Linda Ronstadt recorded “Long Long Time” in 1970 when she was just 23 years old. The song was written by Gary White and peaked at No. 25 on the Billboard Hot 100. For 53 years, it was largely forgotten. Then in January 2023, HBO’s The Last of Usused it three times in a single episode, and Spotify reported a 4,900% increase in streams within one hour. Ronstadt can no longer sing. She sold the masters two years before the boom and received none of the windfall. She said she was glad for Gary.
The song didn’t start with Ronstadt. It started backstage at a Greenwich Village coffeehouse. Guitarist David Bromberg brought Ronstadt to the Café Au Go Go to see Gary White perform alongside singer-songwriter Paul Siebel. After the show, Ronstadt went backstage to meet White. He’d already packed up his guitar. He took it back out of its case, sat down and played “Long Long Time” for her on the spot. “I told Gary I wanted to record it immediately,” she later recalled.
Released in June 1970 on Silk Purse, the song spent 12 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 and earned Ronstadt a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Female Vocal Performance in 1971. Then, it waited. For more than 50 years it waited.
Craig Mazin, executive producer of The Last of Us, spent hours looking for the right song for Episode 3. He texted Seth Rudetsky, a Broadway music expert on SiriusXM. Rudetsky responded in two seconds: “Linda Ronstadt, Long Long Time.” Mazin said: “I was like, there it is. That’s it.”
Related: Linda Ronstadt Hired Two Unknowns for 1971 Disneyland Concert — Accidentally Assembling One of Rock’s Greatest Bands
The episode used the song three times. Bill and Frank discover a Linda Ronstadt songbook at an old piano. Nick Offerman sings the opening lines to the song: “Love will abide, take things in stride, sounds like good advice but there’s no one at my side.” In a story about surviving the end of the world, those words hit differently than they did in 1970. Within one hour of the episode airing, Spotify reported a 4,900% increase in US streams.
The Song About Enduring Love Endured Longer Than Anyone Expected
Ronstadt is no longer able to sing. She got none of the money. And she said she was glad.
In 2011 she was diagnosed with progressive supranuclear palsy, a rare brain disorder similar to Parkinson’s with no known cure. She retired from performing. In March 2021, she sold her master recordings to Irving Azoff’s Iconic Artist Group. When the streaming boom happened two years later, she received none of it. In a 2022 interview with Maria Shriver, she said she could “sing in my brain” but not aloud.
When asked about the resurgence, her response said everything. “My first reaction was that I was really glad for Gary White, who will get a windfall from this.”
The Last of Us did for “Long Long Time” what Stranger Things did for Kate Bush‘s “Running Up That Hill” in 2022: it gave a forgotten classic to millions of listeners who’d never heard of it. But the Ronstadt story has something the Bush story doesn’t. Ronstadt can’t sing anymore. She got nothing. She said she was glad.
The song about enduring love found its largest audience when its singer could only hear it in her head.
Gary White wrote “Long Long Time.” Linda Ronstadt heard it played from an unpacked guitar case backstage in Greenwich Village and immediately wanted to record it. She was 23. It peaked at No. 25 and waited 53 years.
One TV episode gave it 4,900% more streams in an hour.
Ronstadt said she was glad for Gary.
The song about enduring love endured.
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