iconic image of the singer. On June 16, 2014, Lightfoot was awarded the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award by SOCAN at the 2014 SOCAN Awards in Toronto. On October 23, 2015, Lightfoot was honoured with a 4-metre tall bronze sculpture in his hometown of Orillia, Ontario. The sculpture, called Golden Leaves—A Tribute to Gordon Lightfoot, features Lightfoot sitting cross-legged, playing an acoustic guitar underneath an arch of golden maple leaves. Many of the leaves depict scenes from Lightfoot's 1975 greatest hits album, Gord's Gold. In 2017, he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society He was the subject of Martha Kehoe and Joan Tosoni's 2019 documentary film Gordon Lightfoot: If You Could Read My Mind. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE (born 30 March 1945), is an English rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and of Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and influential guitarists of all time. Clapton ranked second in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and fourth in Gibson's "Top 50 Guitarists of All Time". He was also named number five in Time magazine's list of "The 10 Best Electric Guitar Players" in 2009. In the mid-1960s Clapton left the Yardbirds to play with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers. Immediately after leaving Mayall, Clapton formed the power trio Cream with drummer Ginger Baker and bassist Jack Bruce, in which Clapton played sustained blues improvisations and "arty, blues-based psychedelic pop". After Cream broke up, he formed blues rock band Blind Faith with Baker, Steve Winwood, and Ric Grech. Clapton's solo career began in the 1970s, where his work bore the influence of the mellow style of J. J. Cale and the reggae of Bob Marley. His version of Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff" helped reggae reach a mass market. Two of his most popular recordings were "Layla", recorded with Derek and the Dominos; and Robert Johnson's "Crossroads", recorded with Cream. Following the death of his son Conor in 1991, Clapton's grief was expressed in the song "Tears in Heaven", which was featured on his Unplugged album. Clapton has been the recipient of 18 Grammy Awards, and the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. In 2004 he was awarded a CBE at Buckingham Palace for services to music. He has received four Ivor Novello Awards from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors, including the Lifetime Achievement Award. In his solo career, Clapton has sold more than 100 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling musicians of all time. In 1998, Clapton, a recovering alcoholic and drug addict, founded the Crossroads Centre on Antigua, a medical facility for recovering substance abusers. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

Diane Ernestine Earle Ross (born March 26, 1944), better known as Diana Ross, is an American soul, R&B and pop singer and actress born in Detroit, Michigan. Ross is one of the most successful female artists of her era, both due to her solo work and her role as lead singer of The Supremes during the 1960s. In 1959, Ross was brought to the attention of Milton Jenkins, the manager of the local doo-wop group The Primes, by Mary Wilson. Primes member Paul Williams convinced Jenkins to enlist Ross in the sister group The Primettes, which included Wilson, Florence Ballard and Betty McGlown. In 1976, Billboard magazine named her the female entertainer of the century. In 1993, The Guinness Book Of World Records listed her as the most successful female artist ever (the title is now attributed to Madonna), partly due to her combined total of eighteen number-one singles, six of them recorded solo and the remaining dozen from her work with the Supremes. Ross was also one of the few pop singers to find modest success in the acting world winning an Academy Award nomination for her role as Billie Holiday in the 1972 film, "Lady Sings the Blues" as well as having hits with other film roles such as "Mahogany", "Out of Darkness" and "Double Platinum", not to mention her role in "The Wiz". Ross has been awarded many lifetime achievement accolades from many organizations and media outlets: she has been featured on BET, Soul Train, and awarded multiple times at the NAACP Image Awards, the Kennedy Center Honors in 2007 and given the Grammy Lifetime Achievement in 2011. Ross' professional vocal collaborators have included the following during her career: Marvin Gaye, Lionel Richie, Rod Stewart, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Julio Iglesias, Jose Carreras, Placido Domingo, and Smokey Robinson, among many others. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

Paul Davis (April 21, 1948 – April 22, 2008) was an American singer, best known for his radio hits and solo career which started worldwide in 1970. His career encompassed soul, country and pop music, and he wrote many memorable country music hits. Davis was a member of a local group called the "Six Soul Survivors" around 1966 and later in another group called the "Endless Chain." In 1968 he was a writer for Malaco Records, based at Jackson, MS. Ilene Berns, widow of Bert Berns, signed Davis to Bang Records in 1969, and in 1970, released a cover of The Jarmels' hit song "A Little Bit of Soap", reaching #52 on the Billboard pop charts. His first album, A Little Bit of Paul Davis, was released in 1970. In 1974 he recorded his third album, Ride 'Em Cowboy, which garnered a Top 40 for the title track. The same song also became a Top-40 country hit for Juice Newton in 1984. Davis had his first American Top 10 single with the slow ballad "I Go Crazy," which peaked at #7 in 1978. "I Go Crazy" spent 40 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, which at the time set the single-song record for most consecutive weeks on the chart in the rock era. The follow-up, "Sweet Life", did moderately well, peaking at #17. The corresponding album Singer of Songs - Teller of Tales was a modest success, peaking at #82 on the Billboard pop album chart. He was the last artist active on the Bang Records label when it folded in 1981. After one more album, in 1981 he signed with Arista Records and had two more Top 20 singles, "Cool Night" (which rose to #11) and "'65 Love Affair" (which rose to #6). Davis retired from making records, except for two duet singles that went to #1 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles charts. The first was in 1986 with Marie Osmond on "You're Still New To Me" while the second was in 1988 was a collaboration with Tanya Tucker and Paul Overstreet on "I Won't Take Less Than Your Love". Davis also wrote "Meet Me in Montana", which Dan Seals and Osmond took to #1 on the Billboard country charts inn 1985. He survived a shooting in Nashville on July 30, 1986. Before his death on April 22, 2008 (one day after his 60th birthday), Paul returned to singing and songwriting recording two songs, "You Ain't Sweet Enough," and "Today." He died of a heart attack at Rush Foundation Hospital in Meridian, Mississippi. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr. (2 April 1939 - 1 April 1984) was an American soul and rnb singer, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist, known as "The Prince of Soul", or "The Prince of Motown." Originally a member of the doo-wop group The Moonglows, he pursued a solo career after the group disbanded and released many successful solo hits including "I Heard It Through the Grapevine", "Let's Get It On" and "What's Going On". His best albums are still held in extremely high regard, and he is often cited as one of the finest singers of his era. Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr. was born in 1939 to Marvin Gay, Sr. and Alberta Gay in Washington, D.C.. Gaye began his career in Motown in 1958, and soon became Motown's top solo male artist. He scored numerous hits during the 1960s, among them "Ain't That Peculiar", "Stubborn Kind of Fellow", and "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)", as well as several hit duets with Tammi Terrell, including "Ain't No Mountain High Enough"" and "You're All I Need to Get By", before moving on to his own form of musical self-expression. Along with Stevie Wonder, Gaye is notable for fighting the hit-making—but creatively restrictive—Motown record-making process, in which performers, songwriters and record producers were generally kept in separate camps. Gaye forced Motown to release his 1971 album What's Going On, which is today hailed as one of the best albums of all time. Subsequent releases proved that Gaye, who had been a part-time songwriter for Motown artists during his early years with the label, could write and produce his own singles without having to rely on the Motown system. This achievement would pave the way for the successes of later self-sufficient singer-songwriter-producers in African American music, such as Luther Vandross and Babyface. During the 1970s, Gaye would release several other notable albums, including Let's Get It On and I Want You, and released several successful singles such as "Come Get to This", "Got to Give It Up" and "Sexual Healing". By the time of his shooting death in 1984, at the hands of his clergyman father, Gaye had become one of the most influential artists of the soul music era. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

