What's New LP by Linda Ronstadt

I don't think I ever said it was a new concept. I'm well aware of the long history of standards in country, and jazz for that matter.

My point was that at the time STARDUST came out, I don't think there had been any "standards" album by any artist (country or otherwise) that had been a big pop hit for a very, very long time. So long ago as to be utterly irrelevant to the then-contemporary younger generation. So yes, it wasn't the "first ever," but it was way ahead of Ronstadt's albums in rekindling interest in standards, though certainly her later releases were popular enough that they helped the "return to standards in pop" thing pick up more momentum.

FWIW I don't actually hear STARDUST as a country album. It's a standards album done by an artist previously associated basically exclusively with country music, and produced by a guy mostly associated with Stax but in reality a very versatile, broadminded talent. To me it's all about popular music, in the most positive aspect of the word - communicating in the universal sense, and ultimately reflecting the personalities and visions of the leader and producer in a way that really transcends genres.

Whereas Ronstadt's albums are firmly in the "let's bring back the big production standards interpretations" camp - fun, occasionally very good, but ultimately very much an exercise in nostalgia, adding nothing fundamentally new to the interpretation of standards in pop music.

Put it this way - when I heard WHAT'S NEW, I enjoyed it once or twice but then was prompted to pull out my Ella Fitzgerald Songbook and Frank Sinatra CDs with Nelson Riddle for some helpings of the real deal (why settle for less?). Whereas I've loved and listened to STARDUST hundreds of times since first hearing it, and it caused me to forever view standards in a whole new way - as potentially timelessly relevant (in the right hands) rather than relics by default.

 

Just finished listening to a West German Target of this title which I found for $1. Very good sound.

 

Not to split hairs but Carly Simon beat Linda to the Great American Songbook. Torch was released in 1981. Whats New came 2 years later. Linda's album was the big commercial success so people tend to think it came first and kickstarted the trend.