Eagles released first live album

First posted 3/26/2008; updated 9/20/2020.

Eagles Live Eagles

Released: November 7, 1980 Recorded: live October 1976 and July 1980 Peak: 6 US, 24 UK, 25 CN, 3 AU Sales (in millions): 7.0 US, -- UK, 10.6 world (includes US and UK) Genre: classic rock

Tracks: Click for codes to singles charts. Hotel California Heartache Tonight I Can’t Tell You Why The Long Run New Kid in Town Life’s Been Good (Joe Walsh solo song) (6/10/78, 12 US) Seven Bridges Road (12/20/80, 21 US, 17 AC, 55 CW) Wasted Time Take It to the Limit Doolin’-Dalton (Reprise II) Desperado Saturday Night All Night Long (Joe Walsh solo song) (5/17/80, 19 US) Life in the Fast Lane Take It Easy Chart figures are only for songs not previously featured on any Eagles’ albums. Total Running Time: 77:10 The Players: Glenn Frey (vocals, guitar, keyboards) Don Henley (vocals, drums) Don Felder (guitar, vocals) Randy Meisner (bass, vocals: 1976) Timothy B. Schmit (bass, vocals: 1980) Joe Walsh (guitar, keyboards, vocals)

Rating: 3.368 out of 5.00 (average of 16 ratings) Quotable: “The most heavily overdubbed [live album] in history” - Rolling Stone Record Guide (1983) Awards:

About the Album: “Eagles Live is the first live album by the…Eagles, a two-LP set released in 1980. The Eagles broke up on July 31, 1980 after their concert at Long Beach. However, the band still owed Warners a live record from the tour. Eagles Live (released that November) was mixed by Glenn Frey and Don Henley on opposite coasts – the two decided they couldn’t bear to be in the same state, let alone the same studio, and as Bill Szymczyk put it, the record’s perfect three-part harmonies were fixed ‘courtesy of Federal Express.’ The 1983 Rolling Stone Record Guide said it is ‘perhaps the most heavily overdubbed [live album] in history.’ After the credits that list no fewer than five attorneys, the album's liner notes simply say, ‘Thank you and goodnight.’” WK “Eagles Live includes…tracks recorded in the fall of 1976 (thus allowing for the inclusion of departed singer Randy Meisner on Take It to the Limit).” AMG Also from 1976, are New Kid in Town, Wasted Time, Doolin-Dalton (Reprise II), and Desperado. WK However, “the bulk of the album comes from the end of the Eagles’ 1980 tour, just before they broke up, and it reflects their late concert repertoire, largely drawn from Hotel California and The Long Run.” AMG “The occasional early song such as ‘Desperado’ and Take It Easy turn up, but many of the major hits from the middle of the band's career – ‘The Best of My Love,’ ‘One of These Nights,’ ‘Lyin’ Eyes’ – are missing, replaced by such curiosities as two extended selections from Joe Walsh’s solo career, Life’s Been Good and All Night Long.” AMG “At least Walsh introduces some live variations to his material; the rest of the Eagles seem determined to recreate the studio versions of their songs in concert, which may work for them live but almost makes a live recording superfluous. The previously unrecorded rendition of Steve Young’s Seven Bridges Road is welcome, and the album would have benefited from more surprises as well as a livelier approach to a live recording.” AMG

Resources and Related Links: Eagles’ DMDB Encyclopedia entry AMG William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide WK Wikipedia.org

Eagles top the charts with their first greatest hits

First posted 2/1/2011; updated 6/17/2019.

Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975 Eagles

Released: 2/17/1976 Charted: 3/6/1976 Peak: #15 US, #2 UK, #12 CN, # AU Sales (in millions): 38.0 US, 0.3 UK, 42.9 world (includes US and UK) Genre: California country rock

