JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC

Everyone knows the song “Different Drum” launched Lina Rdonstadt’s career.

I was thinking about it when I wrote Sunday’s blog, about seeing Ronstadt perform twice at Memorial Hall in the mid-’70s. She didn’t sing “Different Drum” at either concert, having moved on to a solo career, with fresher songs that went even higher on the charts. But it was “Different Drum” that initially drew people’s attention to Ronstadt, and one such person was blog reader Marsha Campbell, who contributed this comment below Sunday’s blog post…

“My roommate and I drove to Denver in 1969 just to hear her sing Different Drum at some truly small dive bar! She was awesome!”

…That got me thinking more about “Different Drum” and how it lit the fuse on Ronstadt’s monstrously big musical career.

So, I did a little digging. The song is credited, of course, to “The Stone Poneys featuring Linda Ronstadt.” What I turned up, though, was both surprising and intriguing. For one thing, none of the other members of The Stone Poneys was involved in the recording of “Different Drum.” Furthermore, if you listen to an earlier, live version of the song as performed by Ronstadt and The Stone Poneys, you can easily see why the Poneys were cut out of the recording that became a hit.

Fortunately, an early rendition of the song has survived. It is in the movie “Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice,” and it is on YouTube.

Here it is…

The song was written by Michael Nesmith, who went on to become a member of The Monkees. In this performance, which might have been at the Troubadour nightclub in West Hollywood, the band consists of two acoustic guitars, a bass guitar and drums.

Together, the instrumentalists sound about as bad as any garage band ever has. The performance is downright rinky-dink. Ronstadt’s voice is the only redeeming feature. It would have sounded a lot better if someone had started Ronstadt with a pitch-pipe and let her do the song without accompaniment.

As one YouTube commenter noted, “The fact she wasn’t held back by this terrible band is a testament (to) her incredible voice and stage presence.”

But a 31-year-old producer named Nick Venet — who signed The Beach Boys, Lou Rawls, Glen Campbell and other hit makers to Capitol Records — sniffed the makings of a hit.

The arrangement he produced was full bodied and professional, thanks, in part to strings and an ear-catching harpsichord. The arranger was Jimmy Bond, who also played bass. Another player on the hit version was Eagles co-founder Bernie Leadon, who was on guitar.

Wikipedia says The Stone Poneys had intended to record an “acoustic ballad version” of the song, but Venet “opted for a more complex instrumental approach.”

Wiki goes on to say Ronstadt later said she was surprised and “completely confused” by the altered approach to the song and that even years later she had a “lack of confidence” in her performance. In the movie, “The Sound of My Voice,” we learn she straight out didn’t like the orchestral version but went ahead and recorded it anyway.

Thank God she did. The single was released in 1967 and rose to No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100.

And Linda Ronstadt was on her way, without The Stone Poneys.

Here’s the hit version…