Eagles (commonly referred to as "The Eagles") are an American
rock band that was formed in Los Angeles,
California in the early 1970s. With five number-one singles and four number-one albums, the Eagles were among the
most successful recording artists of the 1970s. At the end of the 20th century, two of their albums, Eagles: Their Greatest Hits 1971–1975 and Hotel California, ranked among the ten best-selling albums according to the Recording Industry Association of America. The best-selling studio album
Hotel California is rated as the 37th album in the Rolling Stone list
"The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time", and the band was
ranked number 75 on Rolling Stone's 2004 list of the 100 Greatest
Artists of All Time.[1] They are also the best-selling
American group ever, with Eagles: Their Greatest Hits 1971–1975 being the best-selling album in the U.S. to date.[2] [3] The Eagles also provided the theme tune for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas
Adams, first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1978, with a song called Journey of the
Sorcerer.
The Eagles broke up in 1980 and were disbanded for 14 years, but reunited in 1994 for Hell Freezes Over ("For the record, we never broke up. We just took a fourteen year vacation.").
They have toured intermittently since then, and were inducted into the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame in 1998.
On June 8, 2007, Don Henley
announced at a concert that a new album, Long Road Out of Eden, would be
out on October 30, 2007. This will be the first full studio
album by the band in 28 years (1994's Hell Freezes Over was a mix of live and new
studio tracks). The Eagles are also planning a tour throughout 2008 after the release of this
album. [4]
Formation
The band formed in 1971 when Linda Ronstadt's
then-manager, John Boylan, extracted Glenn Frey,
Bernie Leadon, and Randy Meisner from
their previous affiliations. They were short of a drummer until Frey phoned Don Henley, whom
he had met at the Troubadour in Los
Angeles. After auditioning for Ronstadt, she approved and the band backed her up on a two-month tour and provided the
opportunity for their first album recording, on her 1973 self-titled album Linda Ronstadt.
After their stint with Ronstadt and with her encouragement, they then decided to form their own band, signing in 1970 to
Asylum Records, the new label started by David
Geffen. Geffen and partner Elliot Roberts also initially managed the band. The new group chose the name The Eagles
as a nod to The Byrds (Leadon had been in The
Flying Burrito Brothers with former Byrds bassist Chris Hillman).
Eagles
Their first album, Eagles, was filled with natural, sometimes innocent country
rock, and yielded three Top Forty singles. The leadoff single, Take It Easy, was a song penned by Glenn Frey's friend, neighbor and fellow country rocker,
Jackson Browne. Frey heard him playing it and asked if the Eagles could use it. Browne
agreed and with a few lyrics added in by Frey, the song was recorded and became a classic, reaching number 12 on the
Billboard Hot 100 and propelling the Eagles to stardom. The single was followed
by the bluesy Witchy Woman and the soft country rock ballad Peaceful Easy Feeling, charting #9 and #22 respectively. Eagles were a major force in
popularizing the southern California country rock sound around the nation. Rolling Stone magazine's 2003 list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" ranked Eagles at number 374.[5]
Desperado
Image:Deperado3.jpg
Eagles playing dead on back cover of
Desperado (The two
additional "bodies" are those of J.D. Souther and Jackson Browne)
Their second album, Desperado was themed on Old West outlaws and introduced the group's penchant for conceptual songwriting. It was during the
recording sessions that Don Henley and Glenn Frey began
writing with each other, co-writing eight of the album's eleven songs. Included are two of the Eagles' most popular songs:
Tequila Sunrise and Desperado were both written by Henley and Frey.
The bluegrass songs, Twenty-One, Doolin' Dalton (Instrumental) and the ballad Saturday Night are significant
for showcasing guitarist Bernie Leadon's abilities on banjo, fingerpicked guitar and mandolin. Throughout the album, the story
of the notorious Wild West "Doolin' Dalton" gang was the main focus, featuring in the songs Doolin-Dalton,
Bittercreek, Desperado and Doolin-Dalton/Desperado. The album was
less successful than the first, reaching only number 41 on the U.S. pop album charts, and
yielding only two singles, Tequila Sunrise, which reached number 61 on the
Billboard charts, and Outlaw Man, which
reached number 59.