Genesis formed in 1967 in Godalming, Surrey (United Kingdom) and was one of the most popular progressive rock bands in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. During the 1970s, Peter Gabriel was the lead singer until his departure, when drummer Phil Collins stepped up to the mic and replaced him. Starting as an amalgam of two bands formed by schoolboys attending Charterhouse School in Godalming, England, the original lineup consisted of Peter Gabriel, Anthony Phillips, Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford, and Chris Stewart, though Stewart was soon replaced as drummer by John Silver and then John Mayhew. By the end of 1970, Phillips and Mayhew had left the band, with Collins joining as drummer, and by early 1971, guitarist Steve Hackett had filled the gap left by Phillips. The lineup of Gabriel, Banks, Hackett, Rutherford, and Collins remained in place until Gabriel's departure in 1975. During the period of 1970-1975, the band produced some of the most widely-acclaimed albums of the progressive rock era, including "Nursery Cryme", "Foxtrot" (featuring the side-long epic "Supper's Ready") and the seminal album "Selling England by the Pound", which generated Genesis' first foray into the charts with "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)". This lineup culminated with the band's magnum opus "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" in 1974. Following the tour promoting the album, frontman Peter Gabriel left the group in mid 1975. Genesis decided to continue on as a four-piece, producing two albums, "A Trick of the Tail" and "Wind & Wuthering", which found the band proving to themselves and to the world that they could move on after Gabriel's departure. Collins stepped up to fill the role of lead vocalist after countless auditions for a new singer proved fruitless by the completion of recording for "A Trick of the Tail". Hackett quietly departed after the "Wind & Wuthering" tour in 1977, feeling that his creative input for the band was being repressed. In 1978, Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford contributed music to a British movie called "The Shout" based on a short story by Robert Graves, directed by Jerzy Skomilowski and produced by Jeremy Thomas. (More credits and info here http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078259/combined) Genesis then became a trio which began to move away from the dying embers of progressive rock. They established themselves as a more commercially-friendly outfit with the release of their 1978 album "...And Then There Were Three...", finding their first US hit with the single "Follow You Follow Me". Banks, Rutherford, and Collins became more adept at writing radio-friendly songs in the 1980s. This reached a peak with the release of 1986's "Invisible Touch", in which more than half of the album's eight songs made it to the singles chart, including the title track, "Land of Confusion" and "In Too Deep". All three band members produced solo albums during Genesis' downtime in the 80s and 90s - most notably Collins' increasingly successful solo work, and Rutherford's sideline group "Mike and the Mechanics" which found moderate success - with evolving styles reflected both when going solo and when recording together as Genesis. Collins left the group in 1996, and was replaced vocally by Ray Wilson, the former lead singer of Scottish band "Stiltskin". Israeli born drummer Nir Zidkyahu and "Spock's Beard" drummer Nick D'Virgilio stepped in to fill the drumming role. Their 1997 album "Calling All Stations" was unable to find worldwide success, and despite scoring a minor U.K. hit with "Congo", the group slowly faded out of public consciousness. In 1998, after the "Calling All Stations" tour (the US leg of which was cut short due to poor album sales), Wilson was released from the band, and Zidkyahu and D'Virgilio, having never been "official" band members, went their separate ways. The band, now down to only Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford, took a break from performing and recording. In 1999 Banks, Rutherford, Collins, Gabriel, and Hackett collaborated to re-record "The Carpet Crawlers" for greatest hits compilation "Turn It on Again: The Hits". During the latter part of 2005, rumors spread that the band would reform again in its most famous five-man configuration. Genesis management stated that there were no current plans at that time, and that nothing would change in the following twelve months. Phil Collins then said in a radio interview in April 2006 that the classic Genesis line-up was considering a new live-staging of "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway", but it was not to be. On 7th November 2006, Phil Collins, Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford announced they would be doing a twenty-date tour of Europe in the summer of 2007, with a North American tour to follow. A Live DVD of the final European concert in Rome, where the band performed free for 500,000 fans, was released May 26th 2008: "When In Rome - Live 2007". In April of 2011, Phil Collins, after completing a reunion tour with Genesis, said in a newspaper interview that he has no plans to tour or make another album, effectively retiring after over 40 years in the music business. Official website: www.genesis-music.com

Taylor Dayne (real name Leslie Wunderman), (born on March 7, 1962 in Baldwin, Nassau County, New York), is a successful American Pop singer-songwriter whose work expands into Dance, R&B, Soul and Rock. So far, Dayne has scored 18 Top 10 hits on the various Billboard charts. According to the Taylor Dayne Songfacts Interview, Taylor grew up in Long Island, and her parents were very involved in independent theatre: the Manhattan Theatre Group, the Pap Theatre, La Mome. By 4 or 5 she was singing along with the radio. Her dad gave Taylor her first radio, she turned it on and there was Stevie Wonder playing. As Taylor grew older, she started going into a little bit more of a rock direction as the top 40 was going in a different path for a period of time - it was more of the supergroups, Jethro Tull, Yes etc. She had her first solo by first grade, and by her fourth grade she was singing Jacques Brel. Dayne came to prominence in the late 1980s and remained at the top of the charts through the 1990s. She released her fifth album "Satisfied" in February 2008. "Beautiful" the first single hit number 1 in the American dance charts and #23 on the Adult Contemporary. The second single from "Satisfied" titled "My Heart Can't Change" reached #19 on the Adult Contemporary chart. In 2010, Dayne's single "Facing A Miracle" was released. In 2011, Dayne's single "Floor On Fire" became her 18th Top 10 hit when it peaked at #8 on the Hot Dance Club Songs chart. Dayne continues to record and tour. http://blog.dance-music-space.com/2015/08/18-insanely-infectious-taylor-dayne.html Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone (born August 16, 1958 in Bay City, Michigan) is an American singer, songwriter and actress. She is considered one of the most influential figures in popular culture and has often been referred to as the "Queen of Pop". Madonna is noted for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting and visual presentation. She is also known for pushing the boundaries of artistic expression in mainstream music, while maintaining control over every aspect of her career. Her works, which incorporate social, political, sexual and religious themes, have generated both controversy and critical acclaim. Born and raised in Michigan, Madonna moved to New York City in 1978 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing as a drummer, guitarist, and vocalist in the rock bands Breakfast Club and Emmy, she rose to solo stardom with her debut studio album, Madonna (1983). She followed it with a series of successful albums, including all-time bestsellers Like a Virgin (1984) and True Blue (1986) as well as Grammy Award winners Ray of Light (1998) and Confessions on a Dance Floor (2005). Madonna has amassed many number-one singles throughout her career, including "Like a Virgin", "La Isla Bonita", "Like a Prayer", "Vogue", "Take a Bow", "Frozen", "Music", "Hung Up", and "4 Minutes". Madonna's popularity was enhanced by roles in films such as Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), Dick Tracy (1990), A League of Their Own (1992), and Evita (1996). While Evita won her a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress, many of her other films received poor reviews. As a businesswoman, Madonna founded the company Maverick in 1992; it included Maverick Records, one of the most successful artist-run labels in history. Her other ventures include fashion brands, children's books, health clubs, and filmmaking. She contributes to various charities, having founded the Ray of Light Foundation in 1998 and Raising Malawi in 2006. With sales of over 300 million records worldwide, Madonna is certified as the best-selling female recording artist of all time by Guinness World Records. She is the most successful solo artist in the history of the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart and holds the record for the most number-one singles by a female artist in Australia, Canada, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom. With a revenue of U.S. $1.5 billion from her concert tickets, she remains the highest-grossing solo touring artist of all time. Madonna was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008, her first year of eligibility. She was ranked as the greatest woman in music by VH1 in 2012, and as the greatest music video artist of all time by MTV in 2003 and Billboard in 2020. Rolling Stone also listed Madonna among the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time and the 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time. Studio albums Madonna (1983) Like a Virgin (1984) True Blue (1986) Like a Prayer (1989) Erotica (1992) Bedtime Stories (1994) Ray of Light (1998) Music (2000) American Life (2003) Confessions on a Dance Floor (2005) Hard Candy (2008) MDNA (2012) Rebel Heart (2015) Madame X (2019) Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

