Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Lynn Raitt is an American singer-songwriter. In 1971, Raitt released her self-titled debut album. Following this, she released a series of critically acclaimed roots-influenced albums that incorporated elements of rock, blues, country, and folk. She was also a frequent session player and collaborator with other artists, including Warren Zevon, Little Feat, Jackson Browne, the Pointer Sisters, John Prine, and Leon Russell.
In 1989, after several years of limited commercial success, she had a major hit with her tenth studio album, Nick of Time, which included the song "Nick of Time". The album reached number one on the Billboard 200 chart, and won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. It has since been selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Recording Registry. Her following two albums, Luck of the Draw and Longing in Their Hearts, were multimillion sellers, generating several hit singles, including "Something to Talk About", "Love Sneakin' Up On You", and the ballad "I Can't Make You Love Me". Her 2022 single "Just Like That" won the Grammy Award for Song of the Year.
As of 2025, Raitt has received 13 competitive Grammy Awards, from 31 nominations, as well as a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. She ranked No. 50 on Rolling Stones list of the "100 Greatest Singers of All Time" and ranked No. 89 on the magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time." Australian country music artist Graeme Connors has said "Bonnie Raitt does something with a lyric no one else can do; she bends it and twists it right into your heart."
In 2000, Raitt was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. She has received the Icon Award from the Billboard Women in Music Awards and the MusiCares Person of the Year Award from The Recording Academy. In 2024, she was a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honor.
Early life
Bonnie Lynn Raitt was born on November 8, 1949, in Burbank, California. Her mother, Marge Goddard, was a pianist, and her father, John Raitt, was a professional actor and singer in musicals, including the original Broadway lead roles in Carousel and The Pajama Game. Raitt is of Scottish ancestry, a descendant of the Rait Clan that built Rait Castle near Nairn in the 13th Century. As a child, Raitt would often play with her two brothers, Steve and David, and was a self-described tomboy. John Raitt's job as a theatre actor meant that Bonnie did not interact with him as much as she would have liked. She came to resent her mother, who became the main authority figure in the family whenever John was away.Raitt's musically-inclined parents had a strong influence on her life. From a young age, she and her brothers were encouraged to pursue music. Initially, Bonnie played the piano, but she felt intimidated by her mother's abilities. Instead, she began playing a Stella guitar, which she received as a Christmas gift in 1957 at the age of eight. Raitt did not take lessons, and instead fashioned her style after musicians from the American folk music revival of the 1950s. She was also influenced by the beatnik movement of that period, stating "It represented my whole belief I'd grow my hair real long so I looked like a beatnik."
From ages eight through fifteen, Raitt and her brothers attended an annual summer camp in the Adirondack Mountains called Camp Regis. It was there where Raitt learned of her musical talents, when camp counselors would ask her to play in front of the campers. Learning how to play songs then became a hobby for Raitt. As a teenager, Raitt was self-conscious about her weight and her freckles, and saw music as an escape from reality. "That was my saving grace. I just sat in my room and played my guitar," said Raitt. At age 14, she listened to the album Blues at Newport 63, which instilled an interest in blues music and the slide guitar technique.
In 1967, Raitt enrolled at Radcliffe College in Massachusetts, majoring in social relations and African studies. While at Radcliffe, she joined a musical group called the Revolutionary Music Collective, which played for striking students from neighboring Harvard University during the national anti-Vietnam War student strike of 1970. Despite her abilities, Raitt did not consider music to be anything more than a hobby. Her plan after graduation was to travel to Tanzania, and work to improve the government under president Julius Nyerere. During her first year of college, Raitt befriended blues promoter Dick Waterman, and in her second year, left school for a semester to travel to Philadelphia with Waterman and other local musicians. Raitt said it was an "opportunity that changed everything."
Career
1970–1976
In the summer of 1970, she played with her brother David on stand-up bass with Mississippi Fred McDowell at the Philadelphia Folk Festival as well as opening for John Hammond at the Gaslight Cafe in New York. She was seen by a reporter from Newsweek, who began to spread the word about her performance. Scouts from major record companies were soon attending her shows to watch her play. She eventually accepted an offer from Warner Bros., who soon released her debut album, Bonnie Raitt, in 1971. The album was warmly received by the music press, with many writers praising her skills as an interpreter and as a bottleneck guitarist; at the time, few women in popular music had strong reputations as guitarists.While admired by those who saw her perform, and respected by her peers, Raitt gained little public acclaim for her work. Her critical stature continued to grow but record sales remained modest. Her second album, Give It Up, was released in 1972 to positive reviews. One journalist described the album as "an excellent set" and "established the artist as an inventive and sympathetic interpreter". However, it did not change her commercial fortunes. 1973's Takin' My Time was also met with critical acclaim, but these notices were not matched by the sales.
