Through the late Nineteen Sixties all — or a minimum of many — roads led to Southern California, and the Eagles have been one of many locations.
It was not a band fashioned with modest intentions. Glenn Frey had already sung on a nationwide hit (Bob Seger’s “Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man”) when he got here west from Detroit, and Don Henley‘s Shiloh had an album produced by Kenny Rogers. They met Bernie Leadon, late of the Flying Burrito Brothers, whereas all of them performed in Linda Ronstadt’s 1970-71 backing band, whereas Randy Meisner was a veteran of Poco and Ricky Nelson’s Stone Canyon Band. It was a supergroup of kinds, with a universe of nice collaborators corresponding to Jackson Browne, JD Souther and Jack Tempchin, and one which actually flew to tremendous, and superlative, heights.
Over the course of two tenures and 7 (principally multi-platinum) studio albums, the Eagles have offered greater than 150 million information worldwide, whereas Their Best Hits (1971-1975) has been locked for years in a battle for best-selling album of all time with Michael Jackson‘s Thriller. The accolades run from six Grammy Awards to inductions into the Rock & Roll and Vocal Group Corridor of Fames to a Kennedy Middle Honor. And extra importantly, Eagles are the primary identify talked about in any dialogue of California or nation rock.
Frey’s dying in January 2016 may have grounded the Eagles for good, however the group took flight once more with Frey’s son Deacon and Vince Gill in place for tour dates which might be set to wrap up later this 12 months with The Lengthy Goodbye Tour. (Meisner, who exited the group in 1977, after the earlier 12 months’s Lodge California album, died in July 2023 at age 77.)
Listed here are our decisions for the 15 finest Eagles track thus far.
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“Doolin-Dalton” (Desperado, 1973)
The opening observe from Eagles’ second album, impressed by the Doolin-Dalton gang in late-Nineteenth-century Oklahoma, was a linchpin reprised twice on the Desperado album’s second facet, organising a quasi-concept that was extra profitable within the particular person songs than throughout the complete physique of labor.
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“Peaceable Simple Feeling” (Eagles, 1972)
Like so many songs of their canon, this Tempchin observe is a prototype for what the group does so effectively: easygoing melodies with wealthy harmonies and an natural lushness that will get you buzzing alongside virtually earlier than the primary verse is over.
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“Seven Bridges Highway” (Eagles Stay, 1980)
Talking about what Eagles accomplish that effectively, this dwell take of the Steve Younger tune is all in regards to the harmonies, executed principally a cappella and jaw-droppingly tight and easy.
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“Tequila Dawn” (Desperado, 1973)
One of many first Henley-Frey songwriting collaborations for Eagles, “Tequila Dawn” is a scene-setter in each sense, though its mellow countenance truly feels extra like nightfall than daybreak.
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“Heartache Tonight” (The Lengthy Run, 1979)
Assisted by Bob Seger on each songwriting and uncredited backing vocals, the Grammy Award-winning and Scorching 100-topping single from The Lengthy Run has these darn superb harmonies but once more, alongside some sizzling slide guitar taking part in by Joe Walsh.
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“How Lengthy” (Lengthy Highway Out of Eden, 2007)
This latter-day single, from 2007’s Lengthy Highway Out of Eden, has a classic really feel, and for good motive: The group truly carried out the JD Souther anti-war track dwell through the ’70s and rediscovered it greater than three a long time later — and made it sound like no time had handed in any respect.
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“Already Gone” (On the Border, 1974)
The Eagles’ rendition of this Tempchin tune is a hootin’, hollerin’ anthem that gave Frey and then-new member Don Felder loads of room to let their guitars scream a little bit bit.
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“Better of My Love” (On the Border, 1974)
Way more sugar than saccharine, the Henley-sung ballad gave Eagles its first No. 1 Scorching 100 single and has saved listeners swooning, rightfully, for practically 50 years.
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“Lyin’ Eyes” (Certainly one of These Nights, 1975)
A bit of supposition about girls dishonest on their husbands whereas Frey and Henley have been hanging out at Dan Tana’s in Los Angeles gave delivery to this majestic ballad, whose wealthy refrain harmonies make the lyrical indictment sound like a misleading pat on the again.
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“I Can’t Inform You Why” (The Lengthy Run, 1979)
Timothy B. Schmit’s most interesting second is a soulful, moody gradual jam whose rigidity is lower by his pure excessive tenor and what could also be — with apologies to “Lodge California” — essentially the most transportive guitar solo within the Eagles’ repertoire.
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“Take It to the Restrict” (Certainly one of These Nights, 1975)
Give the opposite bass participant some: Randy Meisner shines on this paean to function and dedication, thrilling together with his personal model of jaw-dropping falsetto and an Eagles track — co-written with Henley and Frey — that stands up even with out the vocal fireworks.
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“Life within the Quick Lane” (Lodge California, 1976)
Eagles’ finest out-and-out rocker, bar none, and the best second from the Joe Walsh-Don Felder guitar tandem save for, oh, that different one…
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“Take It Simple” (Eagles, 1972)
The take-off level, a Frey-Browne collaboration that put a nook in Winslow, Ariz. on the map and made us all lengthy for the sort of “world of hassle” the singer was having.
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“Desperado” (Desperado, 1973)
The Henley showcase from the album of the identical identify boasts a desolate, tumbleweeds-rolling-in-the-sunset atmosphere that makes a genuinely cinematic impression.
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“Lodge California” (Lodge California, 1976)
An unbeatable champion of a track, an aural film that checks off all of the packing containers — evocative lyrics, social commentary, surrealistic circumstances and that ferocious guitar jam, which resides comfortably within the pantheon of epics alongside “Stairway to Heaven” and “Free Chicken.”
