Get Closer

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Get Closer
Studio album by Linda Ronstadt
Released	September 1982
Recorded	June-August 1982
Genre	Rock/Country
Length	36:31
Label	Asylum
Producer(s)	Peter Asher
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link Robert Christgau (C+) link
Linda Ronstadt chronology
Greatest Hits, Volume 2 (1980)	Get Closer (1982)	What's New (1983)

Get Closer (1982) is Linda Ronstadt's 11th studio album. It arrived two and a half years after the controversial Mad Love, in which Ronstadt departed from what had become her traditional blend of rock, country and pop music and sang new wave, and a little over a year after her Tony Award-nominated turn on Broadway playing Mabel in the Joseph Papp production of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance.

Get Closer found Ronstadt returning to the genres that had resulted in her commercial and critical success throughout the 1970s, working again with British musician and producer Peter Asher and recording covers. It was noted by critics that, whereas she had spent the '70s channeling the music of then-upcoming songwriters such as Warren Zevon, Elvis Costello, Karla Bonoff and J. D. Souther, on Get Closer Ronstadt sang older songs, some originated by established artists such as Billy Joe Royal, George Jones and Ike and Tina Turner, and others originated by lesser-known soul artists and one-hit wonders such as the Knickerbockers, the Exciters, Lee Dorsey and Wade Flemons.

Also, the album contained two tracks originally recorded for but never included on previous albums. The first, a re-make of Jones' "Sometimes You Just Can't Win," was recorded in June 1977 with Souther on harmony vocals and intended for the album Simple Dreams. The other, a re-make of Dolly Parton's 1971 recording "My Blue Tears," was performed with Parton and Emmylou Harris as part of an album that, because of scheduling and record company conflicts, was never released. The trio's version was originally recorded in January 1978. Also on Get Closer was a duet with James Taylor, a re-make of Ike and Tina Turner's "I Think It's Gonna Work Out Fine."

Asylum released Get Closer in September 1982 (link). Reviewers wrote about a newfound confidence in Ronstadt's vocals. Ken Tucker of Rolling Stone magazine wrote in his review of Nov. 11, "Linda Ronstadt's voice has never sounded better than it does on Get Closer. It's an uneven album, to be sure, but its spirit is unassailable." Noting her turn in Pirates, Tucker wrote that Ronstadt's vocal development on Broadway "hasn't made her self-conscious. Just the opposite, in fact: Linda Ronstadt is no longer a prisoner of technique." Tucker did decry much of the album's second side, saying that some of the oldies in the soul genre were performed too meticulously. (See link.)

Stephen Holden of The New York Times wrote in his Oct. 10, 1982, review, "Miss Ronstadt's singing is so strong and unaffected." He paid special attention to the title track, calling it "the album's most adventurous performance" and noting Ronstadt's "shouting, growling exuberance reminiscent of Aretha Franklin's 'Respect.' " (See link.)

Commercially, the album fell short of Ronstadt's prior efforts, peaking at No. 31 on the Billboard 200 album chart in late 1982 (see link) and being certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America for shipment of 500,000 copies. By contrast, 1980's Mad Love debuted in the top five and peaked at No. 3 (link). The title track peaked at No. 29 on the Billboard Hot 100 in late 1982, while a re-make of Royal's "I Knew You When" peaked at No. 37 and a version of Jimmy Webb's "Easy for You to Say" at No. 54 in early 1983. "Sometimes You Just Can't Win," the B-side to the "Get Closer" single, peaked at No. 27 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart (see link).

Ronstadt was nominated in 1983 for the Grammy Awards for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female for the song "Get Closer," losing to Melissa Manchester and Pat Benatar respectively (see link). The album won for Best Album Package, the award for which went to the designers Kosh and Ron Larson.

[edit] Track listing

1. "Get Closer" - Jonathan Carroll – 2:29
2. "The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress" - Jimmy Webb – 3:03
3. "I Knew You When" - Joe South – 2:53
4. "Easy for You to Say" - Jimmy Webb – 4:03
5. "People Gonna Talk" - William Wheeler/Lee Dorsey/Morris Levy/Clarence L. Lewis – 2:38
6. "Talk to Me of Mendocino" - Kate McGarrigle – 2:57
7. "I Think It's Gonna Work Out Fine" (with James Taylor) - Rose Marie McCoy/Sylvia McKinney – 4:01
8. "Mr. Radio" - Roderick Taylor – 4:07
9. "Lies" - Buddy Randell/Beau Charles – 2:35
10. "Tell Him" - Bert Russell Berns – 2:35
11. "Sometimes You Just Can't Win" (with J. D. Souther) - Smokey Stover – 2:30
12. "My Blue Tears" (with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris) - Parton – 2:40