Linda Marie Ronstadt (born July 15, 1946 in Tucson, Arizona) is an American singer most closely associated with the country rock genre prevalent in the 1970s. Though an occasional songwriter herself, she is better known as an interpreter of other songwriters' works. Her career began in 1967 with the release of folk-rock group The Stone Poneys' self-titled album. After the break-up of the Stone Poneys, Linda entered the country music field. In 1969, with the release of 'Hand Sown... Home Grown', Ronstadt became the first female singer to release an alt-country album. Ronstadt achieved her greatest commercial success in the mid-'70s. A singer and record producer, she is recognized as a definitive interpreter of songs. Being one of music's most versatile and commercially successful female singers in U.S. history, she is recognized for her many public stages of self-reinvention and incarnations. With a one-time standing as the Queen of Rock, where she was bestowed the title of "highest paid woman in rock", and known as the First Lady of Rock, she has more recently emerged as music matriarch, international arts advocate and Human Rights advocate. Ronstadt has collaborated with artists from a diverse spectrum of genres—including Billy Eckstine, Frank Zappa, Rosemary Clooney, Flaco Jiménez, Philip Glass, The Chieftains, Gram Parsons, Dolly Parton and has lent her voice to over 120 albums around the world. Christopher Loudon of Jazz Times noted in 2004, Ronstadt is "Blessed with arguably the most sterling set of pipes of her generation ... rarest of rarities—a chameleon who can blend into any background yet remain boldly distinctive ... It's an exceptional gift; one shared by few others. In total, she has released over 30 solo albums, more than 15 compilations or greatest hits albums. Ronstadt has charted thirty-eight Billboard Hot 100 singles, twenty-one of which have reached the top 40, ten of which have reached the top 10, three peaking at #2, the #1 hit, "You're No Good". In the UK, her single "Blue Bayou" reached the UK Top 40 and the duet with Aaron Neville, "Don't Know Much", peaked at #2 in December 1989. In addition, she has charted thirty-six albums, ten Top 10 albums, and three #1 albums on the Billboard Pop Album Charts. Ronstadt is considered an "interpreter of her times", and has earned praise for her courage to put her own unique "stamp" on many of these songs. Although many of her hits were criticized for being cover songs, they were the songs the record companies elected to cull and release off the albums. More importantly, Linda Ronstadt became a highly successful "Albums Artist", some of which contain material written by her. Ronstadt's natural vocal range spans several octaves from contralto to soprano, and occasionally she will showcase this entire range within a single work. Ronstadt was the first female artist in popular music history to accumulate four consecutive platinum albums (fourteen certified million selling, to date). As for the singles, Rolling Stone Magazine pointed out that a whole generation, "but for her, might never have heard the work of artists such as Buddy Holly, Elvis Costello, and Chuck Berry." ""Music is meant to lighten your load. By singing it ... you release (the sadness). And release yourself ... an exercise in exorcism.... You exorcise that emotion ... and diminish sadness and feel joy." Linda Ronstadt. Others have argued that Ronstadt had the same generational effect with her Great American Songbook music, exposing a whole new generation to the music of the 1920s and '30s—music which, ironically, was pushed aside because of the advent of rock 'n' roll. When interpreting, Ronstadt said she "sticks to what the music demands", in terms of lyrics. Explaining that rock and roll music is part of her culture, she says that the songs she sang after her rock and roll hits were part of her soul. "The (Mariachi music) was my father's side of the soul", she was quoted as saying in a 1998 interview she gave at her Tucson home. "My mother's side of my soul was the Nelson Riddle stuff. And I had to do them both in order to reestablish who I was." In the 1974 book Rock 'N' Roll Woman, author Katherine Orloff writes that Ronstadt's "own musical preferences run strongly to rhythm and blues, the type of music she most frequently chooses to listen to ... (and) her goal is to ... be soulful too. With this in mind, Ronstadt fuses country and rock into a special union. Author Father Andrew Greeley, in his book God in Popular Culture, described Ronstadt as "the most successful and certainly the most durable and most gifted woman Rock singer of her era." Signaling her wide popularity as a concert artist, outside of the singles charts and the recording studio, Dirty Linen magazine describes her as the "first true woman rock 'n' roll superstar ... (selling) out stadiums with a string of mega-successful albums." Amazon.com defines her as the American female rock superstar of the decade. Cash Box gave Ronstadt a Special Decade Award, as the top selling female singer of the 1970s. Coupled with the fact that her album covers, posters, magazine covers—basically her entire rock n roll image conveyed—was just as famous as her music. That by the end of the decade, the singer whom the Chicago Sun Times described as the "Dean of the 1970s school of female rock singers" became what Redbook called, "the most successful female rock star in the world","Female" being the important qualifier, according to Time magazine, labeling her "a rarity ... to (have survived) ... in the shark-infested deeps of rock." Linda Ronstadt, ca. 1974, on the cover of the Grammy winning album and 2x platinum certified studio disc, Heart Like a Wheel. Having been a cult favorite on the music scene for several years, 1975 was "remembered in the music biz as the year when 29-year-old Linda Ronstadt belatedly happened." With the release of Heart Like A Wheel, Ronstadt reached #1 on the Billboard Album Chart (it was also the first of four #1 Country Albums for Ronstadt) and the disc was certified Double-Platinum (over 2 million copies sold in the United States). In many instances, her own interpretations were more successful than the original recordings and many times new songwriters were discovered by a larger audience as a result of Ronstadt interpreting and recording their songs. Interestingly, Ronstadt had major success interpreting songs from a diverse spectrum of artists. This skill would eventually serve her later in her career, as a noted master song interpreter. Heart Like A Wheel's first single release was "You're No Good"—a rockified version of an R&B song written by Clint Ballard, Jr. that Ronstadt had initially resisted because Andrew Gold's guitar tracks sounded too much like a "Beatles song" to her—climbed to #1 on both the Billboard and Cash Box Pop singles charts. The album's second single release was "When Will I Be Loved"—an uptempo Country Rock version of a Top 10 Everly Brothers song—hit #1 in Cash Box and #2 in Billboard. The song was also Linda's first #1 Country hit. The album showed a physically attractive Ronstadt on the cover but, more importantly, its critical and commercial success was due to a fine presentation of country and rock with Heart Like A Wheel, her first of many major commercial successes that would set her on the path to being one of the best-selling female artists of all time. Ronstadt won her first Grammy Award for Best Country Vocal Performance/Female for "I Can't Help It (If I'm Still In Love With You)" which was originally a 1940s hit by Hank Williams. Ronstadt's interpretation peaked at #2 on the Country charts. The album itself was nominated for the Album of the Year Grammy as well as the Best Pop Vocal Performance/Female trophy. Rolling Stone magazine put Linda on its cover in March 1975. This was the first of six Rolling Stone magazine covers shot by photographer Annie Leibovitz. It included her as the featured artist with a full photo layout and an article by Ben Fong-Torres, discussing Ronstadt's many struggling years in rock n roll, as well as her home life and what