Song #256: "Mad Love"--Linda Ronstadt (1980)

I don't think, when you really look into it, there is any doubt that the artist with the most musical ability to perform at a high level in multiple genres in our countdown is Linda Ronstadt.

Early on, it's "Silver Threads and Golden Needles" country that borders on bluegrass. By the mid-1970's, she's on to an edgier pop, asking "When Will I Be Loved?", which appeared earlier in our countdown, while able to cover a seemingly endless number of songs and crafting them as her own.

By 1980, she's able to understand the move rock music is making, and here comes the LP, "Mad Love". From the first single, "How Do I Make You?" to yet another successful remake in "Hurt So Bad", Linda never let times change her; she simply wasn't afraid to change.

Proof of that? Six years later, when pundits might predict "Ronstadt Goes Madonna", she's making money hand over fist with a series of incredible projects with the great Nelson Riddle singing adult standard favorites from 40 and 50 years earlier, and crooning "Somewhere Out There" with James Ingram for the animated classic, "An American Tail".

Linda appears eight times in our Top 500 and three songs come from this album, including today's selection, the title track.

I have Mad Respect for the woman behind "Mad Love".