Linda Ronstadt – You’re No Good

“You’re No Good” – Single by Linda Ronstad from the album Heart Like a Wheel. B-side “I Can’t Help It (If I’m Still in Love with You)” (w/ Emmylou Harris)
Released: November 19, 1974
Recorded: July 5, 1974
Charted No. 1 in US

Linda Ronstadt began performing “You’re No Good” to close her live shows in early 1973, after her band member Kenny Edwards suggested it to her. She first included it in her setlist while opening for Neil Young. Ronstadt gave an early televised performance of “You’re No Good” on an episode of The Midnight Special, broadcast December 21, 1973.

One of the most blatant and memorable songs in the “no-good man” milieu, “You’re No Good” was written by a guy: Clint Ballard, Jr., who also wrote songs for Connie Francis and The Hollies. The song is about a woman who comes to the conclusion that the guy she split from was trouble from the start.

This song had been around for a while before Linda Ronstadt took it to the top of the chart. It was originally recorded by Dee Dee Warwick in 1963. Her version was produced by the famous team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, but it stalled at #117. Betty Everett had more success with her version, which went to #51 in 1964. First released on her 1963 album of the same name, Everett recorded the song at Chess Records in Chicago, with Maurice White on drums (White, who later formed Earth, Wind & Fire, was a staff drummer at Chess early in his career). Everett was a former gospel singer who, like Ronstadt, had a very powerful voice. Her next single, “The Shoop Shoop Song (It’s In His Kiss),” became her biggest hit.