it was like to be a woman on tour in a decidedly all-male environment. In September 1975, Linda's album Prisoner In Disguise was released. It quickly climbed into the Top Five on the Billboard Album Chart and sold over a million copies. It became her second in a row to go platinum, "a grand slam" in the same year (Ronstadt would eventually be the first female artist in popular music history to have three consecutive platinum albums and would ultimately go on to have eight consecutive platinum albums, and then another six between 1983 and 1990). The disc's first single release was "Love Is A Rose". It was climbing the Pop and Country charts but Heat Wave, a rockified version of the 1963 hit by Martha and the Vandellas, was receiving considerable airplay. Asylum pulled the "Love Is A Rose" single and issued "Heat Wave" with "Love Is A Rose" on the B-side. "Heat Wave" hit the Top Five on Billboard's Hot 100 while "Love Is A Rose" hit the Top Five on Billboard's Country chart. Linda Ronstadt, ca. 1977, on the cover of the Grammy winning album design and 3x platinum certified studio disc, Simple Dreams. In 1976, Ronstadt reached the Top 3 of Billboard's Album Chart and won her second career Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for her third consecutive platinum album Hasten Down The Wind. The album featured a sexy, revealing cover shot and showcased Ronstadt the singer-songwriter, who composed two of its songs, "Try Me Again" and "Lo Siento Mi Vida". It also included an interpretation of Willie Nelson's classic "Crazy", which became a Top 10 Country hit for Ronstadt in early 1977. At the end of 1977, Ronstadt surpassed the success of Heart Like A Wheel with her album Simple Dreams, which held the #1 position for five consecutive weeks on the Billboard Album Chart. It also knocked Elvis Presley out of #1 on Billboard's Country Albums chart. It sold over 3½ million copies in less than a year in the U.S. alone. The album was released in September 1977, and by December it had replaced Fleetwood Mac's long running #1 album Rumours in the top spot. Simple Dreams spawned a string of hit singles on numerous charts. Among them were the RIAA platinum-certified single "Blue Bayou", a Country Rock interpretation of a Roy Orbison song, "It's So Easy"—previously sung by Buddy Holly—and "Poor Poor Pitiful Me", a song written by Warren Zevon, an up and coming songwriter of the time whom Ronstadt elected to highlight and record. The album garnered several Grammy Award nominations—including Record of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance/Female for "Blue Bayou"—and won its art director, Kosh, a Grammy Award for Best Album Cover, the first of three Grammy Awards he would win for designing Ronstadt album covers. Simple Dreams became one of the singer's most successful international selling albums as well, reaching #1 on the Australian and Canadian Pop and Country Albums charts. Simple Dreams also made Ronstadt the most successful international female touring artist as well. The same year, she completed a highly successful concert tour around Europe. As Country Music Magazine wrote in October 1978, Simple Dreams solidified Ronstadt's role as "easily the most successful female rock and roll and country star at this time." Also in 1977, she was asked by the Los Angeles Dodgers to sing the U.S. National Anthem at game three of the World Series against the New York Yankees. Ronstadt has remarked that she felt as though she was "artificially encouraged to kinda cop a really tough attitude (and be tough) because Rock & Roll is kind of tough (business)", which she felt wasn't worn quite authentically. Female rock artists like her and Janis Joplin, whom she described as lovely, shy and very literate in real life and the antithesis of the "red hot mamma" routine she was artificially encouraged to project, went through an identity crisis. Linda Ronstadt, on the cover of the February 28, 1977, issue of Time. Eventually, Ronstadt's Rock & Roll image became just as famous as her music by the mid 1970s. The 1977 appearance on the cover of Time magazine under the banner "Torchy Rock" was controversial for Ronstadt, considering what the image appeared to project about the most famous woman in rock. At a time in the industry when men still told women what to sing and what to wear, Ronstadt hated the image of her that was projected to the world on the cover of Time magazine, and she noted recently how the photographer kept forcing her to wear a dress, which was an image she did not want to project (although she wore a rather revealing dress for the cover of Hasten Down the Wind which projected an image of her not all that different from the Time magazine cover). In 2004, she was interviewed for CBS This Morning and stated that this image was not her because she didn't sit like that. Asher noted, "anyone who's met Linda for 10 seconds will know that I couldn't possibly have been her Svengali. She's an extremely determined woman, in every area. To me, she was everything that feminism's about. Qualities which, Asher has stated, were considered a "negative (in a woman at that time), whereas in a man they were perceived as being masterful and bold". Since her solo career began, Ronstadt has fought hard to be recognized as a solo female singer in the world of rock, and her portrayal on the Time cover didn't appear to help the situation. It was in 1976 that Rolling Stone magazine published in its cover story an alluring collection of photographs taken by Annie Leibovitz, which helped to further the image that Ronstadt later said she wasn't pleased with. Ronstadt and Asher claim to have viewed the photos prior to publication and, when asked that they be removed and the request was denied, they unceremoniously threw Leibovitz out of the house. In 1978 Rolling Stone magazine declared Ronstadt, "by far America's best-known female rock singer". She scored a third #1 album on the Billboard Album Chart—unsurpassed by any female artist at this point in time—with Living In The USA. Linda achieved a major hit single with "Ooh Baby Baby", with her rendition hitting all four major singles charts (Pop, AC, Country and R&B). Living In The USA was the first album by any recording act, in music history, to ship double-platinum (over 2 million advanced copies). The album eventually sold 3 million U.S. copies. Linda Ronstadt's promotional poster, for the 1978 Living In The USA album and concert Billboard magazine crowned Linda Ronstadt with three #1 Awards for the Year: #1 Pop Female Singles Artist of the Year; #1 Pop Female Album Artist of the Year; #1 Female Artist of the Year (overall). Living In The USA showed the singer on roller skates with a newly short, permed hairdo on the album cover. Ronstadt continued this theme on concert tour promotional posters with photos of her on roller skates in a dramatic pose with a large American flag in the background. By this stage of her career, she was promoting every album released, with posters and concerts—which at the time were recorded live on radio and/or TV. Ronstadt was also featured in the 1978 film FM, where the plot involved disc jockeys attempting to broadcast a Linda Ronstadt concert live, without a competing station's knowledge. The movie also showed Ronstadt performing the songs Poor Poor Pitiful Me, Love Me Tender, and Tumbling Dice. Ronstadt was persuaded to record "Tumbling Dice" after Mick Jagger came backstage when she was at a concert and said, "You do too many ballads, you should do more rock and roll songs." Following the success of Living in the USA, Ronstadt not only conducted successful disc promotional tours and concerts but in one concert in 1978, Ronstadt made a guest appearance onstage with The Rolling Stones at the Tucson Community Center on July 21, 1978, in her hometown of Tucson, where Ronstadt and Mick Jagger vocalized on "Tumbling Dice". On singing with Jagger, Ronstadt reflects " I loved it. I didn't have a trace of stage fright. I'm scared to death all the way through my own shows. But it was too much fun to get scared. He's so silly onstage, he knocks you over. I mean you have to be on your toes or you wind up falling on your face." [edit] Highest paid woman in rock "Rock is the thumping heart of Linda's music, and the rock world is dominated by males. The biggest stars are male, and so are the back-up musicians ... rock beats are ... phallic, and lyrics ... masculine.... Janis Joplin, the first great white woman rocker, rattled the bars ... but she died.... Joni Mitchell ... stylish (but can’t) compete in drawing power with men ... (however) Linda Ronstadt ... has made herself one of the biggest individual rock draws in the world." By the end of 1978, Ronstadt had solidified her role as one of rock and pop's most successful solo female acts, and owing to her consistent platinum album success, and her ability as the first-ever woman to sell out concerts in arenas and stadiums hosting tens of thousands of fans, Ronstadt became the "highest paid woman in rock". She had six platinum certified albums, three of which went to #1 on the Billboard album chart, and numerous charted Pop singles. In 1978 alone, she made over $12 million (equivalent to $38,000,000 in today's dollars) and in the same year her albums sales were reported to be 17 million—grossing over $60 million (equivalent to a gross of over $170,000,000, in today's dollars). As Rolling Stone magazine dubbed her "Rock's Venus", her record sales continued to multiply and set records themselves. By 1979, Ronstadt had collected eight gold, six platinum and four multi-platinum certifications for her albums, an unprecedented feat at the time. Her 1976 Greatest Hits album would sell consistently for the next 25 years and in 2001 was certified by the RIAA for 7 times platinum (over 7 million U.S. copies sold). In 1980, Greatest Hits Volume II was released and certified platinum. In 1979, Ronstadt went on a successful international tour, playing in arenas across Australia to Japan, including the Olympic Park Stadium in Melbourne, Australia and the Budokan in Tokyo, Japan. She also participated in a benefit concert for her friend Lowell George, held at The Forum, in Los Angeles. By the end of the decade, Ronstadt had outsold her female competition; no other female artist to date had five straight platinum LPs: Hasten Down the Wind, and Heart Like a Wheel among them.