The album marked a significant change to the band. Henley and Frey co-wrote a bulk of the album, a pattern that would follow
the band for years to come. As a result, the pair began to dominate the band in terms of leadership and songwriting, turning the
focus of the band away from Leadon and Meisner. Ironically, many had thought that it would be Leadon and Meisner who would be
leading the band. [6]
On the Border
For their next album, On the Border, Henley and Frey wanted the band to break
away from the country music style they were known for, moving more towards
hard rock. Initially, the Eagles' started off with Glyn
Johns producing, but he tended to emphasize the lush side of their double-edged music. After completing only two songs,
the band turned to Bill Szymczyk to produce the rest of the album. Szymczyk brought in
Don Felder to add slide guitar to a song called
Good Day in Hell, and the band was so impressed that two days later they invited
Felder to become the fifth Eagle. He appeared on only one other song on the album, the uptempo breakup song Already Gone, in which he performed the memorable guitar duet with Glenn Frey. On the Border
yielded a number 1 Billboard single in the song Best of My Love, which hit the top of the charts on March
1, 1975, becoming the Eagles' first of five chart
toppers.
One of These Nights (Leadon leaves)
Their next album, One of These Nights, had an aggressive, sinewy rock
stance. The album further displayed the growing strength of the Henley/Frey songwriting team, particularly on the album's
title track and the Grammy Award
winning Lyin' Eyes. One of These Nights hit number 1 on the Billboard
chart August 2, 1975. The song itself has often been cited by
Frey as his all-time favorite Eagles tune. [7] The album
also contains the futuristic sounding instrumental Journey of the Sorcerer, which is known to many as the theme to
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. One of These
Nights was the first Eagles number 1 on the pop album charts. They had reached the summit of rock success, but all was
not well with the band internally.
By this time, members of the band had started to fight with each other. Recording and touring had been brutal since the
eponymous debut album; tempers were boiling over, and egos were clashing. Between the release of One of These Nights and
the subsequent tour, Bernie Leadon left the group, disillusioned with the direction the band's music was taking. They were no
longer concentrating on the country rock in which Leadon excelled and the hiring of Don Felder meant that Leadon's role had been
significantly diminished. Leadon left the band in December 1975, famously announcing his
resignation by pouring a beer over Frey's head. In order to continue with their tour schedule, the group quickly replaced Leadon
with Joe Walsh, a veteran of such groups as the James Gang
and Barnstorm and a solo artist in his own right.
Meanwhile, in early 1976, Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975) was
released. It went on to become the best-selling album in U.S. history, selling over 29 million copies to date.[8]
Hotel California (Meisner leaves)
The group's next album, Hotel California, came out in late 1976.
New Kid in Town was a #1 hit in Billboard on February 26, 1977, and Hotel
California on May 7, 1977. Life in the Fast Lane was also a huge hit, becoming a catchphrase in the process, and established Joe Walsh's position in the band with its more hard-rock sound.
The ballad Wasted Time closed the first side of the record, while an instrumental reprise of it opened the second side.
The album concluded with The Last Resort, the song Frey, to this day, refers to
as Don Henley's greatest work.[citation needed] The run out groove on side two has the words "V.O.L. Is Five-Piece Live",
this means that the song Victim of Love was recorded live, with just the
band and no overdubbing. Don Henley confirms this on the inner booklet of The Very Best of the Eagles. In all, Hotel California is generally
considered to be the band's masterpiece, and has appeared on several lists of the best albums of all time.[9] It is also their best-selling studio album, with over 16 million copies
sold to date in the U.S.
During the final leg of the ensuing tour, Randy Meisner decided he had seen enough hotel rooms in his seven years as an Eagle
and left the band for the relative quiet of Nebraska to recuperate and begin a solo career. The Eagles replaced Meisner
with the man who had succeeded him in Poco, Timothy B.
