Hasten Down the Wind by Linda Ronstadt

Hasten Down the Wind, Linda Ronstadt's seventh studio album, came out on August 9, 1976, with Peter Asher producing, and it's the sound of a country rock star deciding she wants to sing something more serious. She went looking for new songwriters: Warren Zevon supplied the title track and Karla Bonoff "Someone to Lay Down Beside Me". She also slipped in "The Tattler", the Washington Phillips tune by way of Ry Cooder's arrangement, and 2 songs of her own co-writing, one of them in Spanish, her first time recording in that language.

The mood is sadder and more searching than before, that voice cutting straight to the bone on "Lose Again". Her take on Buddy Holly's "That'll Be the Day" and a reworking of Patsy Cline's "Crazy" were the hits. It became her third million-seller in a row, a first for a woman, went platinum, and won her the Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.