Sunday Drive: My Funny Valentine

For M.P.

The Rodgers and Hart classic, as sung by Linda Ronstadt, an American treasure (official lyric video):

-----

Sunday Drive: Blue Bayou

Three versions of one of your Head Trucker's favorite songs.  Take your pick.

Roy Orbison and friends:

 

Linda Rondstadt: 

 

Emmylou Harris, Bonnie Rait, and Carrie Underwood:

-----

Silent Songbird

I'm sure many of my truckbuddies who are around my age are saddened, as I was, to hear that Linda Ronstadt's golden voice, part of the sound track of our lives, is now silenced by Parkinson's disease.  But though she cannot now sing a note, as she puts it, one of the greatest American voices ever heard will echo down the ages through the magic of recording technology - like a

happy melodist, unwearied,
For ever piping songs for ever new.

A commenter at the New Yorker's paean to Ronstadt's career nails the essence of her great talent:

. . . underlying the great singing was a very pure voice with a range wider than that of most of her contemporaries. She also had perfect pitch and could sing in tune. Never did she have to "slide" up to a note (unless she wanted to for style's sake) and she always nailed every interval, no matter how unusual it might have been. Finally, she understood the importance of dynamic range-- something missing in most pop music. That is, she could and did sing softly as well as loudly.

In short, she made the songs she sang into works of art.

Here are just four of my favorites by Linda from her vast repertoire - what are yours?

Standard Time: Frenesi

Nothing much worth writing about at the moment, so here's a favorite tune of your Head Trucker's. First, the definitive 1940 recording by the great Artie Shaw and his orchestra:



Which I dearly love. But oh look how a great singer can infuse it with Latin flame, as demonstrated by the beautiful Linda Ronstadt: