“Like Trying to Catch Mercury”: Linda Ronstadt on the Classic Top 10 Album That Almost Never Came To Be

The fact that Linda Ronstadt doesn’t listen to—or even like—most of her albums is well-known but nevertheless shocking, given the multi-genre singer’s immense influence on modern music. (And not just because she inadvertently helped foster the creation of The Eagles.) But what’s even more surprising is that one of Ronstadt’s most beloved albums, which was a commercial success by definition, almost never came to be. In an unearthed interview from the 1970s, Ronstadt revealed the surprising reasons why Don’t Cry Now nearly perished on the cutting room floor.

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Some explanations were understandable. Others evoked the same (delusional?) humility that leads Ronstadt to cringe when she hears her old records.

Linda Ronstadt Said She “Forgot How to Sing” During ‘Don’t Cry Now’ Sessions

From her vocal clarity to her expressive phrasing to the way she can manipulate her timbre to fit anything from rock ‘n’ roll to country to soul to ranchera, Linda Ronstadt is one of the most influential singers of the 20th century (no matter what her overt modesty has to say about it). Reviews for the singer’s fourth album, Don’t Cry Now, praised her vocals specifically. With songs like “Silver Threads and Golden Needles”, “Desperado” (yes, that one), and “I Believe in You”, Ronstadt’s October 1973 release was a commercial success. It peaked at a humble No. 45 on the Billboard 200. But Don’t Cry Now had great numbers on the Top Country Albums chart, hitting No. 5.

But when asked about the album during the 1970s interview, Ronstadt grimaced as she tried to come up with an explanation for why Don’t Cry Now took longer to record than any of her previous albums. “I forgot how to sing in the middle of it somehow,” Ronstadt said. (See what we mean about delusional humility?) “It was like going to the dentist every day, you know? We would find these tones, and they would sort of miraculously slip away. It was like trying to catch on to mercury, you know?”

Ronstadt continued, “I was in a very bad frame of mind during that time. I was very discouraged, and I thought I was a terrible singer, and I was going through that number. My personal life was in shambles at that point. It always is, but especially in shambles then. I was on the road all of the time, and I was just very depressed, you know? It’s really hard to be creative when you’re depressed.”

A Song From That Album Helped Pave the Way for New Rock Icons

Interestingly, one of the songs on the album that almost never was would serve as Linda Ronstadt’s introduction to Don Henley, who was playing drums for a band called Shiloh at the time. Ronstadt was watching Shiloh at the Troubadour, the iconic West Hollywood club, when she realized the band was playing her version of “Silver Threads and Golden Needles”, the third track of Don’t Cry Now.

“The guitar player learned the solo note-for-note off the record,” Ronstadt recalled. “I was just walking to the bathroom, you know. You had to go through the club to get to the bathroom from the bar. I just went, ‘What?! That’s that solo.’ I thought, ‘God, what? You know, I was appalled that anyone would actually sit down with one of my records and learn the solo [like] a Led Zeppelin record or something.”

The ear-catching performance helped Ronstadt notice Henley’s drumming. She asked him to join her road band, which at that point already included Glenn Frey. Frey and Henley were roommates while touring with Ronstadt, which inevitably led them to write and play music together during their downtime on the road. This would serve as the foundation for The Eagles, which would go on to become one of the biggest bands of the latter half of the 20th century.

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