Linda Ronstadt

The Aladdin is undergoing bankruptcy proceedings, however, and Robert Earl, CEO of Planet Hollywood, the corporation which will be taking controlling interest of the Aladdin when it emerges from bankruptcy protection, was quoted as saying that he would like to take Moore up on the film maker's offer to join Ronstadt on the Aladdin stage to sing "America the Beautiful". Also 1993's film Point of No Return (aka The Assassin) and 1996's Romeo and Juliet included some of her songs and introduced a new generation to her soulful music. Ronstadt had previously been quoted in the Las Vegas Review-Journal that she was eager to get out of her Aladdin contract, and hoped that she would annoy them enough to not bring her back. She died in her sleep in Carry-le-Rouet in 2003. "I didn't know they were mad at me until we were gone, and I didn't know what they were mad at me about until about an hour later, when apparently they called up one of the people that was traveling with us and went, 'She's talking about Michael Moore, and this is a place for entertainment, not politics,'" Ronstadt said. In 1993, she settled near Aix-en-Provence in the south of France. She was not aware of anyone throwing drinks, was not escorted off the premises, and it wasn't until later that she learned Aladdin's management was angry. Simone's autobiography, I Put a Spell on You (ISBN 0306805251) was published in 1992.

However, Ronstadt says that the media reports were inaccurate. Her daughter, an actress/singer known only as "Simone," has appeared on Broadway in Aida. At the same time, it was reported that the angry shouts and boos were overpowered by cheers and people clapping. Simone's regal bearing and commanding stage presence earned her the title the "High Priestess of Soul.". Initial reports were that Aladdin president Bill Timmins escorted her out of the premises without having a chance to go to her hotel suite to obtain her property, and vowed that, as long as he was running the casino, she would no longer be welcome. Though her onstage style could be somewhat haughty and aloof, in later years Simone particularly seemed to enjoy engaging her adoring audiences by recounting sometimes humorous anecdotes related to her career and music and soliciting requests. It was reported that some members of the audience walked out, tore down posters, threw drinks, and demanded she be removed from the stage. She had a reputation in the music industry for being sometimes difficult to deal with and volatile, a characterization with which Simone vigorously took issue.

On July 18, 2004, during a performance at the Aladdin Casino in Las Vegas, Ronstadt praised Michael Moore and his documentary film Fahrenheit 9/11. In 1995, Simone purportedly shot her neighbour's son with a BB gun after his laughing disturbed her concentration. In a career spanning four decades, she has recorded more than forty albums, her latest a return to her roots in pop-rock ballads. In the 1980s, she performed regularly at Ronnie Scott's jazz club in London. Showing her versatility yet again, in 1996 Ronstadt released Dedicated to the One I Love, an album of children's music. She lived in various countries in the Caribbean, Africa, and Europe, continuing to perform into her 60s. After appearing in the Broadway play, in 1983 she co-starred with Kevin Kline and Angela Lansbury in The Pirates of Penzance, a motion picture based on a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta. She returned in 1978 and was arrested for tax evasion (she had withheld several years of income tax as a protest against the Vietnam War).

In addition to pop-rock hits such as her popular version of the Roy Orbison hit, "Blue Bayou" and duets with Aaron Neville that received much critical acclaim, her long singing career has been filled with an eclectic mix of recordings, including Big Band sounds, Mexican canciones, an album of old-time country music, an album of Latin music, and an album of rock classics redone as lullabies. In 1971, Simone left the United States following disagreements with agents, record labels, and the tax authorities, citing racism as the reason. Ronstadt dated Jerry Brown, then Governor of California, in the late 1970s. A 1968 Norman Jewison cinematic hit, "The Thomas Crown Affair," starring Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway, featured Simone's "Sinner Man" and helped bring her music to a broader audience. Her breakthrough year was 1975, when she released a series of hits beginning with the single "You're No Good." She hit #1 on the Billboard magazine charts with her 1974 album Heart Like a Wheel, and followed that up with the #1 albums Simple Dreams in 1977 and Living in the U.S.A. in 1978. In a single concert, she moved easily from gospel-inspired tunes, to blues and jazz and, in numbers like "For All We Know," to numbers infused with European classical stylings, and counterpoint fugues. Her first solo hit single came in 1970, with the country rock crossover single, "Long Long Time." She achieved her greatest commercial success during the 1970s, with a string of platinum albums, as she branched out from the earlier country rock sound to include more conventional rock, often covering early rock classics from the 1950s and early 1960s. Nina's versatility as an artist was evident throughout her music, which often had a folk-music simplicity.