Raitt began to receive greater press coverage, including a 1975 cover story for Rolling Stone, but with 1974's Streetlights, reviews for her work were becoming increasingly mixed. By this point, Raitt was already experimenting with different producers and different styles, and she began to adopt a more mainstream sound that continued through 1975's Home Plate. In 1976, Raitt made an appearance on Warren Zevon's eponymous album.
She was influenced by the playing style of Lowell George, of the band Little Feat, particularly his use of an MXR Dyna Comp pre-amp compressor with a slide guitar. B.B. King once called Raitt the "best damn slide player working today".
1977–1988
1977's Sweet Forgiveness album gave Raitt her first commercial breakthrough, when it yielded a hit single in her remake of "Runaway". Recast as a heavy rhythm and blues recording based on a rhythmic groove inspired by Al Green, Raitt's version of "Runaway" was disparaged by many critics. However, the song's commercial success prompted a bidding war for Raitt between Warner Bros. and Columbia Records. "There was this big Columbia–Warner war going on at the time", recalled Raitt in a 1990 interview. "James Taylor had just left Warner Bros. and made a big album for Columbia... And then, Warner signed Paul Simon away from Columbia, and they didn't want me to have a hit record for Columbia – no matter what! So, I renegotiated my contract, and they basically matched Columbia's offer. Frankly the deal was a really big deal."Warner Brothers held higher expectations for her next album, The Glow, in 1979, but it was released to poor reviews as well as modest sales. Raitt had one commercial success in 1979 when she helped organize the five concerts of Musicians United for Safe Energy at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Those shows spawned the three-record gold album No Nukes, as well as a Warner Brothers feature film No Nukes, and featured co-founders Jackson Browne, Graham Nash, John Hall, and Raitt as well as Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, the Doobie Brothers, Carly Simon, James Taylor, Gil Scott-Heron, and others.
In 1980, she appeared as herself in the Paramount film Urban Cowboy where she sang "Don't It Make You Wanna Dance".
For her next record, 1982's Green Light, Raitt made a conscious attempt to revisit the sound of her earlier records. However, to her surprise, many of her peers and the media compared her new sound to the burgeoning new wave movement. The album received her strongest reviews in years, but her sales did not improve and this had a severe impact on her relationship with Warner Brothers.
''Tongue and Groove'' and release from Warner Brothers
In 1983, Raitt was finishing work on her follow-up album, Tongue and Groove. The day after mastering was completed on Tongue & Groove, the record company dropped Raitt from its roster, not being happy with her commercial performance up to that point. The album was shelved and not released, and Raitt was left without a record contract. At this time Raitt was also struggling with alcohol and drug abuse problems.Despite her personal and professional problems, Raitt continued to tour and participate in political activism. In 1985, she sang and appeared in the video of "Sun City", the anti-apartheid song written and produced by guitarist Steven Van Zandt. Along with her participation in Farm Aid and Amnesty International concerts, Raitt traveled to Moscow, Russia in 1987 to participate in the first joint Soviet/American Peace Concert, later shown on the Showtime cable network. Also in 1987, Raitt organized a benefit in Los Angeles for Countdown '87 to Stop Contra Aid. The benefit featured herself, along with Don Henley, Herbie Hancock, and others.
Two years after Warner Brothers Records dropped Raitt from their label, they notified her of their plans to release the Tongue and Groove album. "I said it wasn't really fair," recalled Raitt. "I think at this point they felt kind of bad. I mean, I was out there touring on my savings to keep my name up, and my ability to draw was less and less. So they agreed to let me go in and recut half of it, and that's when it came out as Nine Lives." That album, released in 1986 to critical and commercial disappointment, was Raitt's last new recording for Warner Brothers.
In late 1987, Raitt joined singers k.d. lang and Jennifer Warnes as background vocalists for Roy Orbison's television special, Roy Orbison and Friends, A Black and White Night. Following this highly acclaimed broadcast, Raitt began working on new material. By then, she was clean and sober, having resolved her problems with substance abuse. She later credited Stevie Ray Vaughan for his help in a Minnesota State Fair concert the night after Vaughan's 1990 death. During this time, Raitt considered signing with the Prince-owned Paisley Park Records, but they could not come to an agreement and negotiations fell through. Instead, she began recording a bluesy mix of pop and rock songs under the production guidance of Don Was at Capitol Records.
Raitt had met Was through Hal Willner, who was putting together Stay Awake, a tribute album to Disney music for A&M. Was and Willner both wanted Raitt to sing lead on an adult-contemporary arrangement created by Was for "Baby Mine", the lullaby from Dumbo. Raitt was very pleased with the sessions, and she asked Was to produce her next album.