[84] US Magazine reported in 1978, that Linda Ronstadt, Stevie Nicks, Carly Simon and Joni Mitchell had become "The Queens of Rock" and 'Rock is no longer exclusively male. There is a new royalty ruling today's record charts'. She would go on to parlay her mass commercial appeal with major success in interpreting The Great American Songbook, made famous a generation before by Frank Sinatra, and Ella Fitzgerald and later the Mexican folk songs of her childhood. In 1980 Ronstadt recorded Mad Love, her seventh consecutive platinum selling album. Mad Love is a straightforward Rock & Roll album with post-punk, new wave influences, including tracks by songwriters such as Elvis Costello, The Cretones, and musician Mark Goldenberg who played on the record himself. She also made the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine for a record-setting sixth time. Mad Love entered the Billboard Album Chart in the Top Five its first week (a record at that time) and climbed to the #3 position. The project continued her streak of Top 10 hits with "How Do I Make You?", originally recorded by Billy Thermal, and "Hurt So Bad", originally a Top 10 hit for Little Anthony & the Imperials. The album earned Ronstadt a 1980 Grammy Award nomination for Best Rock Vocal Performance/Female (although she lost to Pat Benatar's Crimes of Passion album). Benatar praised Linda Ronstadt by stating, "There are a lot of good female singers around. How could I be the best? Ronstadt is still alive!" In the summer of 1980 Ronstadt began rehearsals for the first of several leads in Broadway musicals. Joseph Papp cast her as the lead in the New York Shakespeare Festival production of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance, alongside Kevin Kline.She said singing Gilbert and Sullivan was a natural choice for her, since her grandfather Fred Ronstadt was credited with having created Tucson's first orchestra, the Club Filarmonico Tucsonense, and had once created an arrangement of The Pirates of Penzance. The Pirates of Penzance opened for a limited engagement in New York City's Central Park, eventually moving its production to Broadway, where it became a major hit, running from January 8, 1981, to November 28, 1982.Newsweek was effusive in its praise: "... she has not dodged the coloratura demands of her role (and Mabel is one of the most demanding parts in the G&S canon): from her entrance trilling 'Poor Wand'ring One,' it is clear that she is prepared to scale whatever soprano peaks stand in her way." Ronstadt co-starred with Kline and Angela Lansbury in the 1983 motion picture version of the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta. Ronstadt received a Golden Globe nomination for the role in the movie version. She garnered a Tony Award nomination for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical and The Pirates of Penzance won several Tony Awards, including a Tony Award for Best Revival. As a child, Ronstadt had discovered La Bohème through the silent movie with Lillian Gish and was determined to someday play the part of Mimi. When she met the late opera superstar Beverly Sills, she was told, "My dear, every soprano in the world wants to play Mimi!" In 1984 Ronstadt was cast in the role at Joseph Papp's Public Theatre. However, the production was a critical and commercial disaster, closing after only a few nights. In 1988 Ronstadt would return to Broadway for a limited-run engagement in the musical show adaptation of her album celebrating her Mexican heritage, Canciones De Mi Padre—A Romantic Evening In Old Mexico. In 1982 Ronstadt released Get Closer—a primarily rock album with some country and pop music as well. It remains her only album between 1975 and 1990 not to be officially certified Platinum. It peaked at #31 on the Billboard Album Chart. The release continued her streak of Top 40 hits with "Get Closer" and "I Knew You When"—a 1965 hit by Billy Joe Royal—while the Jimmy Webb song "Easy For You To Say" was a surprise Top 10 Adult Contemporary hit in the spring of 1983. "Sometimes You Just Can't Win" was released to country radio, and made it to #27 on that listing. Linda also filmed several music videos for this album which became popular on the fledgling MTV cable channel. The album earned Ronstadt two Grammy Award nominations: one for Best Rock Vocal Performance/Female for the title track and another for Best Pop Vocal Performance/Female for the album. The artwork won its art director, Kosh, his second Grammy Award for Best Album Package. Along with the release of her Get Closer album, Ronstadt embarked on a very successful North American tour, remaining one of the top rock concert draws that summer and fall. On November 25, 1982, Linda's 'Happy Thanksgiving Day' concert was held at the Reunion Arena in Dallas and broadcast live via satellite on radio stations across the United States. [edit] Sentimental journeys Ronstadt has remarked that in the beginning of her career "(she) ... was so focused on folk, rock and country that..(she) got a bit bored and started to branch out, and ... (has) been doing that ever since." By 1983, Linda Ronstadt's estimated worth was over $40 million mostly from successful records, concerts and merchandising. Ronstadt eventually tired of playing arenas. She had ceased to feel that arenas, where people milled around smoking marijuana cigarettes and drinking beer, were "appropriate places for music." She wanted "angels in the architecture"—a reference to a lyric in the Paul Simon song "You Can Call Me Al" from the 1986 album Graceland. (Ronstadt sang harmony with Simon on a different Graceland track, "Under African Skies." The lyrics pay tribute to Ronstadt: "Take this child, Lord, from Tucson, Arizona....") Ronstadt has said she wants to sing in places similar to the Theatre of ancient Greece, where the attention is focused on the stage and performer. Ronstadt's recording output in the 1980s proved to be just as commercially and critically successful as her 1970s recordings. Between 1983 and 1990 Ronstadt scored six additional platinum albums; two of these have been certified triple platinum (each with over 3 million U.S. copies sold); one has been certified double platinum (over two million copies sold); and one has earned additional certification as a Gold (over 500,000 U.S. copies sold) double disc album. By recording Traditional pop, Traditional country, Traditional Latin roots, and Adult Contemporary, Ronstadt resonated with a different fan base and diversified her appeal. Jazz/pop trilogy Linda Ronstadt, ca. 1983, from the disc What's New, Volume One of "The 'Round Midnight' Trilogy." In 1981 Linda Ronstadt produced and recorded an album of jazz and pop standards (later marketed in bootleg form) titled Keeping Out of Mischief with the assistance of producer Jerry Wexler. However, Ronstadt's displeasure with the final result led her, with regrets, to scrap the project. "Doing that killed me", she said in a Time magazine interview. But the appeal of the album's music had seduced Ronstadt, as she told Down Beat magazine in April 1985, crediting Wexler for encouraging her.