| What's New | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | September 12, 1983 | |||
| Recorded | June 30, 1982 – March 4, 1983 | |||
| Studio | The Complex, Los Angeles | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 36:35 | |||
| Label | Asylum | |||
| Producer | Peter Asher | |||
| Linda Ronstadt chronology | ||||
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| Singles from What's New | ||||
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What's New is an album of traditional pop standards released by American singer Linda Ronstadt in 1983. It represents the first in a trilogy of 1980s albums Ronstadt recorded with arranger Nelson Riddle. John Kosh designed the album covers for all three albums.
The album was a major change in direction because Ronstadt was then considered the leading female vocalist in rock. [2] [3] [4] Both her record company and manager, Peter Asher, were very reluctant to produce this album with Ronstadt, but eventually her determination won them over and the albums exposed a whole new generation to the sounds of the pre-swing and swing eras. [5] The one-time popular music sung by Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett, Rosemary Clooney, Peggy Lee, and their contemporaries was relegated in the 1960s and 1970s to Las Vegas club acts and elevator music. Ronstadt later remarked that she did her part in rescuing these songs which she called "little jewels of artistic expression" from "spending the rest of their lives riding up and down on the elevators." [6] The album's second single, "I've Got a Crush on You" had already been part of Ronstadt's repertoire for several years, as she'd performed it during a 1980 appearance on The Muppet Show .
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |    [7] |
| Robert Christgau | C− [8] |
| Rolling Stone | [9] |
| Time | [10] |
What's New was released in September 1983 and spent 81 weeks on the main Billboard album chart. Its release came as the radio programming format known as Adult Standards was taking off via programming concepts such as Music of Your Life, which specialized in returning pre-rock popular music and the songs of the Great American Songbook to the American airwaves. The album held the number 3 position for five consecutive weeks while Michael Jackson's Thriller and Lionel Richie's Can't Slow Down locked in the number 1 and number 2 album positions. The album also reached number 2 on the jazz albums chart. It was RIAA certified Triple Platinum for sales of over 3 million copies in the United States alone. Global sales surpassed five million. The album also earned Ronstadt another Grammy Award nomination for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female alongside Donna Summer, Bonnie Tyler, Irene Cara and Sheena Easton, all of whom performed live on the 1984 Grammy telecast. Two singles, the title song and "I've Got a Crush on You," became hits on Adult Contemporary radio stations, with the title song also reaching number 53 on the Billboard Hot 100.
All tracks are also included in the compilation "'Round Midnight", released on Asylum Records in 1986.
Stephen Holden of The New York Times noted the significance of the album to popular culture when he wrote that What's New "isn't the first album by a rock singer to pay tribute to the golden age of pop, but is ... the best and most serious attempt to rehabilitate an idea of pop that Beatlemania and the mass marketing of rock LPs for teen-agers undid in the mid-60s. In the decade prior to Beatlemania, most of the great band singers and crooners of the 40s and 50s codified a half-century of American pop standards on dozens of albums, many of them now long out-of-print." [11]
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "What's New?" | Johnny Burke, Bob Haggart | 3:55 |
| 2. | "I've Got a Crush on You" | George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin | 3:28 |
| 3. | "Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out to Dry" | Sammy Cahn, Jule Styne | 4:13 |
| 4. | "Crazy He Calls Me" | Carl Sigman, Sidney Keith Russell | 3:33 |
| 5. | "Someone to Watch Over Me" | George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin | 4:09 |
| 6. | "I Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance with You" | Bing Crosby, Ned Washington, Victor Young | 4:06 |
| 7. | "What'll I Do" | Irving Berlin | 4:06 |
| 8. | "Lover Man (Oh Where Can You Be?)" | Jimmy Davis, Jimmy Sherman, Roger "Ram" Ramirez | 4:18 |
| 9. | "Goodbye" | Gordon Jenkins | 4:47 |
| Total length: | 36:35 | ||
| Chart (1983–84) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australia (Kent Music Report) [12] | 26 |
| Canadian RPM Top Albums | 18 |
| United Kingdom (Official Charts Company) | 31 |
| United States (Billboard 200) | 3 |
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| Canada (Music Canada) [13] | Platinum | 100,000^ |
| United States (RIAA) [14] | 3× Platinum | 3,000,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. | ||
| Region | Date | Format | Label | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| North America | September 12, 1983 |
| Asylum Records | [15] |
Linda Maria Ronstadt is an American singer who has performed and recorded in diverse genres including rock, country, light opera, the Great American Songbook, and Latin music.