Schmit. In 1977 the entire Eagles lineup, minus Don Felder, performed some instrumental work and backing vocals for
Randy Newman's album Little Criminals. The
album credits them as individual performers rather than as the Eagles, possibly to avoid a contract dispute with the
Eagles' record label.[citation needed]
The Long Run
In February 1979, the Eagles went into the studio to produce their next studio album, The Long Run. The album took two years to make, but yielded the group's fifth and last #1
single in Billboard, "Heartache Tonight" (November 10, 1979). The tour to promote the album intensified personality
differences between band members, made worse on the night of November 21, 1979, when Henley was arrested for cocaine, quaalude, and marijuana possession after a nude 16-year-old
prostitute had drug-related seizures in a hotel room. Henley was subsequently charged with
contributing to the delinquency of a minor.[10] In
addition, Glenn Frey and Don Felder had to be separated by police and fellow band members backstage at a 1980 fundraising concert
for California Senator Alan Cranston. Frey
claimed he confronted Felder after he heard him insult Senator Cranston under his breath.[citation needed]
Break-up
The tour ended on July 31, 1980, in Long Beach,
California, when tempers boiled over into what Bill Szymczyk memorably
described as "The Long Night At Wrong Beach." Frey and Felder spent the entire show describing to each other the beating each
planned to administer backstage — "Only three more songs until I kick your butt, pal," Frey recalls Felder telling him near the
end of the band's set. Felder recalls Frey making a similar threat to him just as they began to sing "The Best Of My Love." As
soon as the show was over, mayhem broke out. Frey launched an assault on Felder, who protected himself with his guitar. Within
seconds, the rest of the band had joined in. A dozen roadies then pulled apart the warring factions. [11]
It appeared to be the end of the Eagles, although the band still owed Warners a live record from the tour. Eagles Live (released in November 1980) was mixed by Frey and 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,[citation needed] the record's perfect three-part
harmonies were fixed "courtesy of Federal Express." With credits that listed no fewer than five attorneys, the album's liner
notes simply said, "Thank you and goodnight."
After the Eagles
After the breakup of the Eagles, each ex-member tried his hand in a solo career. Joe Walsh had already established himself as
a solo artist in the 1970s before and during his time with the Eagles, but it was uncharted waters for the others.
Walsh tried continuing his solo career, which included the hits, 1973's "Rocky Mountain
Way" and 1978's "Life's Been Good", but found hits hard to come by after the
breakup. 1981's album, There Goes the Neighborhood was considerably
successful, but successive albums throughout the 1980s, such as Got Any Gum? proved
to be mediocre. During this time he also performed as a session musician for Dan
Fogelberg, Steve Winwood and Emerson,
Lake and Palmer, among others, and produced and co-wrote Ringo Starr's
"Old Wave" album.
Don Henley turned out to have the greatest solo success of the five during this period. In 1982 he released the well-received
I Can't Stand Still, featuring the hit "Dirty
Laundry". The first album paled in comparison, though, to his next release: 1984's smash, Building the Perfect Beast. Off of this album came the Hot 100 #5 hit and classic rock
radio staple, "Boys of Summer". It also yielded the #9 hit, "All She Wants to Do Is Dance" and "Sunset Grill". He
wouldn't release another album for five years, when 1989's The End of the
Innocence was released. This album was also a major success including the hits, "The End of the Innocence" and "The
Heart of the Matter". His solo career was cut short however because of a contract dispute with his record company which
was not resolved until the Eagles reunited in 1994.
Glenn Frey also found solo success in the 1980s. In 1982, he released his first album, No
Fun Aloud, which spawned the #14 hit, "The One You Love". He followed up this album with 1984's The Allnighter, which featured the #20 hit, "Sexy Girl". He scored a #2 hit with "The Heat Is
On", from the Beverly Hills Cop soundtrack. He had another song stall at #2 in
1985 with "You Belong to the City" from the smash hit, Miami Vice soundtrack, which featured another Frey song, "Smuggler's Blues". He also contributed the
songs "Flip City" to the Ghostbusters II soundtrack, and "Part of Me, Part of
You" to the soundtrack for Thelma and Louise.
In 1982, former rock writer turned filmmaker Cameron Crowe saw his first screenplay
turn into a feature length movie, Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
Crowe was a fan and had written about The Eagles in one of his articles, and as a result, Henley, Walsh, Schmit, and Felder all
contributed solo songs to the film's soundtrack. In addition, the band playing the dance toward the end of the movie covers
Life in the Fast Lane.