[96] Nonetheless, Ronstadt had to somehow convince her reticent record company, Elektra Records, to greenlight this type of album under her contract. By 1983 Ronstadt had enlisted the help of 62-year-old conductor and master of jazz/traditional pop orchestration, Nelson Riddle. The two embarked on an unorthodox and original approach to rehabilitating the Great American Songbook, recording a trilogy of highly successful jazz/ traditional pop albums: What's New (1983—U.S. 3.7 million as of 2010); Lush Life (1984—U.S. 1.7 million as of 2010); and For Sentimental Reasons (1986—U.S. 1.3 million as of 2010). The three albums have a combined sales total of nearly 7 million copies in the United States alone. "I now realize I was taking a tremendous risk, and that Joe Smith (the head of Elektra Records, and strongly opposed) was looking out for himself, and for me. When it became apparent I wouldn't change my mind, he said: 'I love Nelson so much! Can I please come to the sessions. I said 'Yes.' "When the albums ... were successful, Joe congratulated me, and I never said 'I told you so.'" Linda Ronstadt The album design for What's New by designer Kosh was unlike any of her previous disc covers. It showed Ronstadt in a vintage dress lying on shimmering satin sheets with a Walkman headset. At the time, Ronstadt received some chiding for both the album cover and her venture into what was then considered "elevator music" by cynics, but remained determined to record with Nelson Riddle, and What's New became a hit. The album was released in September 1983, it spent 81 weeks on the Billboard Album Chart and held the #3 position for a month and a half (held out of the top spot by Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' and Lionel Richie's 'Can't Slow Down') and the RIAA certified it triple platinum (over 3 million U.S. copies sold alone). The album earned Ronstadt another Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, and critical raves, with Time magazine calling it "one of the gutsiest, most unorthodox and unexpected albums of the year". Ronstadt faced considerable pressure not to record What's New or record with Riddle. According to jazz historian Peter Levinson, author of the book September In The Rain—a Biography on Nelson Riddle, Joe Smith, president of Elektra Records, was terrified that the Nelson Riddle album would turn off Ronstadt's rock audience. Linda did not completely turn her back on her rock and roll past, however; the video for the title track featured Danny Kortchmar as the old beau that she bumped into during a rainstorm. What's New brought Nelson Riddle to a younger audience. According to Levinson, "the younger audience hated what Riddle had done with Frank Sinatra,which in 1983 was considered 'Vintage Pop.'" Working with Ronstadt, Riddle brought his career back into focus in the last three years of his life. Stephen Holden of The New York Times wrote, What's New "isn't the first album by a rock singer to pay tribute to the golden age of the pop, but is ... the best and most serious attempt to rehabilitate an idea of pop that Beatlemania and the mass marketing of rock LPs for teenagers undid in the mid-60s.... In the decade prior to Beatlemania, most of the great band singers and crooners of the 40s and 50s codified a half-century of American pop standards on dozens of albums ... many of them now long out-of-print." What's New is the first album by a rock singer to have major commercial success in rehabilitating the Great American Songbook. In 1984 Ronstadt and Nelson Riddle performed these songs live, in concert halls throughout Australia, Japan and the United States, including multi-night performances at historic venues Carnegie Hall, Radio City Music Hall and Pine Knob. In 2004 Ronstadt released Hummin' to Myself, her album for Verve Records. It was her first foray into traditional jazz since her sessions with Jerry Wexler and her records with the Nelson Riddle Orchestra, but this time with an intimate jazz combo. The album was a quiet affair for Ronstadt, giving few interviews and making only one television performance as promotion. It reached #2 on Billboard's Top Jazz Albums chart but peaked at #166 on the main Billboard album chart. Not having the mass distribution that Warner Music gave her, Hummin' To Myself had sold over 75,000 copies in the U.S. as of 2010—which is quite successful for a small record label like Verve Records. It also achieved some critical acclaim from the jazz cognoscenti. "When (we) sang, it was a beautiful and different sound I've never heard before. We (recorded the vocals) as individual parts, because we didn't have the luxury of spending a lot of time together on a tour bus ... and knowing each other's (vocal) moves ... takes years." Linda Ronstadt In 1978, Ronstadt, with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris, began recording a Trio album. Unfortunately, the attempt was not successful. Ronstadt later remarked that not too many people were in control at the time and everyone was too involved with their own careers. (Though the efforts to complete the album were abandoned, a number of the more successful recordings were included on the singers' respective solo recordings over the next few years.) This concept album was put on the back burner for almost ten years. In January 1986, the three eventually did make their way into the recording studio, where they spent the next several months working. The result, Trio, which they had conceived ten years earlier, was released in March 1987. It was a considerable hit, holding the #1 position on Billboard's Country Albums chart for five weeks running and hitting the Top 10 on the Pop side also. Selling over three million U.S. copies and winning them a Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, it produced four Top Ten Country singles including "To Know Him Is To Love Him" which hit #1. The album was also a nominee for overall Album of the Year, in the company of Michael Jackson, U2, Prince, and Whitney Houston. In 1994, the three performers recorded a follow-up to Trio. As was the case with their aborted 1978 effort, conflicting schedules and competing priorities delayed the album's release indefinitely. Ronstadt, who had already paid for studio time—and owed her record company a finished album—removed Dolly's individual tracks at her request, kept Emmylou's vocals on, and produced a number of the recordings, which she subsequently released on her 1995 return to Country Rock, Feels Like Home. However, in 1999, Ronstadt, Parton and Harris agreed to release the Trio II album, as was originally recorded in 1994. It included an ethereal cover of Neil Young's "After The Gold Rush" which became a popular music video. The effort was certified Gold (over 500,000 copies sold) and won them a Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals for the track. Ronstadt co-produced the album with George Massenburg and the three ladies also received a Grammy Nomination for Best Country Album. [edit] Canciones—songs of the Ronstadt family Linda Ronstadt, ca. 1987, on the cover of the Grammy winning album and 2x platinum certified Canciones de Mi Padre—"Songs Of My Father." Ronstadt's follow-up mariachi album Mas Canciones won the 1993 Grammy Award for Best Mexican/Mexican-American Album. At the end of 1987, Ronstadt released an album of traditional Mexican folk songs, or what she describes as "world class songs", titled Canciones de Mi Padre. Keeping with the Ronstadt history theme, her cover art was dramatic, bold, and colorful. For Canciones De Mi Padre, Ronstadt was in full Mexican regalia, and her musical arranger was famed Mariachi musician Rubén Fuentes. These canciones were a big part of Ronstadt's family tradition and musical roots. For example, the history of this album goes back half a century. In January 1946, the University of Arizona published a booklet by Luisa Espinel entitled Canciones de mi Padre.Luisa Espinel, Ronstadt's aunt, was herself an international singer in the 1920s and 1930s. Ms. Espinel's father was Fred Ronstadt, Linda's grandfather, and the songs she had learned, transcribed and published were some of the ones he had brought with him from Sonora. Ronstadt researched and extracted from the favorites she had learned from her father Gilbert and she called her album by the same name as her aunt's booklet and as a tribute to her father and his family. Though not fully bilingual, she has a fairly good command of the Spanish language, allowing her to sing Latin American songs with little discernible Anglo accent; Ronstadt has often identified herself as Mexican-American. Her formative years were spent with her father's side of the family. In fact, in 1976, Ronstadt had collaborated with her father to write and compose a Traditional Mexican folk ballad titled "Lo siento mi vida", a song that she included in her Grammy winning album Hasten Down the Wind. Also, Ronstadt has credited Mexican singer Lola Beltrán as an influence in her own singing style, and she recalls how a frequent guest to the Ronstadt home, Eduardo "Lalo" Guerrero, father of Chicano music, would often serenade her as a child. This album won Ronstadt a Grammy Award for Best Mexican-American Performance. The real achievement, however, is the disc's RIAA double-platinum (over 2 million U.S. copies sold) certification—making it the biggest-selling non-English language album in U.S. music history. Another achievement is that the album and later theatrical stage show, served as a benchmark of Latin cultural renaissance in North America. "(I obtained) enough clout and ... after years and years of making commercial records, I was entitled to experiment ... the success of the (Nelson Riddle albums) ... entitled me to try the Mexican stuff." Linda Ronstadt Ronstadt produced and performed a theatrical stage show in concert halls across the United States and Latin America to both Hispanic and non-Hispanic audiences, including on the Great White Way. She called the stage show by the same name Canciones de mi Padre. These performances were released on DVD. Ronstadt elected to return to the Broadway stage, 4 years after she performed in La Bohème, for a limited run engagement. PBS Great