Linda Ronstadt

Linda Ronstadt was the best-selling female rock artist of the 1970s, and her voice — a three-and-a-half-octave instrument of extraordinary power and control — drove a career that spanned country rock, new wave, opera, mariachi, and Great American Songbook standards. On Heart Like a Wheel (1974), produced by Peter Asher at Sound Factory Studios in Los Angeles, Ronstadt's vocal microphone — a Shure SM58, the industry standard for live performance that Asher also used in the studio for its warmth and presence — captured a voice that could shift from delicate country phrasing to full-throated rock power within a single line. Ronstadt's relationship with her backing musicians was essential: Andrew Gold's guitar work (on a Gibson Les Paul and Fender Telecaster) and Kenny Edwards' bass provided the instrumental foundation, while Asher's production layered acoustic guitars, pedal steel, and strings behind Ronstadt's voice. She played a Gibson J-45 acoustic guitar on many recordings and live performances — her rhythm guitar anchoring the folk-rock arrangements on songs like "You're No Good" and "Blue Bayou." On Simple Dreams (1977), which sold over four million copies in its first year, Asher pushed the production toward a bigger, more rock-oriented sound: Waddy Wachtel's electric guitar work (through Marshall amplifiers) sat alongside Ronstadt's acoustic, while Dan Dugmore's pedal steel provided the country counterpoint. For the new wave–influenced Mad Love (1980), Ronstadt hired Elvis Costello's producer Nick Lowe and recorded three Costello songs, adapting her powerful voice to shorter, punchier arrangements driven by electric guitars and a stripped-down rhythm section. Her voice, more than any specific instrument or production choice, was the through line — and when Parkinson's disease ended her singing career in 2009, music lost one of its most versatile and technically gifted performers.