Remember When Linda Ronstadt Covered a Warren Zevon Song and Made It a Hit in 1977?

In 1977, Linda Ronstadt released “Poor Poor Pitiful Me”. The song, part of her Simple Dreams record, became a moderate hit for Ronstadt, also getting some airplay on country radio as well. 

While Ronstadt is the first artist to have success with “Poor Poor Pitiful Me”, it is actually a cover song. Warren Zevon, who wrote “Poor Poor Pitiful Me”, first released the song in 1976, although it was not a hit single for him. But the song became well-known thanks to Ronstadt, who changed the song from a male perspective to one sung by a female. She also modified some of the lyrics as well.

“It was very much a guy’s song about gnarly encounters in hotel rooms,” Ronstadt tells Vanity Fair with a laugh. “I had to leave some of the verses out.”

The chorus of Ronstadt’s version says, “Poor poor pitiful me / Poor poor pitiful me / Oh these boys won’t let me be / Lord have mercy on me / Woe woe is me.”

What Linda Ronstadt Says About Recording Warren Zevon’s “Poor Poor Pitiful Me”

Ironically, Ronstadt has Jackson Browne to thank for her even hearing “Poor Poor Pitiful Me”, let alone making it a hit, since it’s Browne who taught her the song. Browne and J.D. Souther visited Ronstadt one night. Ronstadt had no idea when the two songwriters visited her the impact it would have on her career in the future.

“We were sitting up playing music one night—I’ve got a tape of the whole thing. Jackson taught me ‘Poor Pitiful Me’, and J.D. taught me ‘Blue Bayou’. The verse in ‘Poor Pitiful Me’ was ‘Met a girl on the Sunset Strip,’ I think,” Ronstadt says. “‘She asked me if I’d beat her / She took me up to her hotel room / And wrecked my mojo heater.’ It was really funny, and I’m saying to Jackson, ‘I can’t sing those words, man! That’s not who I am. . . . I have to leave that part out.’”

Ronstadt later says she believes “Poor Poor Pitiful Me” works best sung by a female.

“To me that song seemed like the purest expression of male vanity,” Ronstadt reflects. “Step on you, be insensitive, be unkind and give you a hard time, saying, ‘Can’t you take it? Can’t you take it?’ Then if you tease men in the slightest bit, they’ll just walk off with their feelings hurt, stomp off in a corner, and pout. I mean, that’s the way men are, I swear. I thought the verse turned around to a female point of view was just perfect. The gender change works perfectly.”

In 1996, Terri Clark had a Top 5 single with this song.

Photo by Ed Perlstein/Redferns/Getty Images

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