Performances aired the celebrated stage show during its annual fund drives and the show was a hit with audiences, earning Ronstadt an Emmy Award for Individual Performance In A Variety Or Music Program. Linda later recorded two additional discs of Latin music in the early 1990s. Although their promotion, like most of her albums in the 1990s, were a quieter affair for Ronstadt, where she appeared to do the "bare minimum" to promote them. They were not nearly as successful as Canciones De Mi Padre, but were critically acclaimed in some circles. In 1991 she released Mas Canciones, a follow up to the first Canciones. For this effort she won a Grammy award for Best Mexican/Mexican-American Album. The following year she stepped outside of the Mariachi genre and decided to record well known "afro-Cuban" songs. This disc was titled Frenesí. Like her two previous Latin recordings ventures, this third Latin album won Ronstadt another Grammy award, this time for Best Traditional Tropical Latin Album. In 1991 Ronstadt acted in the lead role of arch angel San Miguel in La Pastorela, or A Shephard's Tale, a musical filmed at San Juan Bautista. It was written and directed by Luis Valdez. The production was part of the PBS "Great Performances" series. (As of December 2010, it existed on VHS format but had not been released on DVD by that time.) Returning to the pop music scene By the late 1980s, while enjoying the success of her big band jazz collaborations with Nelson Riddle and her surprise hit Mariachi recordings, Linda Ronstadt elected to return to recording mainstream pop music once again. In 1987 she made a return to the top of Billboard Hot 100 singles chart with "Somewhere Out There", which peaked at #2 in March. Featured in the animated film An American Tail, the sentimental duet with James Ingram was nominated for several Grammy Awards, ultimately winning "Song of the Year." It also received an Academy Award nomination for Best Motion Picture song and achieved high sales, earning a million-selling Gold single in the U.S.—one of the last 45s ever to do so. It was also accompanied by a popular music video. On the heels of this success, Steven Spielberg asked Ronstadt to record the theme song for the animated sequel titled An American Tail: Fievel Goes West, which was titled "Dreams To Dream." Although "Dreams To Dream" failed to achieve the success of "Somewhere Out There", the song did give Ronstadt an Adult Contemporary hit in 1991. In 1989, Ronstadt released a mainstream pop album and several popular singles. This effort, titled Cry Like A Rainstorm, Howl Like The Wind, became one of the singer's most successful albums—in terms of production, arrangements, chart sales, and critical acclaim. It became Ronstadt's tenth Top 10 album on the Billboard chart, reaching the #7 position and being certified triple-platinum (over 3 million U.S. copies sold). The album also garnered critical acclaim, receiving numerous Grammy nominations and being praised by Amazon.com as "an album that defines virtually everything that is right about adult contemporary pop." Linda featured New Orleans soul singer Aaron Neville on several of the twelve disc cuts. Ronstadt incorporated the sounds of the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir, Tower of Power horns, the Skywalker Symphony and numerous musicians. It had duets, including "Don't Know Much" (Billboard Hot 100 #2 hit—Christmas 1989) and "All My Life" (Billboard Hot 100 #11 hit), both of which were long-running #1 Adult Contemporary hits. These duets with Aaron Neville received much critical acclaim, earning several Grammy nominations. The duo won both the 1989 and 1990 Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal awards. Linda's last known live Grammy Award appearance was in 1990 when she and Neville performed "Don't Know Much" together on the telecast. ("Whenever I sing with a different artist, I can get things out of my voice that I can't do by myself", Ronstadt reflected in 2007. "I can do things with Aaron that I can't do alone.") In December 1990, Linda Ronstadt participated in a concert held at the Tokyo Dome to commemorate John Lennon's 50th birthday, and to raise awareness of environmental issues. Other participants included Miles Davis, Lenny Kravitz, Hall & Oates, Natalie Cole, Japanese artists, Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon. A CD resulted, titled Happy Birthday, John. Continuing with her crafted approach to more mainstream-oriented material, Ronstadt released the highly acclaimed Winter Light album at the end of 1993. It included New Age arrangements such as the lead single "Heartbeats Accelerating" as well as the self-penned title track and featured the unique glass armonica instrument. But alas, it was Linda's first commercial failure since 1972, and peaked at a disappointing #92 in Billboard, whereas 1995's Feels Like Home was Ronstadt's much heralded return to Country-Rock and included her version of Tom Petty's classic hit "The Waiting." The single's rollicking, fiddle-infused flip side, "Walk On", returned Linda to the Country Singles chart for the first time since 1983. An album track entitled "The Blue Train" charted 10 weeks in Billboard's Adult Contemporary Top 40. This album fared slightly better than its predecessor, reaching #75. Both albums were later deleted from the Elektra/Asylum catalog. In 1996 Ronstadt produced Dedicated to the One I Love, an album of classic rock 'n roll songs reinvented as lullabies. The disc reached #78 in Billboard. Ronstadt was awarded a Grammy in the Best Musical Album for Children category. In 1998 Ronstadt released We Ran, her first album in over two years. The disc harkened back to Ronstadt's country-rock and folk-rock heyday. She returned to her rock 'n' roll roots with vivid interpretations of songs by Bruce Springsteen, Doc Pomus, Bob Dylan and John Hiatt. The recording was produced by Glyn Johns. A commercial failure, the album stands—at 60,000 copies sold at the time of its deletion in 2008—as the poorest selling studio album in Linda's Elektra/Asylum catalogue. We Ran did not chart any singles but it was well received by critics. Despite the lack of success of We Ran, Ronstadt kept towards this adult rock exploration. She released Western Wall — The Tucson Sessions in the summer of 1999—a folk-rock oriented project with EmmyLou Harris. It earned a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Folk Album, and made the Top 10 of Billboard's Country Albums chart (#73 on the main Billboard album chart). However, it would sell roughly half the number of copies that Trio II sold and had gone out of print as of December 2010. Also in 1999, Ronstadt went back to her concert roots, when she performed with the Eagles and Jackson Browne at Staples Center's 1999 New Year's Eve celebration kicking off the December 31 end-of-the-millennium festivities. As Staples Center Senior Vice President and General Manager Bobby Goldwater said, "It was our goal to present a spectacular event as a sendoff to the 20th century", and "Eagles, Jackson Browne, and Linda Ronstadt are three of the most popular acts of the century. Their performances will constitute a singular and historic night of entertainment for New Year's Eve in Los Angeles." In 2000 Linda Ronstadt completed her long contractual relationship with the Elektra/Asylum Records label. The fulfillment of this contract commenced with the release of A Merry Little Christmas, Linda's first holiday collection, which included rare choral works, the somber Joni Mitchell song "River", and a rare recorded duet with the late Rosemary Clooney on her (Clooney's) signature song, "White Christmas". Since leaving Warner Music, Ronstadt has gone on to release one album each under the Verve and Vanguard Record labels. "Your musical soul is like facets of a jewel, and you stick out one facet at a time ... (and) I tend to work real hard on whatever it is I do, to get it up to speed, up to a professional level. I tend to bury myself in one thing for years at a time." In 2006, recording as the ZoZo Sisters, Ronstadt teamed with her then-new friend, musician and musical scholar Ann Savoy, to record Adieu False Heart. It was an album of roots music incorporating pop, Cajun, and early 20th century music and released on the Vanguard Records label. But Adieu False Heart was a commercial failure, peaking at #146 in the U.S., and turned out to be the final new Linda Ronstadt album. Adieu False Heart, recorded in Louisiana, features a cast of local musicians, including Chas Justus, Eric Frey and Kevin Wimmer of the Red Stick Ramblers, Sam Broussard of The Mamou Playboys, Dirk Powell and Joel Savoy, as well as an array of Nashville musicians: fiddler Stuart Duncan, mandolinist Sam Bush and guitarist Bryan Sutton. The recording earned two Grammy nominations: Best Traditional Folk Album and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical. In 2007, Ronstadt could be heard on the compilation LP We All Love Ella: Celebrating the First Lady of Song--a tribute album to jazz music's all-time most heralded artist—on the track "Miss Otis Regrets."