Sublime
If you ever get into a debate with someone who didn’t live through the era, and they don’t know why Linda Ronstadt was such a massive star or why she’s so admired or even who she is, there are a lot of ways to try to describe it. Or you can just show this clip. I chose it in part for the song and performance, but also in part because it’s a rare appearance of her on a 1970 talk show – in this case, Merv Griffin’s, where she sings “Long, Long Time.” (By the way, the phrase, “sings ‘Long, Long, Time’” doesn’t do it justice.)
Griffin and his guests (which include Glenn Campbell) are annoyingly glib during her introduction, but then she comes on and sings, and none of their distraction matters.
And then when the person you're talking to says, "Ohhhhhh. Okay, I get it," you can point them to all her other many hits.
And then that she later branched out and tackled Broadway with Gilbert & Sullivan, and Mexican mariachi, and opera in the New York Shakespeare Festival production of Puccini's La Bohème, and country music...
I should note that the only "problem" I ever had with Linda Ronstadt singing one of her break-up heartbreak songs -- of which she was a master -- is that while I'm marveling at her performance, it's always competing with the intrusive thought -- "Who in their right mind would break up with Linda Ronstadt?????"
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