Linda Ronstadt - Heart Like a Wheel

Heart Like a Wheel is the 1974 album where Linda Ronstadt stopped being a singer's singer and became a superstar, and it still sounds like a revelation.

She had spent years as a respected voice on the Los Angeles country rock scene, but this record, her final album for Capitol and produced by Peter Asher, pulled every strand of her talent into focus. Rock, country, soul and folk all sit side by side, and her voice is the thread that ties them together. It became a huge commercial success and set the template for her run through the rest of the decade.

You're No Good is the swaggering centrepiece, a slow-burning rocker that builds to a fierce, guitar-heavy climax. Her take on the Everly Brothers' When Will I Be Loved is bright and sassy, while the title track, written by Anna McGarrigle, is one of the most devastating ballads of the era, sung with breathtaking restraint. Elsewhere, Dark End of the Street shows she could hold her own with any soul singer, and Faithless Love brings a lonesome country ache.

Few albums capture an artist arriving so completely. This is the sound of Ronstadt claiming her place, and the songs still hit just as hard decades later.