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Hasten Down the Wind was Linda Ronstadt's third major hit album, earning her a Grammy Award for Best Vocal Performance, Female, in 1976. It represented a radical departure from 1974's Heart Like a Wheel and 1975's Prisoner in Disguise in that she chose to showcase new songwriters over the traditional country rock and pop sound she had been producing up to this point. It is a more serious, more poignant album than its predecessors, yet won immediate critical acclaim from critics and the general public alike. It was a major factor in Asylum Records' decision to release the septuple-platimun Greatest Hits a few months later, including work she had previously done for Capitol Records. The album features songs by Warren Zevon and Karla Bonoff, who would soon make a name for themselves as singer/songwriters. An exquisite treatment of the Tracy Nelson standard "Down So Low" and two Ronstadt-penned songs completes an array of immaculately chosen and delivered songs. Hasten spent several weeks in the top three of the Billboard charts and undoubtedly heralded what was to be Ronstadt's best-selling studio album ever, Simple Dreams.