Tracks: (Click for codes to singles charts.) Take It Easy (Glenn Frey/Jackson Browne) [3:29] (5/20/72, #12 US, #9 CB, #12 AC, #12 UK, #8 CN, #49 AU) Witchy Woman (Don Henley/Bernie Leadon) [4:10] (8/26/72, #9 US, #11 CB, #8 CN, #81 AU) Lyin’ Eyes (Don Henley/Glenn Frey) [6:21] (9/13/75, #2 US, #3 CB, #3 AC, #8 CW, #23 UK, #19 CN, #34 AU) Already Gone (Robb Strandland/Jack Temphcin) [4:13] (5/4/74, #32 US, #17 CB, #12 CN) Desperado (Don Henley/Glenn Frey) [3:33] One of These Nights (Don Henley/Glenn Frey) [4:51] (5/30/75, #11 US, #11 CB, #20 AC, #23 UK, #13 CN, #33 AU) Tequila Sunrise (Don Henley/Glenn Frey) [2:52] (6/9/73, #64 US, #40 CB, #26 AC, #68 CN) Take It to the Limit (Don Henley/Glenn Frey/Randy Meisner) [4:48] (12/20/75, #4 US, #5 CB, #4 AC, #12 UK, #16 CN, #30 AU) Peaceful, Easy Feeling (Jack Tempchin) [4:16] (12/23/72, #22 US, #20 CB, #20 AC, #35 CN) Best of My Love (Don Henley/Glenn Frey/J.D. Souther) [4:35] (11/30/74, #11 US, #4 CB, #11 AC, #11 CN) Review: This album wasn’t just the “first album ever certified platinum;” WR it was the best-selling album in the U.S. in the 20th century. WK It lost the title to Michael Jackson’s Thriller after the artist’s death in 2009, but regained it in August 2018. WK “There may be no explaining that, really, except to note that this was the pervasive music of the first half of the 1970s, and somehow it never went away.” WR “On their first four albums, the Eagles were at pains to demonstrate that they were a group of at least near-equals, each getting a share of the songwriting credits and lead vocals. But this compilation…demonstrates that this evenhandedness did not extend to singles – as far as those go, the Eagles belong to Glenn Frey and Don Henley.” WR They wrote or co-wrote eight of the collection’s songs and one or the other sang lead on every song but Take It to the Limit. Of the ten songs that comprise this collection, nine were released as singles (b>Desperado is the sole exception). Eight were top 40 hits on the Billboard pop chart (only Tequila Sunrise missed the top 40), five went top ten, and two of them (One of These Nights and Best of My Love) topped the charts. The band, however, didn’t have any say in putting together the album and complained it was “nothing more than a ploy by the record company to sell product without having to pay additional production costs.” WK Don Henley didn’t like that songs like “Tequila Sunrise” and “Desperado” were taken out of the context of their original albums. WK The album did, however, buy the band time while they worked on what would become their best-selling studio album, 1977’s Hotel California. Despite Henley’s frustration that songs were taken out of context, “these songs make up a collection consistent in mood and identity” WK “unlike the albums from which they come.” WK Thre result is that this compilation “works so much better than the band’s previous discs [that it] practically makes them redundant.” WR “The tunes are melodic, and the arrangements – full of strummed acoustic guitars over a rock rhythm section often playing a shuffle beat, topped by tenor-dominated harmonies – are immediately engaging. There is also a lyrical consistency to the songs, which often concern romantic uncertainties in an atmosphere soaked in intoxicants. The narrators of the songs usually seem exhausted, if not satiated, and the loping rhythms are appropriate to these impressions.” WR In addition to phenomenal sales, this was the rare compilation that topped the Billboard album charts. It debuted at #4 in its first week and then went to #1 the next week, where it stayed for five non-consecutive weeks. Over the years, the album has logged the equivalent of five years on the album chart. Review Source(s): Eagles’ DMDB Encyclopedia entry WR All Music Guide review by William Ruhlmann WK Wikipedia

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Awards:

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Eagles released "Desperado" on album of same name

Desperado Eagles

Writer(s): Glenn Frey, Don Henley (see lyrics here) Released: April 17, 1973 (as album cut) First Charted: -- Peak: 3 CL, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- US, 0.25 UK Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 3.0 radio, 27.60 video, 188.09 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: “Desperado” was never released as a single by the Eagles, but it became one of their most beloved songs, often performed as the last song of the night in concerts. RS Don Henley has credited Linda Ronstadt, who recorded the song for her 1973 Don’t Cry Now album, with making it a hit. WK He called her version “very poignant and beautiful.” SF It was ranked the #2 Eagles song by a poll of Rolling Stone readers in 2015. RS Similarly, Billboard magazine ranked it the second best Eagles song in 2017. In both cases, “Hotel California” was ranked #1. Don Henley wrote parts of what author Dave Thompson called the “great cowboy ballad” DT as early as 1968. He was writing in the style of Stephen Foster, a famous songwriter from the 19th century. He originally wrote it about a friend named Leo, as evidenced by the original opening line: “”Leo, my God, why don’t you come to your senses,” WK which evolved into “Desperado, why don’t you come to your senses.” After the Eagles recorded their first album in London in 1972, Don Henley and Glenn Frey decided they should write together. A few days after returning from London, they had their first songwriting session in Laurel Canyon at Henley’s house. He played the unfinished song for Frey. He said, “When I play it and sing it, I think of Ray Charles and Stephen Foster. It’s really a Southern Gothic thing, but we can easily make it more Western.” WK According to Henley, Frey helped fill in the blanks and give it more structure and a songwriting partnership was born. The song became the title cut for the band’s sophomore album, which was, as Henley explained, “to be our big artistic statement on the evils of fame and success, with a cowboy metaphor.” RS It was a loose concept about the famed Dalton outlaw gang with the title cut being “a sad lament about the lonely life out on the trail.” RS However, the song could also be interpreted as being “about a young man who discovers guitars, joins a band, pays his dues and suffers for his art.” SF Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Eagles RS Rolling Stone (7/29/2015). “Readers’ Poll: The 10 Best Eagles Songs” by Andy Greene SF Songfacts DT Dave Thompson (2011). 1000 Songs That Rock Your World. Krause Publications: Iola, WI. Page 137. WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 7/2/2022; last updated 4/26/2024.

