If you were watching The Last of Us back in early 2023, you probably remember the moment your heart shattered into roughly a million pieces. It was Episode 3. Bill and Frank. That piano. And, of course, that voice.
Suddenly, everyone was Googling Linda Ronstadt Long Long Time. Spotify streams for the track went up something like 4,900%. It was a "Kate Bush moment" for a woman who hadn't been able to sing a note in public for a decade. But for those who grew up in the 70s, this wasn't a discovery. It was a haunting return to a song that basically defined what it felt like to be lonely.
The Morning Linda Ronstadt "Butchered" a Classic
There is a weird myth that legendary recordings happen in a burst of late-night inspiration involving whiskey and smoke.
Not this one.
Linda Ronstadt recorded "Long Long Time" at 10:30 in the morning on a Saturday in Nashville. She had a cold. She felt terrible. In her memoir Simple Dreams, she actually said she thought she "butchered" the phrasing. She was wrong.
Producer Elliot Mazer had brought in a group of Nashville heavyweights called Area Code 615. We're talking about guys like Weldon Myrick on the pedal steel and Buddy Spicher on the fiddle. These were jaded session players. They’d heard everything. But as the story goes, the second they started playing those opening chords, the room changed.
They got "personally involved," as Linda put it. You can hear it in the way the steel guitar weeps. It doesn't just play notes; it sighs.
Why This Song Is Different From Every Other Breakup Ballad
Most breakup songs are about the "break" itself. They're about the screaming or the crying or the "please come back" phase.
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"Long Long Time" is about the after.
It’s about the quiet, dusty realization that you’re going to be carrying this weight for the rest of your life. Gary White wrote it, but Linda Ronstadt owned it. She had to fight her record label, Capitol, just to get it on the album Silk Purse. They didn't think it fit. They were looking for something a bit more... "up."
Honestly, it's a miracle it ever got released as a single.
The Vocal Masterclass You Didn't Realize You Were Hearing
If you listen closely to the album version—the 4 minute and 21 second one, not the radio edit—you’ll notice something. Linda starts small. Almost conversational.
By the time she hits the line "I've done everything I know to try and make you mine," she’s using what vocal coaches call "sob" and "cry" qualities. It’s a technical thing, but it feels like a physical punch. She’s leaning into the notes, pushing just enough air to sound like she’s on the verge of breaking, but never losing control.
It’s that tension between vulnerability and power that made it her first solo hit. It spent 12 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 and peaked at No. 25.
More importantly, it earned her a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Female Vocal Performance in 1971. She was up against Bobbie Gentry and Diana Ross. She didn't win that year, but the song "bought her time," as she famously said. It proved she could carry a career without a band.
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The Last of Us and the 4,900% Resurgence
When showrunner Craig Mazin was looking for a song to anchor the story of Bill and Frank, he needed something that felt "achingly unrequited." He texted his friend Seth Rudetsky, a Broadway savant.
Rudetsky's reply was instant: "Linda Ronstadt, 'Long Long Time.'"
The choice was genius because of how the show uses it. In the episode, Frank finds a Ronstadt songbook. He tries to play the song and, frankly, he's terrible. Bill takes over. It’s a gruff, pained version that strips away the Nashville polish and leaves the raw bone of the lyrics.
When the original recording finally plays at the end of the episode as Joel and Ellie drive away, it serves as a bridge between two very different kinds of love.
It's a reminder that love, even when it's over, even when the world has literally ended, "washes clean" the wounds we didn't think would ever heal.
What Most People Get Wrong About the Lyrics
People often think "Long Long Time" is a sweet love song.
It really isn't.
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It’s actually quite dark. Look at the bridge: "All the while you fell all over girls you never knew / And I searched for the softness of the heart you never showed." That’s not a "happily ever after" vibe. That is the sound of someone who has wasted years on a person who didn't even see them. It’s the "sunk cost" of the human heart.
The Real History of Gary White
The guy who wrote it, Gary White, was a Texas musician. Linda first heard him in Greenwich Village at the Café Au Go-Go. He was playing backup for Paul Siebel.
She saw him, heard the song, and basically demanded to record it immediately. White actually duets with her on another track on Silk Purse called "Louise," but "Long Long Time" is the one that paid his bills for decades.
Linda was always "glad for Gary" because the song became a windfall for him. That's the kind of person she is—even at the height of her fame, she was a champion of the songwriters who gave her the words to say.
How to Truly Experience the Song Today
If you've only heard the snippet on TikTok or in the show, you're missing out.
To get the full effect of Linda Ronstadt Long Long Time, you need to do a few things:
- Listen to the 1970 Album Version: The single edit cuts out some of the instrumental nuance. The full version allows the fiddle and pedal steel to breathe.
- Watch the 1970 Live Performance: There is footage of her performing this on The Johnny Cash Show. She’s standing there in a simple dress, no bells or whistles, just that massive voice filling the room.
- Compare it to the 1976 Larry Santos Cover: If you want to see how much "soul" Linda brought to it, listen to the covers. Many have tried (Alannah Myles, Mindy McCready), but nobody quite captures the "shivering" quality of the original.
Linda Ronstadt can't sing anymore. She was diagnosed with progressive supranuclear palsy, a condition that took her voice away years ago. "I sing in my brain," she told Today in 2022.
But as long as people keep finding this song—whether through a post-apocalyptic TV show or a dusty vinyl bin—her voice isn't going anywhere. It’s a permanent fixture of the American heartbreak.
Actionable Next Steps
To dive deeper into the legacy of this track and Linda's career, start by listening to the Silk Purse album in its entirety to understand the "country-rock" transition she was pioneering. If you want the full story of her vocal struggles and triumphs, read her memoir Simple Dreams. Finally, check out the 2019 documentary The Sound of My Voice for a visual history of how she fought her label to record the music she actually believed in.