The Best of Linda Ronstadt

1	When Will I Be Loved?
2	(Love Is Like A) Heat Wave
3	You're No Good
4	It's So Easy
5	Blue Bayou
6	Just One Look
7	Different Drum / Stone Poneys
8	Poor, Poor Pitiful Me
9	Tracks of My Tears
10	That'll Be the Day
11	Ooh Baby Baby
12	Long Long Time
13	Back in the U.S.A.
14	Love Is a Rose
15	Hurt So Bad
16	Heart Like a Wheel
17	Adios
18	Somewhere Out There / James Ingram
19	Don't Know Much / Aaron Neville
20	All My Life / Aaron Neville
21	Winter Light

Barnes & Noble

As a succinct, emotionally riveting alternative to her 1999 box set, The Very Best of Linda Ronstadt is about as close to perfect as a single-disc retrospective can be. Its 21 cuts run the gamut from her folk-rock and country stylings ("Different Drum" and "Long Long Time") to the state-of-the-art West Coast rock of her superstar years in the '70s (exemplified by her 1978 cover of Warren Zevon's propulsive "Poor Poor Pitiful Me"). The set also spotlights her stirring, hard-edged approach to rock and soul classics such as Smokey Robinson's "Tracks of My Tears" and Phil Everly's "When Will I Be Loved" as well as gorgeous ballads, such as her haunting treatment of Roy Orbison's "Blue Bayou" and her soul-baring take on Anna McGarrigle's "Heart like a Wheel." Three sublime duets demonstrate Ronstadt's remarkable capacity for individual statement within the context of a musical dialogue: the soaring "Somewhere Out There," with James Ingram, and two tête-à-têtes with Aaron Neville, the string-laden love song "Don't Know Much" and "All My Life." The disc closes with one of her most ethereal performances, 1993's "Winter Light," which floats a ghostly, Enya-like vocal above stately piano accompaniment and a gauzy wash of strings. Here, Ronstadt's at the top of her range, weaving a spell on the strength of vocal timbre, relegating the lyrics to footnote status. It's a long way from "Different Drum," but the journey is never less than invigorating. David McGee

All Music Guide

If Rhino had merely combined Linda Ronstadt's Greatest Hits, Vol. 1 and volume two, they would have a compilation that captured her at her peak. They didn't do that for 2002's The Very Best of Linda Ronstadt, but they did follow that basic blueprint very closely, with 16 of the 21 songs culled from her '70s heyday, with the remaining five drawing from her late-'80s/early-'90s adult contemporary comeback, including "Don't' Know Much" and "Somewhere out There." That these songs don't quite fit musically with the laid-back Californian soft rock of the '70s doesn't matter, nor does it matter that her excursions into other genres -- her traditional pop albums with Nelson Riddle, her Mexican records, her country albums with Trio -- are missing ("Different Drum" with the Stone Poneys is here), because this collection expertly delivers her biggest hits in an enjoyable fashion with very little fat. Those original hits records remain first-rate, but it's nicer to get all of these on one disc instead of two. Stephen Thomas Erlewine