In the late 1970s, some of the biggest names in music knew Nicolette Larson was special.
Neil Young certainly did. So did Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris. Larson sang with all three, along with artists including the Doobie Brothers, before stepping into the spotlight herself and scoring a Top 10 hit with Young’s “Lotta Love.”
For a moment, Larson appeared poised to become one of the era’s major stars.
Instead, her commercial momentum faded. Larson eventually shifted into country music, reunited with Young years later and continued recording, but she never again approached the success of her breakthrough. Then, in 1997, she died at just 45 years old.
Today, her name is far less familiar than many of the famous musicians who once sought out her unmistakable voice.
Nicolette Larson Sang With Some of the Biggest Names of the ’70s
Larson’s path into that extraordinary musical circle began after she moved to San Francisco in the early 1970s.
She accumulated singing credits with artists including Hoyt Axton, Commander Cody, Guy Clark and Rodney Crowell before working with Harris. That connection eventually led Larson to Ronstadt.
Then came Neil Young.
In 1977, Larson was visiting Ronstadt at her Malibu home when Young called looking for a female singer. Ronstadt recommended Larson, and Young came over to play them a collection of songs he had written.
“I didn’t know much about Neil Young. But we went over and sat by the fireplace and Neil ran down all the songs he had just written, about twenty of them. We sang harmonies with him and he was jazzed,” Larson later told Rolling Stone.
Soon afterward, Larson and Ronstadt recorded backing vocals for Young’s American Stars ’n Bars, where they were credited as the Bullets. Larson subsequently joined Young for Comes a Time.
Young remembered those sessions fondly decades later in his autobiography “Waging Heavy Peace.”
“The two of them sang like birds,” he wrote of Larson and Ronstadt.
And when discussing Ronstadt, Harris and Larson, Young offered an even simpler assessment: “Some artists just have it.”
Larson did.
By 1978, she was also singing on the Doobie Brothers’ enormously successful Minute by Minute. Producer Ted Templeman produced Larson’s self-titled debut solo album that September.
That album finally put Larson’s voice front and center.
Her recording of Young’s “Lotta Love” became her signature song, reaching No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 on the Adult Contemporary chart. Nicolette climbed to No. 15 on the Billboard 200 and was certified gold.
But the breakthrough proved difficult to repeat.
Larson continued recording throughout the early 1980s while also singing on other artists’ records. By the middle of the decade, she had turned toward country music, winning the Academy of Country Music award for Top New Female Vocalist in 1985. Her duet with Steve Wariner “That’s How You Know When Love’s Right” reached the country Top 10 the following year.
Larson later found her way back to Young as well. She sang on his 1992 album Harvest Moon and appeared on Unplugged in 1993.
Her final album, the children’s record Sleep, Baby, Sleep, arrived in 1994.
Three years later, on Dec. 16, 1997, Larson died in Los Angeles from complications of cerebral edema triggered by liver failure. She was only 45.
Her friends and fellow musicians made sure she wasn’t forgotten. Two benefit concerts were held in her honor in 1998, and a tribute album followed in 2006.
But Larson’s greatest testament may be hiding in plain sight on records people have been listening to for nearly 50 years.
Before many listeners knew her name, Neil Young, Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris and others already knew the voice.
And Young may have explained it best: Some artists just have it.
Related: 1980 Soft Rock Hit, With a Rising Singer Neil Young Adored, Still Sounds Magical 46 Years Later
