How Linda Ronstadt fought — and won — a battle to release the Mexican folk album 'Canciones de Mi Padre'
Recording an album of Mexican folk songs in Spanish was something Linda Ronstadt dreamed of doing from the time she first left home in Tucson for Los Angeles at 18.
It just took some time to get to where she had the clout she needed in the industry to make it happen.
After breaking through with "Different Drum" in 1967, Ronstadt became one of the most successful pop stars of her generation, sending eight songs to the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100, from 1974's "You're No Good" to 1980's "Hurt So Bad."
Along the way, she left Capitol Records to work with Elektra/Asylum.
In 1980, Ronstadt proved that she could go beyond her comfort zone of country, pop and folk-rock with a Tony-nominated role on Broadway in "The Pirates of Penzance."
By that point, her sales were undeniable.
And yet, the head of Elektra/Asylum tried to talk her out of doing 1983's "What's New," the first of three Ronstadt releases saluting the Great American Songbook with conductor Nelson Riddle.
"What's New" went triple-platinum. The other two went platinum.
Riding that wave, she pitched an album of Mexican folk songs sung in Spanish at a time when Asylum execs were probably hoping for another Buddy Holly cover.
Ronstadt's longtime manager John Boylan remembers their reaction well. "They said, 'OK, you got away with it once. Now what are you trying here? You're singing in a foreign language? What?!'"
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But Ronstadt held her ground.
"Canciones de Mi Padre" was released in 1987, with Mariachi Vargas, Mariachi Los Camperos and Mariachi Los Galleros de Pedro Rey helping the star bring her vision to life with the authenticity required.
"The label didn't want it," Ronstadt tells The Arizona Republic, part of the Paste BN Network. "But to their credit, they stepped up to promote it once it started doing well on its own."
She didn't think of it in terms of a hit record.
"I just thought of it as the record I wanted to make," she says.
"And I had made a lot of hit records for the company. So I said, 'You owe me this.' I didn't think about things like touring or what will we do to promote the record? I just wanted to get the music right and get the show right."
"Canciones de Mi Padre" didn't chart as high as some of Ronstadt's bigger pop releases. But it did become the biggest-selling non-English language album in U.S. history, going double platinum and earning a Grammy for Best Mexican/Mexican-American Album.
The Sonoran roots of 'Canciones'
The album's title means "Songs of My Father."
Gilbert Ronstadt was of Mexican descent and had what his daughter recalls as a beautiful voice.
"Very soulful," she says.
The singer has fond memories of her father serenading her for her third birthday with Lalo Guerrero, a family friend from Tucson often called the Father of Chicano Music.
Years before she convinced her label to sign off on "Canciones," Ronstadt recorded a mournful Spanish ballad she and former bandmate Kenny Edwards co-wrote, "Lo Siento Mi Vida."
"It seemed like the most natural thing in the world to call him and say 'Help us write these lyrics in Spanish,'" Ronstadt says.
How did he feel when the song was included on 1976's "Hasten Down the Wind," a platinum album.
"He was delighted," she says. "He got paid."
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Beautiful Aunt Luisa's 'Canciones'
Another family member who shaped the recording of "Canciones" was her Aunt Luisa, who performed under the name Luisa Espinel and gave up a promising opera career to study the regional folk songs and dances of Spain.
"She was beautiful," Ronstadt says.
"And she was a scholar. She also collected music from northern Mexico and used both in her show. She was very well-reviewed."
The New York Times reported on a 1927 performance at the Edith Totten Theatre with "Señorita Espinel can congratulate herself on a genuine success."
She also played Paris and all over Europe.
"Then she came back and started setting her own roots," Ronstadt says.
In 1946, her aunt published a book called "Canciones de Mi Padre: Spanish Folk Songs from Southern Arizona."
That's where she got the title and the concept for her album and a second Spanish-language album she recorded and released in 1991, "Mas Canciones."
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What it was like taking 'Canciones de Mi Padre' on tour
In her 2022 memoir, "Feels Like Home," Ronstadt writes of performing those songs in traditional Mexican dress on tour: "It was a wonderful experience. Aunt Luisa beat me to it by about 50 years."
The tour did well, despite not selling many tickets in advance to opening night in San Antonio.
"Mexican audiences are walk-up audiences, apparently," Ronstadt says.
"I was using the same promoter I used for rock 'n' roll. And he was flipping out. But when we got out on stage, the place was just packed to the rafters with three generations of families and they all knew the songs."
Bringing generations together with song
Old songs have a habit of sticking around in Ronstadt's family. She recalls a recent family gathering where five generations of Ronstadt started singing — the sort of thing that's bound to happen when they get together.
"And we were still singing the same songs," Ronstadt says with a laugh. "We should get some new material. But we all separately found our way to that music."
She and her relatives have always sung together.
"It used to be me, my older sister, my brother Peter and then my younger brother Mike came along but he was seven years younger than I am, so that made him 14 years younger than my sister," Ronstadt says.
"But he found his own groove. They say blood on blood sounds good. If you sing with somebody and you're genetically connected, it sounds better."
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'I had loved the songs since I was little'
For Ronstadt, recording two albums of songs she had learned from her father was its own reward.
"I didn't think it was important, except I wanted to sing the songs," she says.
"That's what was important to me. I wasn't trying to make a social statement. I had loved the songs since I was little and always wanted to sing them."
As it turned out, Ronstadt says, they're really hard to sing.
"I had to do some woodshedding," she says. "But the guys in the band, the mariachi, helped me. They were really cool about it. They could have been like, 'Who's she think she is?' But they treated me like a lady."
Why Linda Ronstadt prefers 'Mas Canciones'
As hard as Ronstadt fought to bring these albums to fruition, she's not one to shower her own work with words of praise.
"I hate all my records," she says.
"But the second Mexican record, 'Mas Canciones,' is much better than the first one. I had it onstage and had gotten much freer with the phrasing and stuff like that. I really understood the rhythms."
As to why she hates her records, Ronstadt says, "I always think 'Why did I sing that' or I 'shouldn't have done that.' I listen with a very critical ear. I know what I'm doing right. I made some records that were good. They weren't usually the ones with hits on them."
Asked if she's glad she had those hits, she laughs. "Of course. I like to eat."