MAD LOVE
Mad Love is a platinum-certified, Grammy-nominated 1980 rock album by singer/songwriter/producer Linda Ronstadt. 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 million-selling album. Linda scored Top Ten hits from the album in the US with “How Do I Make You” (which hit #1 on many Album Rock play lists) and “Hurt So Bad”. “I Can’t Let Go” was the album’s third hit single. Ronstadt was named Billboard’s #1 Female Artist of 1980 for the fourth time (after 1975, 1977, and 1978). She was also nominated for yet another Grammy Award in the Best Rock Vocal Performance Female category. (More from Wikipedia)
Several of the other musicians on Wendy Waldman’s Strange Company album – who formed a band having the unfortunate name the Cretones – also backed Linda Ronstadt on her 1980 New Wave album, Mad Love.
(January 2010)
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I saw Linda Ronstadt perform in Raleigh, North Carolina during her Mad Love Tour in 1980, and Wendy Waldman was on-stage with her the whole time. She was not exactly the opening act for Linda; but about halfway through, Wendy Waldman performed several songs of her own. Linda introduced her as “one of my dearest friends”.
Mad Love is Linda Ronstadt’s new-wave album that featured several songs by Elvis Costello.
(January 2012)
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Linda Ronstadt is another singer where I determined to get all of her albums; besides her regular studio albums, I picked up numerous compilation albums of various kinds. Not all of them are terrific, and I am mostly lukewarm about her country period; but I became a big fan of all three Stone Poneys albums. They were all tough finds throughout the 1970’s and 1980’s, particularly the original release of the first album before they had their hit with “Different Drum”; even the post-Heart Like a Wheel reissue in 1975 wasn’t that easy to find. Ronstadt albums have remained available for years and years; her 1980 new-wave album Mad Love went out of print just last year.
(April 2012)
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But for sheer “what-were-they-thinking” wonderment, it is hard to top the name the Cretones; who knows how much more success they could have had with a less cringe-worthy name. They got a recording contract with Planet Records and released a very good debut album, Thin Red Line in 1980. Linda Ronstadt was so impressed with the album that she covered three of their songs: the title cut “Mad Love” for her 1980 new-wave album, Mad Love plus “Justine” and “Cost of Love”.
(July 2012)
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Linda Ronstadt’s music is normally described as country rock, though she performs in a multitude of styles; as examples, Ronstadt covered numerous Motown songs in this period and recorded a New Wave album in 1980, Mad Love. This has required her to hire a variety of back-up musicians for her albums; several of the backing musicians for some of her recordings evolved into the Eagles .
(October 2013)
