In January 1967 when The Stone Poneys'
first album (Capitol ST-2666) was released, it looked like this:

The Second Version...ST-11383

After the success of Heart Like A Wheel Capitol decided to re-release the first Stone Poneys'
album. To accentuate Linda's popularity, the title was altered to include her name in this
version, The Stone Poneys Featuring Linda Ronstadt. The back of the package was changed
to include a color picture in place of the original black & white photo. Gone were the words
from Jerry Hopkins...replaced with a more up to date message about the histotical value of the
recording. A sticker on the front cover often makes people think that the title is Early Linda.

The Third Version...SN-16133

By 1979 Capitol was re-releasing many of their popular catalog titles in a budget series
identified by its SN-16000 series. Most of these releases contained less than the total number
of original album tracks. This allowed Capitol to have more flexibility in these releases as most
of their artists' contracts had different terms for full albums versus abridged albums. All
of Linda's first three solo albums, plus the first Stone Poneys' album were released at the
same time in this series. The album packaging looked very similar to ST-11383, except the
lettering was more reddish orange rather than the yellow-orange of its two predecessors. The
big difference is the omission of the song "Train And The River". This album is the only one
with ten songs instead of the original eleven. A sticker on the front cover may
be why some people think the title is Beginnings.

The Fourth Version...80128-2

By 1995 Capitol had released this album as a CD. It sports yet a third official
title, Linda Ronstadt - Stone Poneys. Other than that, this version reflects many of the original
release's traits...The lettering is back to the yellowish color; the black and white photo that was
not included in ST-11383 and SN-16133 is back; along with Jerry Hopkins' liner notes. This CD
went out of print in December 1997, but if history repeats itself, maybe this work will once
again be released on another new format. If that does happen, I can't wait to see what
gets kept and what gets changed.

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