She scored her first hit single in 1967, as singer for the Stone Poneys, with the song "Different Drum," written by Monkees member Michael Nesmith. Other songs she is famous for include "I Put a Spell on You" (originally by Screamin' Jay Hawkins), The Beatles' "Here Comes the Sun," "Four Women," and "My Baby Just Cares for Me". Born in Tucson, Arizona to a German-Mexican father and a Dutch-English mother, Linda Ronstadt began her career in the mid 1960s singing in Los Angeles, California clubs with the folk-rock group, the Stone Poneys. In 1961, Simone recorded a version of the traditional song "House of the Rising Sun", a song which was later recorded by Bob Dylan and was a hit for The Animals. Linda Maria Ronstadt (born July 15, 1946) is an American singer. Throughout the 1960s, Simone was involved in the Civil Rights Movement and recorded a number of political songs, including "To Be Young, Gifted and Black" (later covered by Aretha Franklin), "Blacklash Blues," "Mississippi Goddam" (a response to the murder of Medgar Evers and the bombing of a church in Birmingham, Alabama killing four black children), "I Wish I Knew How it Would Feel to be Free" and Kurt Weill's "Pirate Jenny" set in a southern hotel. 2004 Hummin' To Myself. This was soon followed by the single "My Baby Just Cares for Me" (this was also a hit in the 1980s in the United Kingdom when used for television advertisements for Chanel No. 5 perfume).

2002 The Very Best of Linda Ronstadt. She first came to public notice in 1959 with her wrenching rendition of George Gershwin's "I Loves You Porgy" (from Porgy and Bess), which proved to be her only Top 40 hit in the United States. 2000 A Merry Little Christmas. Simone turned instead to blues and jazz after getting her start in an Atlantic City nightclub, taking the name "Nina Simone" in 1954 - "Nina" was her boyfriend's nickname for her (from the Spanish for "girl") and "Simone" was after the French actress Simone Signoret. 1999 Western Wall (with Emmylou Harris). Simone believed that she was rejected because she was black. 1999 Trio II (With Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris). She later had an interview to study piano at the Curtis Institute, but was rejected.

1998 We Ran. She was able to begin studying piano at New York City's prestigious Juilliard School of Music, thanks to the sponsorship of benefactors, but lack of funds meant that she was unable to fulfill her dream of becoming America's first African-American concert pianist. 1996 Dedicated To The One I Love. At seventeen, Simone moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she taught piano and accompanied singers. 1995 Feels Like Home. This incident contributed to her later involvement in the civil rights movement. 1993 Winter Light. When she debuted publicly at a piano recital at age ten, her parents, who had taken seats in the front row, were forced to move to make way for whites.

1992 Frenesi. Like a number of other African-American singers, she was inspired as a child by Marian Anderson and began singing at her local church, also showing prodigious talent as a pianist. 1990 Mas Canciones. Simone was born in Tryon, North Carolina, one of eight children. 1989 Cry Like A Rainstorm, Howl Like The Wind. Her vocal style is characterized by passion, breathiness, and tremolo. 1987 Canciones de Mi Padre. She generally is classified as a jazz musician, but disliked that categorisation herself; and her work also has been described as covering the blues, rhythm and blues and soul.

1987 Trio (With Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris). Eunice Kathleen Waymon, better known as Nina Simone (February 21, 1933 - April 21, 2003), was a singer, songwriter and pianist. 1986 Round Midnight. My music is Black classical music.". 1986 For Sentimental Reasons. "Jazz is a white term to define Black people. 1984 Lush Life.

1983 What's New. 1982 Get Closer. 1980 Linda Ronstadt's Greatest Hits Volume 2. 1980 Mad Love.

1978 Living In The U.S.A. 1977 The Southern Belle. 1977 A Retrospective. 1977 Simple Dreams.

1976 Linda Ronstadt's Greatest Hits. 1976 Hasten Down The Wind. 1975 Prisoner In Disguise. 1974 Heart Like A Wheel.

1973 Don't Cry Now. 1972 Linda Ronstadt. 1970 Silk Purse. 1969 Hand Sown Home Grown.