Reunion and resumption
Hell Freezes Over
Fourteen years after the breakup, an Eagles country tribute album titled Common Thread: The Songs of The Eagles was released in 1993. Travis Tritt insisted on having the Long Run-era Eagles in his video for Take It Easy, and
they complied. After the Take It Easy video was completed the following year, and following years of public speculation,
the band finally formally reunited. The lineup comprised the five Long Run-era members — Frey, Henley, Walsh, Felder and
Schmit — supplemented by additional players on stage. "For the record, we never broke up, we just took a 14-year vacation,"
announced Frey at their first live performance in April 1994. The ensuing tour spawned a live album titled Hell Freezes Over (named for Henley's recurring statement that the group would get back together
when hell freezes over) which debuted at number one on the Billboard chart, and
four new songs including Get Over It and Love Will Keep Us Alive which both became top forty hits. The album itself
proved as successful as the reunion tour, selling six million copies in the US alone. While the tour was briefly interrupted in
late 1994 due to Frey's serious recurrence of diverticulitis, it resumed in 1995 and
continued into 1996.[12]
In 1998, the band was inducted into the Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame. During the induction ceremony, Frey, Henley, Felder, Walsh and
Schmit performed together, and former members Bernie
Leadon and Randy Meisner rejoined the band for the performance, where
the band played Take It Easy and Hotel
California. Several subsequent reunion tours followed (without Leadon or Meisner), notable for their record-setting
ticket prices.
The new millennium
The Eagles performed at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on 31 December, 1999. This concert marked the last time Don Felder played with the band and these shows (including a planned release of the video) would form a part
of the lawsuit that Felder later filed against his former band mates.
The concert was released on CD as part of the four-disc box set in November 2000. Along with the millennium concert, this set included the band's hit singles, album tracks, as well as
outtakes from The Long Run sessions. Selected Works sold
approximately 267,000 copies at about $60 a piece.[citation needed]
Don Felder sues the Eagles
On February 6 2001, Don
Felder was fired from the Eagles. Felder responded by filing two lawsuits against "Eagles, Ltd., a California
corporation; Don Henley, an individual; Glenn Frey, an individual; and Does 1-50", alleging
wrongful termination, breach of implied-in-fact contract, and breach of fiduciary duty, reportedly seeking $50,000,000 in
damages.[13][14]
In his latter complaint, Felder alleged that from the 1994 Hell Freezes Over
tour onward, Henley and Frey had "...insisted that they each receive a higher percentage of the band's profits...", whereas the
money had previously been split in five equal portions. Felder also accused them of coercing him into signing an agreement under
which Henley and Frey would receive three times as much of the
proceeds than Felder.
On behalf of his clients Henley and Frey, attorney Daniel M. Petrocelli
stated:
“
[Henley and Frey] felt, creatively — chemistry-wise and performance-wise — that he should no longer be part of the band.... They
removed him, and they had every legal right to do so. This has been happening with rock 'n' roll bands since day one.
[13]”
It was also reported that Don Felder usually did not agree with the rest of the band as far as touring or recording schedules.
The rest of the band members wanted the freedom to tour or record as they wanted on their own terms.
Henley and Frey then counter-sued Felder for breach of contract, alleging that
Felder had written and attempted to sell the rights to a "tell-all" book. No such book has been published. However, Felder does
plan to release a book entitled Heaven and Hell: My Life as an Eagle in October
2007.[citation needed]
On January 23 2002, the Los Angeles County Court
consolidated the two complaints. The case was dismissed on May 8 2007 after being settled out of court for an undisclosed amount.[citation needed]
"Hole in the World"
In 2003 the Eagles released a new greatest hits album The Very Best of the Eagles. The two-disc compilation was the first that
encompassed their entire career, from Eagles to The Long Run. The album also included a new single, the September 11-themed Hole in the World. The
album debuted at number three on the Billboard charts and eventually gained triple
platinum status.
Also in 2003, Warren Zevon, a friend of the Eagles, began work on his final
album, The Wind, with the assistance of Henley, Walsh, and Schmit.