Nelson Smock Riddle Jr. was an American arranger, composer, bandleader and orchestrator whose career stretched from the late 1940s to the mid-1980s. He worked with many vocalists at Capitol Records, including Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, Judy Garland, Dean Martin, Peggy Lee, Johnny Mathis, Rosemary Clooney and Keely Smith. He scored and arranged music for many films and television shows, earning an Academy Award and three Grammy Awards. He found commercial and critical success with a new generation in the 1980s, in a trio of Platinum albums with Linda Ronstadt.
Heart Like a Wheel is the fifth solo studio album by Linda Ronstadt, released in November 1974. It was Ronstadt's last album to be released by Capitol Records. At the time of its recording, Ronstadt had already moved to Asylum Records and released her first album there; due to contractual obligations, though, Heart Like a Wheel was released by Capitol.
The Great American Songbook is the loosely defined canon of significant 20th-century American jazz standards, popular songs, and show tunes.
Trio is a collaborative album by American singers Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, and Emmylou Harris. It was released on March 2, 1987, by Warner Bros. Records. The album has platinum certification in the U.S. for sales of one million copies, and has total worldwide sales of approximately four million. A second collaborative album, Trio II, was released in 1999.
Canciones de mi padre is American singer Linda Ronstadt's first album of Mexican traditional Mariachi music.
Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind is a studio album by American singer/producer Linda Ronstadt, released in October 1989 by Elektra Records. Produced by Peter Asher, the album features several duets with singer Aaron Neville — two of which earned Grammy Awards — and several songs written by Jimmy Webb and Karla Bonoff. The album was a major success internationally. It sold over three million copies and was certified Triple Platinum in the United States alone.
"Don't Know Much" is a song written by Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil and Tom Snow. Mann was the first to record the song in 1980, gaining a minor chart hit in the US. The song was made famous when it was covered as a duet by Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville in 1989. Their version was a worldwide success, topping the Irish Singles Chart and reaching the top 10 in several territories.
Prisoner In Disguise (1975) is Linda Ronstadt's sixth solo LP release and her second for the label Asylum Records. It followed Ronstadt's multi-platinum breakthrough album, Heart Like a Wheel, which became her first number one album on the US Billboard 200 album chart in early 1975.
Get Closer is the eleventh studio album by singer Linda Ronstadt, released in 1982.
Hasten Down the Wind is the seventh studio album by Linda Ronstadt. Released in 1976, it became her third straight million-selling album. Ronstadt was the first female artist to accomplish this feat. The album earned her a Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female in 1977, her second of 13 Grammys. It represented a slight departure from 1974's Heart Like a Wheel and 1975's Prisoner in Disguise in that she chose to showcase new songwriters over the traditional country rock sound she had been producing up to that point. A more serious and poignant album than its predecessors, it won critical acclaim.
Simple Dreams is the eighth studio album by the American singer Linda Ronstadt, released in 1977 by Asylum Records. It includes several of her best-known songs, including her cover of the Rolling Stones song "Tumbling Dice" and her version of the Roy Orbison song "Blue Bayou", which earned her a Grammy nomination for Record of the Year. The album also contains covers of the Buddy Holly song "It's So Easy!" and the Warren Zevon songs "Poor Poor Pitiful Me" and "Carmelita".
Living in the USA is the ninth studio album by American singer Linda Ronstadt, released in 1978. The album was Ronstadt's third and final No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart.
Mad Love is the tenth studio album by singer Linda Ronstadt, released in 1980. It debuted at #5 on the Billboard album chart, a record at the time and a first for any female artist, and quickly became her seventh consecutive album to sell over one million copies. It was certified platinum and nominated for a Grammy.
Winter Light is an album by American singer Linda Ronstadt, released in late 1993 to critical acclaim and commercial disappointment.
Lush Life is an album by American singer Linda Ronstadt, released in November 1984 on Asylum Records as the second in a trilogy of jazz albums with bandleader/arranger Nelson Riddle. All three album covers were designed by John Kosh.
For Sentimental Reasons is an album by American singer Linda Ronstadt, released in late 1986. The album peaked at #46 on Billboard 200, as well as #3 on the Top Jazz Albums chart.
Frenesí is a 1992 Grammy Award-winning album by American singer Linda Ronstadt.
Feels Like Home is a studio album by American singer Linda Ronstadt released in 1995. It reached #75 and lasted 12 weeks on the Billboard album chart. It received excellent critical reviews upon release. According to Nielsen SoundScan, the disc sold 188,815 copies in the United States. This album is now out of print physically, although it is available digitally and five of its tracks were remixed and subsequently included on Trio II.
The Hollywood Musicals is an album by American pop singer Johnny Mathis and American composer/conductor Henry Mancini that was released on October 17, 1986, by Columbia Records. This project heralded Mathis's return to the genre of traditional pop, which he would revisit occasionally over the next few decades.
