Enjoyable album from Linda Ronstadt

This was an interesting change of pace in Linda Ronstadt's career. Instead of competing with everyone else, she decided to do an album of old standards with Nelson Riddle. She did three albums like this, and this is by far my favorite. She would have benefitted from not following this up with two others, which are not as cohesive or strong as WHAT'S NEW is. Nevertheless, I think vocally she sounds great on these tracks, and she makes them her own.

It's "okay" but not as great as others have rated it

Linda Ronstadt has performed in various musical genres and she has done very well in each. There's no problem with her performances in this genre. She does fine. But the glitch is that all the material here has been better performed before. Virtually every song on this disc is on other recordings in my collection and every one of them is better when done by someone else.



If you're new to the material or you're a Ronstadt fanatic, you will be happy with this disc. If you've heard it all before, you've heard it better done--so don't bother.

Thanks, LR---for bringing old songs to young ears...

Back in 1983, the so-called "Great American Songbook" was largely left on the shelf. Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett and others who could really sing 'em and swing 'em were not as big as they used to be, and a generation of record buyers was growing up without much exposure to The Gershwins, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin and other great writers of the first half of the century. Then Linda, a country/folk/rock artist, hooked up with elder statesman bandleader and arranger Nelson Riddle for this album of standards. It sold well, leading to two more collaborations, each of them just about equal to "What's New". (In fact, I might like "Lush Life' just a hair better.) The product proved that Riddle still could deliver the quality he became famous for in the '50's during collaborations with the greatest singers of that era. And to me, already a Linda fan, it proved that she, in many ways, could wear the title "great singer." These nine tracks are mostly mellow, even melancholy, lyrics about lost love, longing for love, and the loneliness of unrequited love. Well done all around.