On June 14 2005, the Eagles released a new
two-DVD set titled Farewell 1 Tour-Live
from Melbourne featuring two new songs: Glenn Frey's No More Cloudy Days and Joe Walsh's One Day at a
Time. A special edition 2006 release exclusive to Wal-Mart and affiliated stores also
included a bonus audio CD with three new songs: a studio version of No More Cloudy Days plus Fast Company and Do
Something.[15]
Long Road Out of Eden
As of 2006, the Eagles consisted of Frey, Henley, Walsh, and Schmit. On their Farewell
Tour I they were supplemented by eight additional players: a drummer/percussionist Scott
Crago, guitarist Steuart Smith (playing Felder's parts), keyboard players Michael Thompson and Will Hollis and a four-person horn section (Al Garth, Bill Armstrong, Chris Mostert and Greg Smith, who also played violin and additional
percussion). The band toured Europe in the summer of 2006. In
May 2006 the Eagles were interviewed for a two-hour BBC radio
special[16] about their careers, with specifics about
each of their albums, and a look to the future.
A new Eagles album — their first new studio album since 1979 — is to be titled
Long Road Out of Eden, [6] and has been reportedly in production for several years. In an August
2006 interview, Joe Walsh predicted a 2007 release.[17] In a private concert held at the end of January 2007, Don Henley reported that the album would be
released "in sixty to ninety days, if it doesn't kill us first."[18] On 8 June at Borgata Casino,
New Jersey, Don said that he would be in Atlantic
City another night and then head back to Los Angeles to complete the
album. He thought for a second and then said that it would be out on October 30 and that no
one would be happier than they would.[19] The album will
be exclusively sold by Wal-Mart and online at Musictoday.com.
On August 16 2007, the first single from Long Road out of
Eden, titled How Long, debuted on radio stations.[20]
They will be premiering the new Nokia Theater L.A. Live with the Dixie Chicks on October 18 and 20. Four more shows at the theater are planned for the following week. A single, How Long was released
on the 16 August. It is an upbeat, country-flavored song with lead vocals by both Frey and
Henley: Frey sings the majority, but one verse and one line of a bridge is sung by Henley. The song was originally written by
John David Souther and released on his 1972 self-titled
album.
Band members
Line-ups
| 1971-1974 |
- Glenn Frey - guitar, vocals, piano, slide guitar, harmonica
- Bernie Leadon - guitar, vocals, banjo, mandolin
- Randy Meisner - bass, vocals, guitar
- Don Henley - drums, vocals, guitar
|
| 1974-1975 |
- Glenn Frey - guitar, vocals, keyboards, piano
- Don Felder - guitar, vocals, talk box
- Bernie Leadon - guitar, vocals, banjo, mandolin, pedal steel guitar
- Randy Meisner - bass, vocals
- Don Henley - drums, vocals, guitar
|
| 1976-1977 |
- Glenn Frey - guitar, vocals, keyboards
- Don Felder - guitar, vocals
- Joe Walsh - guitar, vocals, keyboards, talk box
- Randy Meisner - bass, vocals
- Don Henley - drums, vocals
|
| 1977-1980 |
- Glenn Frey - guitar, vocals, keyboards
- Don Felder - guitar, vocals, organ
- Joe Walsh - guitar, vocals, keyboards, talk box
- Timothy B. Schmit - bass, vocals
- Don Henley - drums, vocals, guitar
|
| 1980-1994 |
Eagles disbanded
|
| 1994-2001 |
- Glenn Frey - guitar, vocals, keyboards
- Don Felder - guitar, vocals
- Joe Walsh - guitar, vocals, keyboards, talk box
- Timothy B. Schmit - bass, vocals
- Don Henley - drums, vocals, guitar
|
| 2001-present |
- Glenn Frey - guitar, vocals, keyboards
- Joe Walsh - guitar, vocals, keyboards, talk box
- Timothy B. Schmit - bass, vocals, guitar
- Don Henley - drums, vocals, guitar
|
Awards
Discography
-
Studio albums
- Eagles (June 1, 1972) (Platinum)
- Desperado (April 17, 1973) (2x Platinum)
- On the Border (
