Heart Like a Wheel
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| Heart Like a Wheel | ||||
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| Studio album by Linda Ronstadt | ||||
| Released | November 1974 | |||
| Recorded | June–September 1974 | |||
| Genre | Rock, country rock | |||
| Length | 32:19 | |||
| Label | Capitol | |||
| Producer | Peter Asher | |||
| Linda Ronstadt chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Heart Like a Wheel | ||||
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Heart Like a Wheel is Linda Ronstadt's Grammy Award-winning fifth solo album recording and the last of her studio projects for Capitol Records, released in late 1974.
Contents
History
Owing Capitol one more album on her contract, Ronstadt brought in producer Peter Asher, who had worked on her previous album Don't Cry Now, and multi-instrumentalist and arranger Andrew Gold. The collaborative efforts of Asher and Gold have been credited over the years as contributing significantly to the album's artistic success. Several tracks have string arrangements by Gregory Rose.
The result, a more refined and streamlined mix of country and rock than her previous releases, proved to be Ronstadt's commercial breakthrough. Critics later said the album, with less of a folk influence, standardized the musical formula for her subsequent albums in the 1970s. Released in late 1974, Heart Like a Wheel became the first of her three number 1 peaks on the Billboard album chart starting February 15, 1975, alongside the number 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100, "You're No Good." Ronstadt was featured for the first of six times on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine in its March 27, 1975, issue. The B-side of the single for "You're No Good", a cover of Hank Williams's "I Can't Help It (If I'm Still in Love With You)," peaked at number 2 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart.[1]
Although her major successes were in the pop/rock field, Ronstadt also had great success in the country music field. Heart Like A Wheel spent four weeks at number 1 on Billboards Country Albums chart in early 1975. The follow-up single release, a rockified version of the Everly Brothers' "When Will I Be Loved," spent two weeks at number 2 on the Hot 100 in June 1975 and reached number 1 on the Cash Box Pop singles chart. It also became Ronstadt's first number 1 hit on the Hot Country Songs chart. The B-side of "When Will I Be Loved," a melancholy version of a Buddy Holly & the Crickets song, "It Doesn't Matter Anymore", subsequently climbed the Pop, Adult Contemporary and Country charts.[2]
Reception
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |  [3] |
| Robert Christgau | A-[4] |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [5] |
Heart Like a Wheel was well regarded from its initial release. Stephen Holden in his review for Rolling Stone found her voice on the album "totally, irresistibly sexy."[6] And later marking it as a classic, Allmusic wrote that "it stands as a landmark of '70s mainstream pop/rock."[3]
Heart Like a Wheel spent 51 weeks on the album chart.[7] Based on her performance on the singles and album charts, Billboard magazine named Ronstadt the top female pop artist of the year. The album was certified Gold in January 1975 by the Recording Industry Association of America and belatedly both Platinum and Double Platinum in 1991.
Ronstadt won her first of a record 11 Grammy Awards in early 1976 for Best Country Vocal Performance Female for "I Can't Help It (If I'm Still In Love With You)." She was also nominated for Best Pop Vocal Performance Female (losing to Janis Ian for "At Seventeen"), and the album was nominated for Album Of The Year (losing to Paul Simon's Still Crazy After All These Years).
In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Heart Like a Wheel at number 164 on its list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.[8] It was added to the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress on April 2, 2014 for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Track listing
| Side one | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
| 1. | "You're No Good" | Clint Ballard, Jr. | 3:44 |
| 2. | "It Doesn't Matter Anymore" | Paul Anka | 3:26 |
| 3. | "Faithless Love" | J. D. Souther | 3:15 |
| 4. | "The Dark End of the Street" | Chips Moman, Dan Penn | 3:55 |
| 5. | "Heart Like a Wheel" | Anna McGarrigle | 3:10 |
| Side two | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
| 1. | "When Will I Be Loved" | Phil Everly | 2:04 |
| 2. | "Willin'" | Lowell George | 3:02 |
| 3. | "I Can't Help It (If I'm Still in Love with You)" | Hank Williams | 2:45 |
| 4. | "Keep Me from Blowing Away" | Paul Craft | 3:10 |
| 5. | "You Can Close Your Eyes" | James Taylor | 3:09 |
Personnel
- Linda Ronstadt – lead and background vocals
- Andrew Gold – guitar, percussion, piano, drums, keyboards, electric piano, tambourine, ukulele, background vocals
- Peter Asher – guitar, percussion, background vocals, cowbell
- Ed Black – guitar
- John Boylan – guitar
- David Campbell – viola, string arrangements
- Paul Craft – guitar
- Kenny Edwards – bass, background vocals
- Chris Ethridge – bass
- Jimmie Fadden – harmonica
- Richard Feves – bass
- Glenn Frey – guitar
- Emory Gordy – bass
- Tom Guidera – bass
- Emmylou Harris – harmony vocals
- Don Henley – drums, background vocals
- Dennis Karmazyn – cello
- Sneaky Pete Kleinow – pedal steel guitar
- Russ Kunkel – drums
- Lloyd Myers – drums
- David Lindley – fiddle
- Cissy Houston – background vocals
- Sherlie Matthews – background vocals
- Maria Muldaur – background vocals
- Clydie King – background vocals
- Wendy Waldman – background vocals
- Joyce Nesbitt – background vocals
- Herb Pedersen – banjo, background vocals
- Danny Pendleton – pedal steel guitar
- Dennis St. John – drums
- Timothy B. Schmit – bass
- J. D. Souther – guitar, lead and background vocals
- John Starling – guitar
- Bob Warford – guitar
- Gregory Rose - string arrangements
Production notes:
- Peter Asher – producer
- Gregory Rose – conductor, string arrangements
- George Massenburg – engineer
- Peter Kelsey – engineer
- Peter Swettenham – engineer
- John Haeny – engineer
- David Hassinger – engineer, mixing
- Val Garay – engineer, mixing
- Dennis Ferrante – engineer
- Bernie Grundman – mastering
- Rod Dyer – design
- Leandro Correa – photography
- Eve Babitz – photography
Chart positions
| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 1975 | Billboard 200 | 1[9] |
Reissues
| Year | Label | Edition |
|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Audio Fidelity | 24 Karat Gold HDCD |
References
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- ↑ Linda Ronstadt > Charts & Awards > Billboard Singles at AllMusic. Retrieved 28 July 2006.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. Heart Like a Wheel at AllMusic. Retrieved 3 December 2005.
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- ↑ Heart Like a Wheel - Linda Ronstadt > Charts & Awards > Billboard Album at AllMusic. Retrieved 26 March 2008.
External links
- Heart Like a Wheel at Myspace (streamed copy where licensed)
- Album online on Radio3Net a radio channel of Romanian Radio Broadcasting Company
| Preceded by
Fire by Ohio Players
|
Billboard 200 number-one album February 15–21, 1975 |
Succeeded by AWB by Average White Band |
| Stone Poneys albums | |
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| Studio albums |
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| Collaborations | |
| Compilations | |
| Hit singles |
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| Related topics | |
