Rocktrospectiva: Succesfully "Cry Like A Rainstorm Howl Like The Wind" Turns 35

Released on 2 October 1989 "Cry Like A Rainstorm, Howl Like The Wind" was an studio album by American singer Linda Ronstadt featuring several duets witn Aaron Neville, produced by Peter Asher with colaboration by Jimmy Webb and Karla Bonoff, the album spawned two singles "Don't Know Much", & "All My Life", the album was a major success worldwide, and helped to reintroduce Ronstadt career into mainstream.

The album has a diverse collection of songs in the rock, R&B, and pop genres, in addition, the album contains a few ballads, most notably Jimmy Webb's "Adios". Of the twelve tracks, Ronstadt included four duets with Aaron Neville, of Neville Brothers. The album is noted for its big production values including backing musicians the Skywalker Symphony, Tower of Power horns, and the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir. There are also tracks by songwriters Jimmy Webb, Karla Bonoff, and an appearance of Brian Wilson, as back up singer and musical arranger on Ronstadt's fourteenth Top 10 Adult Contemporary single "Adios". 

In resume the album was a collection of well-constructed adult contemporary pop, which suits her voice better than the traditional pop she recorded during the mid-'80s. Musically, Cry Like a Rainstorm isn't as adventurous as Canciones de Mi Padre, nor is it as consistent as Trio, the album she recorded with Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton, but it is her most satisfying mainstream pop album she has made since the late '70s.

Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind received critical acclaim and put Ronstadt back at top of the charts with the number one hit single "Don't Know Much", one of the duets with Neville. "Don't Know Much" and "All My Life", another chart-topping duet with Neville, won Grammy Awards in 1990 and 1991. The album reached number seven on the US Billboard 200, spending well over a year on the chart, and selling over three million copies in the United States alone. Until now "Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind" stands as one of Ronstadt's three biggest selling studio albums in the United States, it is also one of her biggest selling albums worldwide, especially in Australia and the United Kingdom, selling over 100,000 copies. 

 

Cry Like A Rainstome Howl Like The Wind Track List:

 

1. Still Within The Sound Of My Voice

2. Cry Like A Rainstorm

3. All My Life

4. I Need You

5. Don't Know Much

6. Adios

7. Trouble Again

8. I keep It Hid

9. So Right, So Wrong

10. Shattered

11. When Something Is Wrong With My Baby

12. Goodbye My Friend