Even if you haven’t been watching HBO Max’s tense new sci-fi thriller The Last Of Us every Sunday, you may have noticed an uptick in online discussion about Linda Rondstadt thanks to her rendition of “Long, Long Time” from last night’s emotional third episode.
The episode, which departs from the show’s usual protagonists for something of a bottle episode featuring another pair of survivors, uses the song to significant effect, with guest stars Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett both taking a whack at it on piano and ending the show with the original recording, allowing both sets of survivors to bond over the ballad.
Congrats to Linda Ronstadt and everyone discovering her music after THE LAST OF US https://t.co/nleYCzsRyy pic.twitter.com/7XMRZC8Iez
— Monica Castillo (@mcastimovies) January 30, 2023
The show’s popularity is highlighted by the increase in search traffic for Rondstadt’s name on Google; according to Google Trends, searches went from almost zero the day before, increasing by over 100 percent since the show aired. It seems that the question on everyone’s mind is:
Who Is Linda Rondstadt?
To put it short, Rondstadt is an accomplished singer who recorded more than 20 albums in a diverse array of genres, from American classics to light opera to Latin. She’s won 11 Grammy Awards, three American Music Awards, two Academy of Country Music Awards, and an Emmy Award. She was also awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and a Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Depending on how old you are, you might remember her No. 1 hit “You’re No Good” or her James Ingram duet “Somewhere Out There” from An American Tail. She’s appeared on Sesame Street and The Simpsons, and, with more than 100 million records sold, she’s one of the world’s best-selling artists of all time.
Unfortunately, Rondstadt was forced to retire in the early 2010s, revealing that she’d contracted progressive supranuclear palsy (which was originally misdiagnosed as Parkinson’s). That didn’t stop her from writing and releasing her autobiography, Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir, in 2013. She released another book, Feels Like Home: A Song for the Sonoran Borderlands, late last year.
But now, thanks to The Last Of Us, it appears she’s been discovered by another new generation of fans, similar to how Stranger Things returned Kate Bush to the Billboard Hot 100 with “Running Up That Hill.”
Linda Ronstadt is a Warner Music artist. .
