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Linda Ronstadt<\/a>\u00a0was not only one of the most popular and top-selling artists of the ’70s, with three No. 1 albums between 1974 and 1978, but also one of the most adventurous.<\/span><\/p>\n From the start of her recording career, she championed young songwriters; her first hit in 1967, made with the group Stone Poneys, was a cover of “Different Drum” by\u00a0Michael Nesmith<\/a>, who was then best known as one of the Monkees<\/a> but was eager to define himself beyond the group’s confines.<\/span><\/p>\n Ronstadt continued to support blossoming songwriters even as her career rocketed following the release of 1974’s Heart Like a Wheel<\/em>. Tim Buckley, Jackson Browne<\/a>, Elvis Costello<\/a>, Warren Zevon<\/a>, and the Eagles<\/a>, who first came together as her backing band,\u00a0all received\u00a0Ronstadt’s big vocal treatment on some of their earliest songs, as detailed in the list below of Linda Ronstadt Albums Ranked.<\/p>\n READ MORE:\u00a0<\/strong>Top 30 Country Rock Albums<\/a><\/p>\n Through country rock, AM pop, new wave, folk, jazz, standards, lullabies\u00a0and mariachi music, Ronstadt has rarely rested on her laurels. Coming off a string of Top 10 hit covers (including Motown classics, R&B obscurities, and Buddy Holly<\/a> and Roy Orbison<\/a> songs), the First Lady of Rock recorded a trio of old standards starting in 1983, ahead of the trend and bucking tradition.<\/p>\n Ronstadt threw another curve by recording a straight country album with friends Emmylou Harris and\u00a0Dolly Parton<\/a>, which returned her to the Top 10 and earned her a Grammy. She then followed that with an acclaimed LP of traditional Mexican songs from her youth \u2014 all delivered in her vast, glorious and unmistakable voice.<\/span><\/p>\n From rock and country to the Great American Songbook and new wave, she’s never been easy to classify.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Gallery Credit: Michael Gallucci<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nLinda Ronstadt Albums Ranked<\/h2>\n