Greatest Hits (Linda Ronstadt album)

Greatest Hits
Greatest hits album by
Linda Ronstadt
ReleasedDecember 1, 1976
Recorded1967, 1970, 1973-1976
GenreRock, country rock, folk rock
Length37:33
LabelAsylum
Producervarious
Linda Ronstadt chronology
Hasten Down the Wind
(1976) 		Greatest Hits
(1976) 		Simple Dreams
(1977)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[1]
Christgau's Record GuideB+[2]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[3]
Sounds[4]

Greatest Hits is Linda Ronstadt's first major compilation album, released at the end of 1976 for the holiday shopping season. It includes material from both her Capitol Records and Asylum Records output, and goes back to 1967 for The Stone Poneys' hit "Different Drum."

It remains the biggest-selling album of Ronstadt's career, being certified seven times Platinum (over 7 million US copies shipped) by the Recording Industry Association of America[5] in America alone, with 1.87 million units consumed after 1991 when SoundScan started tracking sales.[6] It peaked at No. 6 on the main Billboard album chart and also reached No. 2 on Billboard's Top Country Albums chart, where it remained for over three years.

The album was criticized by the Rolling Stone Record Guide for being "premature," as Ronstadt continued to have record-breaking mainstream successes for many years following this release. By the time this collection came out, however, Ronstadt had already been recording hit records (as a solo artist and with the Stone Poneys) for a decade, and there were many examples of other artists releasing greatest hits albums much sooner, such as Elvis Presley.

In terms of being released while the performer was still in the midst of their career, this collection is unusual for a major artist in that it compiled works from two unrelated labels thanks to, as the sleeve states, a "special arrangement" between Asylum and Capitol; this overlap mirrors the situation in which Ronstadt briefly alternated releasing albums between Capitol and Asylum in 1973–74 in order to fulfil her contract with Capitol.[7]

  1. ^ Allmusic review
  2. ^ Christgau, Robert (1981). "Consumer Guide '70s: R". Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies. Ticknor & Fields. ISBN 089919026X. Retrieved March 12, 2019 – via robertchristgau.com.
  3. ^ Brackett, Nathan; Christian Hoard (2004). The Rolling Stone Album Guide. New York City, New York: Simon and Schuster. p. 701. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8. rolling stone linda ronstadt album guide.
  4. ^ Charone, Barbara (25 December 1976). "The Best of George Harrison (Asylum K53055)" (PDF). Sounds. p. 15. Archived from the original (PDF) on 31 January 2023. Retrieved 3 August 2023.
  5. ^ "Searchable Database - Search: Linda Ronstadt". RIAA. Retrieved December 10, 2013.
  6. ^ Bjorke, Matt (January 7, 2020). "Country Music's Most-Consumed Albums Chart for January 7, 2020". RoughStock. Retrieved January 15, 2020.
  7. ^ Moore, Mary Ellen (1978). The Linda Ronstadt Scrapbook: An Illustrated Biography. New York: Grosset & Dunlap. p. 61. ISBN 0-441-48411-5.