Linda Ronstadt has revealed that her favourite musical arrangement of any song she has recorded came from the 1986 album "For Sentimental Reasons", specifically on the standard "My Funny Valentine". The track was arranged by Nelson Riddle, the celebrated orchestrator best known for his work with Frank Sinatra, whom Ronstadt hired to help her move away from rock and country music towards the classic American songbook. The shift marked a deliberate departure from the sound that had made her one of the biggest stars of the 1970s, reflecting her long-standing preference for live-feeling performances over heavily produced studio records.

Ronstadt has said she always felt slightly uneasy hearing her own voice on record compared to live, and that Riddle's string-quartet arrangement for "My Funny Valentine" was the exception that most captured the emotional quality she was chasing. She credited producer Peter Asher with recognising Riddle's talent immediately, and described Riddle as being "at the top of his talent" when writing her charts. Though the move away from mainstream pop cost her some commercial momentum, Ronstadt regarded records like this as some of the most artistically satisfying work of her career.