Long Long Time

______________________

page originally published on 26 Jan 2018; latest update: 22 April 2023

______________________

Long Long Time (Gary White)

In an undated interview with David Bromberg conducted by the Huffington Post, promoting the release of Bromberg’s 2011 album Use Me, according to a transcription provided at DavidBromberg.net, the artist said:

Well, Linda [Ronstadt] and I have been friends for a very long time. I think she may give me more credit than I deserve. For instance, one night, we were together in The Village in New York, and she had just had a hit with the song “Different Drum” but nothing else seemed to catch. So, I brought her back to the apartment I was living in, into my friend Gary White’s room, and I called Paul Siebel and had him come up as well. Gary and Paul sang Linda songs all night. When she left, she shared a cab with Jerry Scheff who suggested she listen to The McGarrigle Sisters’ “Heart Like A Wheel,” but that song came much later. Her next recording was a collection of Gary White and Paul Siebel tunes*, and she had a hit with Gary White’s “Long, Long Time,” which was the hit that revived her career.

lyric: Genius.com, LyricWiki, AZLyrics.com, Songfacts.com

Linda Rondstadt recording and early television performances

Linda Ronstadt — from her album Silk Purse, (US) Capitol Records ST-407, released in March 1970; also issued in June 1970 on the single Capitol 2846, b/w “Nobodys” (Gary White)

Although the title of the song is sometimes given as “Long, Long Time,” with a comma, the Silk Purse album track and the subsequent single were each titled “Long Long Time,” so I’m going with this spelling.

In each of the following five television studio performances of the song, Linda Ronstadt sings live in front of an audience, with the possible exception of the Johnny Cash Show appearance, where the applause, especially at the end, sounds like it might be canned. While she is backed by a live band on the Playboy After Dark and Midnight Special performances, it’s less clear whether all the instrumentation is performed live in the other three cases.

Linda Ronstadt — live performance recorded for an episode of the television series Playboy After Dark; taped: 16 April 1970, original air date: 9 June 1970**

Episode number discrepancy:

IMDb – Season 2, Episode 20
The TVDB.com – Season 2, Episode 21
Linda Ronstadt Fans Discussion forum, “on television and video” section – Season 2, Episode 21

Linda Ronstadt — from The Johnny Cash Show, Season 2, Episode 4, air date: 14 October 1970

Linda Ronstadt, with Bobby Darin on acoustic guitar — from the television special The Darin Invasion

According to IMDb, the special was broadcast in October 1970 in Canada, but not until 17 October 1971 in the US. A page on the Linda Ronstadt Forum that features an extensive list of television appearances by Ronstadt in the 1970s indicates that the show was taped in October 1970.

Linda Ronstadt — from television series The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, Season 3, Episode 16; air date: 10 January 1971

Linda Ronstadt — live television studio performance for the series The Midnight Special, Season 1, Episode 1 (pilot episode); air date: 19 August 1972

________________________

selected recordings by other artists

Claudine Longet — issued in October 1970 on the single Barnaby ZS7 2022, as the B-side of “Broomstick Cowboy” — The recording was also included on her 1971 album We’ve Only Just Begun, (US) Barnaby Z 30377

Gene Ammons — from the 1970 album The Black Cat! (Prestige)

Claudine Longet — Spanish version “Mucho tiempo mas,” with words by R. Pérez Botija; originally issued in 1971 on the single (Spain) CBS 7465, as the B-side of “Como la luna”

Harry Belafonte and Eloise Laws (duet) — from the 1973 Harry Belafonte album Play Me, RCA Records

Jody Miller — from her 1974 album House of the Rising Sun, (US, Canada) Epic ‎KE 32569

Larry Santos — from his 1975 album Larry Santos, (US) Casablanca NBLP 7018; in October 1976 it was issued on the single Casablanca NB 869, b/w “You Are Everything I Need” (Santos)

Lynn Anderson — from her 1976 album All the King’s Horses, (US) Columbia KC 34089

Tracy Huang — from her 1977 LP Portrait, (Singapore)‎ EMI EMGS 5042

Melanie Safka — from her self-released 1996 album Unchained Melanie

Smiffenpoofs — from the 1999 CD album Twelve

From Wikipedia:

Formed in 1936 at Smith College, the Smiffenpoofs are the oldest all-female collegiate a cappella group in the United States.^[1] The group’s founding came shortly after a group of Smithies attended a picnic with students from their brother school, Yale University, in Northampton, Massachusetts, where the Yale Whiffenpoofs performed. Inspired by this male a cappella group, a few ambitious Smithies returned to school determined to establish their own a cappella group. In honor of the Whiffenpoofs, they adopted a similar name and thus became the first female collegiate a cappella group in the nation.

Babs — published on YouTube, 17 Jul 2012

Bryce Hitchcock — published 7 March 2014

Episode 3, Season 1, of the HBO series The Last of Us is titled “Long, Long Time” (original air date: 29 January 2023). Linda Ronstadt’s 1970 Capitol recording of “Long Long Time,” with the order rearranged, is featured in the final scene and closing credits.

________________________________

* “a collection of Gary White and Paul Siebel tunes” — This is an inaccurate description of Silk Purse, which has among its ten tracks two songs written by Gary White and one by Paul Siebel. Perhaps other songs by these two were recorded during the sessions but not included on the album.

** I’d originally used either tv.com or Internet Movie Database (IMDb) in identifying the season and episode, and (when available) both the taping date and broadcast date for each of the television show performances of the song by Linda Ronstadt included in the new page. However, a single page on the Linda Ronstadt Forum features an extensive list of 1970s television appearances by Ronstadt that provides more or less the same information.

Update: On 31 October 2021 I removed all of the links to tv.com in this page after I noticed that each of them was producing a security risk warning.