 

Eagles’ Desperado released

First posted 7/19/2010; updated 10/17/2020.

Desperado Eagles

Released: April 17, 1973 Peak: 41 US, 39 UK, 35 CN, 31 AU Sales (in millions): 2.0 US, 0.06 UK, 4.0 world (includes US and UK) Genre: country rock

Tracks: Click for codes to singles charts. Doolin-Dalton (20 CL) Twenty-One Out of Control Tequila Sunrise (6/23/73, 64 US, 5 CL, 26 AC, 68 CN) Desperado (3 CL) Certain Kind of Fool Doolin-Dalton (instrumental) Outlaw Man (9/15/73, 59 US, 13 CL) Saturday Night (47 CL) Bitter Creek Doolin-Dalton/Desperado (Reprise) Total Running Time: 35:40 The Players: Glenn Frey (vocals, guitar, keyboards, harmonica) Don Henley (vocals, drums) Bernie Leadon (guitar, vocals, banjo, mandolin, dobro) Randy Meisner (bass, vocals)

Rating: 3.809 out of 5.00 (average of 20 ratings) Awards:

About the Album: “These southern California boys…built a steady rolling FM hit factory on basic tenets of Gram Parsons’ invention of country-rock.” AZ While their first album, the eponymously-titled “Eagles seemed deliberately to balance the band’s many musical styles and the talents of the band’s members,” AMG this one largely became the work of Don Henley. If he “was the sole member of the Eagles underrepresented on their debut…, with only two lead vocals and one co-songwriting credit, he made up for it on their follow-up, the ‘concept’ album Desperado.” AMG “He had co-writing credits on eight of the 11 selections and sang such key tracks as Doolin-Dalton and the title song. What would become recognizable as Henley’s lyrical touch was apparent on those songs, which bore a serious, world-weary tone.” AMG “On Eagles, the group had already begun to marry itself to a Southwest sound and lyrical references, from the Indian-style introduction of ‘Witchy Woman’ to the Winslow, AZ, address in ‘Take It Easy.’” AMG The sophomore outing for the Eagles was a concept album “based on the Dalton gang and the Old West,” WK which was “a natural for those born unto rock and roll soil,” AZ “It may be that Henley, who hailed from Northeast Texas, had the greatest affinity for the subject matter,” AMG “but it had no specific narrative.” AMG and “despite its overarching theme, often seemed a collection of disparate tracks – Out of Control was a raucous rocker, while ‘Desperado’ was a painfully slow ballad backed by strings – with other bandmembers’ contributions tacked on rather than integrated.” AMG “Randy Meisner was down to two co-writing credits and one lead vocal (Certain Kind of Fool), while Bernie Leadon’s two songs, Twenty-One and Bitter Creek, seemed to come from a different record entirely. The result was an album that was simultaneously more ambitious and serious-minded than its predecessor and also slighter and less consistent.” AMG One of the album’s greatest assets, however, is that “Henley had begun co-writing with Glenn Frey, and they contributed the album’s strongest material, which included the first single, Tequila Sunrise, and Desperado,” AMG which “feature the flawless harmonies and strong vocals of Glenn Frey and Don Henley.” AZ While the “the title track is one of the Eagles' signature songs, it was never released as a single.” WK

Resources and Related Links: Eagles’ DMDB Encyclopedia entry AZ Rob O’Connor, Amazon.com review by Rob O’Connor AMG William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide WK Wikipedia