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The Stone Poneys was the group that launched Linda Ronstadt's career, but the sad truth is that Capitol Records was never interested in the rest of the band, instead pushing for her to be a solo artist from the beginning. It was only through a little persuasion on the producer's part that convinced the label that she wasn't quite ready to work on her own.

Indeed, when "Different Drum" came out as a single in September of 1967, the labels on the 45RPM release credit the band "Featuring Linda Ronstadt". Ronstadt herself was still reluctant to leave the band, enough that she financed the Stone Poneys' entire third album herself, losing a ton of money in the process, before finally embarking on her solo career.

The tune was written by Michael Nesmith, of The Monkees fame, and while he didn't record the song himself until 1972, he did perform it (badly, on purpose) during an episode of The Monkees titled "Too Many Girls". This would have been right around the time that the original recording, by bluegrass band The Greenbriar Boys, would have come out.

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