[109] In the summer of 2007 Ronstadt headlined the Newport Folk Festival, making her debut at this prestigious event, where she incorporated jazz, rock and folk music into her repertoire. [edit] Selected list of career achievements As of 2015, Linda Ronstadt has earned three #1 Pop albums, ten Top 10 Pop albums and 36 charting Pop albums on the Billboard Pop Album Charts. On Billboard (magazine)'s Top Country Albums chart, she has charted 15 albums including ten Top 10s and four that hit #1. Also—as of 2015—Ronstadt's singles have earned her a #1 hit and three #2 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 (with ten Top 10 Pop singles and twenty-one reaching the 'Top 40' overall). Additionally she has scored two #1 hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, and two #1 hits and on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart. Linda has recorded and released well over 30 studio albums and has made guest appearances on an estimated 120 other albums. Her guest appearances included the classical minimalist Philip Glass's album Songs from Liquid Days, a hit Classical record with other major Pop stars either singing or writing lyrics, she also appeared on Glass's follow up recording; 1000 Airplanes on the Roof, an appearance on Paul Simon's Graceland, she voiced herself in The Simpsons episode "Mr. Plow" and sang a duet "Funny How Time Slips Away" with Homer Simpson on The Yellow Album. Ronstadt has also recorded on albums with artists as diverse as Billy Eckstine, Emmylou Harris, The Chieftains, Dolly Parton, Neil Young, J. D. Souther, Gram Parsons, Bette Midler, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Earl Scruggs, The Eagles, Andrew Gold, Hoyt Axton, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Mark Goldenberg, Ann Savoy, Karla Bonoff, James Taylor, Warren Zevon, Maria Muldaur, Randy Newman, Nicolette Larson, the Seldom Scene, Rosemary Clooney, Aaron Neville, Rodney Crowell, Hearts and Flowers, Teresa, Laurie Lewis, Yanka Runpika and Flaco Jiménez. Linda's three biggest-selling studio albums to date are her 1977 release Simple Dreams, 1983's What's New, and 1989's Cry Like A Rainstorm, Howl Like The Wind, each one certified by the Recording Industry Association of America for over 3 million copies sold. Her highest-selling album to date is the 1976 compilation, Greatest Hits, certified for over 7 million units sold in 2001. Linda Ronstadt became music's first major touring female artist, selling out major venues, and she also became the top-grossing solo female concert artist for the 1970s. Ronstadt remained a highly successful touring artist into the 1990s at which time she decided to 'scale back' to smaller venues. Cash Box magazine—fierce competition to Billboard in the 1970s—named Linda Ronstadt the '#1 Female Artist of the Decade'. Linda's RIAA certifications (audits paid for by record companies or artist for promotion) tally (as of 2001), totals 19 Gold, 14 Platinum and 7 Multi-Platinum albums. Ronstadt's album sales have not been certified since 2001, and at the time, Ronstadt's U.S. album sales were certified by the RIAA at well over 30 million albums sold while Peter Asher, her former producer and manager, placed her total U.S. album sales at over 45 million. Likewise, her worldwide albums sales are in excess of 100 million albums sold. She was the first female in music history to score three Platinum albums and ultimately racked up a total of eight consecutive platinum albums between 1974 and 1980. Her album Living In The USA is the first album by any recording act in U.S. music history to ship Double Platinum (over 2 million advanced copies). Linda's first Latin release, the all-Spanish 1987 album, Canciones De Mi Padre stands as the best-selling non-English-language album in U.S. music history. As of 2015, it had sold over 2½ million U.S. copies. Global sales are estimated to be as high as 9 million. Ronstadt has served as record producer on various albums from musicians such as her cousin David Lindley and Aaron Neville to singer-songwriter Jimmy Webb. She produced Cristal — Glass Music Through the Ages, an album of classical music using glass instruments with Dennis James, and Ronstadt singing on several of the arrangements. In 1999, Ronstadt also produced the Gold-certified, Grammy Award-winning Trio Two album. Linda Ronstadt has received a total of 27 Grammy Award nominations in various fields including Rock, Country, Pop, Tropical Latin, Contemporary Folk, Mexican-American, and Children's. She has won 11 competitive Grammy Awards and was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Grammy in 2011. Ronstadt was the first female solo artist to have two Top 40 singles simultaneously on Billboard magazine's Hot 100: "Blue Bayou" and "It's So Easy" (October 1977). By December, both "Blue Bayou" and "It's So Easy" had climbed into Billboard's Top 5 and remained there for the entire month. As a singer-songwriter Ronstadt has also written songs covered by several artists, such as "Try Me Again" covered by Trisha Yearwood and "Winter Light" which was co-written and composed with Zbigniew Preisner and Eric Kaz, and covered by Sarah Brightman. Ronstadt has elected to sing songs written by a diverse group of artist including Lowell George, Zevon, Costello, Souther, Newman, Patty Griffin. Sinéad O'Connor, Julie Miller, Mel Tillis, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, John Hiatt, Joe Melson, Seldom Scene, Bruce Springsteen, George Jones, Tracy Nelson, the Flying Burrito Brothers, Little Feat, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Chuck Berry, the Everly Brothers, Brian Wilson, the Rolling Stones, the Miracles, Oscar Hammerstein II, Roy Orbison and Buddy Holly and the Crickets. Rolling Stone Magazine writes, a whole generation "but for her, might never have heard the work of Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, or Elvis Costello." "Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" included Heart Like A Wheel (1974) at #164 and The Very Best Of Linda Ronstadt (2002) at #324. In 1999, Ronstadt ranked #21 in VH1's 100 Greatest Women of Rock & Roll. Three years later, she ranked #40 in CMT's 40 Greatest Women in Country Music. Linda was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease in December of 2012. She released her best-selling autobiography, 'Simple Dreams - A Musical Memior', in 2013. It debuted in the Top 10 of The New York Times Best Sellers List. In 2014, she was inducted into The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. That same year, Ronstadt was awarded The National Medal of Arts from US President Barack Obama. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

Starship is an American pop/rock band best known for their hits "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" and "We Built This City" that operated from 1985 to 1989, reforming in 1992 although featuring just vocalist Mickey Thomas. In 1984, singer-songwriter Paul Kantner left the San Francisco, California group Jefferson Starship. His former bandmates wanted to continue with that name, but Kantner, as the last founding member of Jefferson Airplane, took legal action over the "Jefferson" name. Kantner settled out of court and signed an agreement that neither party would use the names "Jefferson" or "Airplane" unless all members of Jefferson Airplane, Inc. (made up of Bill Thompson, Paul Kantner, Grace Slick, Jorma Kaukonen, and Jack Casady) agreed. The band then took the name "Starship". Keyboard player David Freiberg, who had been increasingly marginalized, left as well. In contrast to Paul Kantner's more experimental and progressive rock direction, Starship moved towards a sleek arena rock direction reminiscent of contemporaries Foreigner and Journey. In 1985, the band, based primarily around dual vocalists Mickey Thomas and Grace Slick, released 'Knee Deep in the Hoopla' and immediately scored two #1 hits. The first was "We Built This City", written by the team of Bernie Taupin, Martin Page, Dennis Lambert, and Peter Wolf (producer), which was inspired by Bay Area rock n roll station KSAN-FM. That song was trashed at the time by Kantner and later criticized by co-singer Grace Slick, and it was later declared to be the "worst song of all time" by Blender magazine. VH1 also named it the number-one "Most Awesomely Bad Song" on a top-50 countdown co-sponsored with Blender. However, it became something like a 'signature song' for Starship and has continued to receive major airplay. The band's second #1 was "Sara"; no previous incarnation of Jefferson Airplane/Starship had had a #1 hit. 'Knee Deep in the Hoopla' itself reached #7, went platinum, and spawned two more singles: "Tomorrow Doesn't Matter Tonight" (#26), and "Before I Go" (#68). In 1987, "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" was featured in the film 'Mannequin' and hit #1, although only Slick and Thomas (plus Craig Chaquico's guitar solo) appeared on it. This song made Slick the oldest female vocalist to sing on a number-one Billboard Hot 100 hit, at the age of 47 (a record that she held until Cher broke it at age 53 in 1999 with "Believe".) The following year, with the new members Mark Morgan (keyboard) and Brett Bloomfield (bass) added. the band's song "Wild Again" (which reached #78 on the Billboard singles chart) was used in the movie 'Cocktail'.