Vintage Linda Ronstadt performances: "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" (1970)
By John Roberts
@JohnRoberts (109846)
Los Angeles, California
January 5, 2018 8:40am CST
The queen of covers struck early in her career. This famous Gerry Goffin-Carole King song was a #1 hit for the Shirelles in 1960. King recorded her version for the classic “Tapestry” album and playing on the track were guitarist Danny Kortchmar and drummer Russ Kunkel. Ironically both would be mainstays of Linda’s backup band for years. Linda did her cover for “Silk Purse” which was her second solo album and commercial failure. On the March 11, 1970 episode of “The Johnny Cash Show,” Linda performed “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” and “Walk a Mile in My Shoes” duet with Cash. “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” fits in with Linda’s motif of songs for the lovelorn.
With roots in the Los Angeles country and folk-rock scenes, Linda Ronstadt became one of the most popular interpretive singers of the '70s, earning a string ...
5 people like this
6 responses
@dgobucks226 (35574)
•
5 Jan 18
Linda can do a cover of just about anything no doubt but I am partial to The Shirelles version. The song has such a perfect pacing throughout and the Shirelles voices nail each note so perfectly. It just fills you with that emotion of longing for love to work out forever. A common theme of the 50's and 60's.
Linda's angelic voice of course does the song proud (no surprise there) but the band's interpretation musically and the cadence of the song just does not match The Shirelles feeling to me. P.S.- Johnny Cash Show had some great folk-country stars on the program. Johnny was riding high back then...
2 people like this
@FourWalls (67775)
• United States
6 Jan 18
@dgobucks226 -- Cash was a music fan, not necessarily just a "country music" fan. Look at the things he recorded (he recorded Dylan songs before anyone else in country music had heard of Dylan), and his TV show had people like CCR as guests (proving his outstanding taste 
).
).2 people like this
@dgobucks226 (35574)
•
6 Jan 18
@FourWalls Agree, not only did his music cover many other genres besides country as you stated, he enjoyed booking guests from the music mainstream. He truly was a major influence in the music industry and with his social activism. An icon for sure!
2 people like this
@Marilynda1225 (82710)
• United States
5 Jan 18
Always a big fan of Linda Ronstadt and this song is classic
2 people like this
@totallyundecided (3190)
• Philippines
6 Jan 18
Here in the Philippines, a movie was made out of the title and I got curious of what the original sound like since what we heard from the original sountrack of the movie was a remake. I am in awe of how she beautifully sang the song that it made me download the original version. Thank you for sharing. When I read the title of your discussion, it made me smile because I am one of those people who love this song.
1 person likes this
@FourWalls (67775)
• United States
5 Jan 18
Yeah, that's a killer version. Sometimes I wish that Linda would have done entire albums of one songwriter...not that you can't compile an album of JD Souther songs.....
2 people like this
