Linda Ronstadt scored her biggest hit with "You're No Good" in 1974, a cover that topped the US charts and became her signature song, yet she never stopped disliking her own performance of it. The disconnect between the track's commercial and critical success and her personal dissatisfaction highlights how artists' judgements of their work can diverge sharply from public and industry reception, even decades after the fact.

The song was originally written by Clint Ballard Jr and first recorded by Dee Dee Warwick, with later versions by Betty Everett and The Swinging Blue Jeans. Ronstadt's rendition, from her 1974 album Heart Like a Wheel, reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1975 and charted in the Top 20 in Canada, Australia and the Netherlands, becoming her only chart-topping single. In interviews with the Los Angeles Times in 1993 and Rock Cellar Magazine in 2013, Ronstadt said she found her vocal performance and phrasing weak, attributing this partly to exhaustion after a long recording session, and described the track as "just an afterthought" despite liking its production.