About The Eagles 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 those albums, Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975) and Hotel California, ranked among the ten best-selling albums ever, according to the certifications of the Record Industry Association of America. Though most of its members came from outside California, the group was closely identified with a country- and folk-tinged sound that initially found favor in and around Los Angeles in the late '60s, as played by such bands as the Flying Burrito Brothers and Poco, both of which contributed members to the Eagles. But the band also drew upon traditional rock & roll styles and, in their later work, helped define the broadly popular rock sound eventually referred to as classic rock. That helped the Eagles to achieve a perennial appeal among generations of music fans who continued to buy their records many years after they had split up, which inspired the reunion they mounted in the mid-'90s.

The band was formed by four Los Angeles-based musicians who had come to the West Coast from other parts of the U.S. Singer/bassist Randy Meisner (born in Scottsbluff, NE, on March 8, 1946) moved to L.A. in 1964 as part of a band originally called the Soul Survivors (not to be confused with the East Coast-based Soul Survivors, who scored a Top Five hit with "Expressway to Your Heart" in 1967) and later renamed the Poor. In 1968, he was a founding member of Poco, but left the band prior to the release of its debut album, joining the Stone Canyon Band, the backup group for Rick Nelson. Singer/guitarist/banjoist/mandolinist Bernie Leadon (born in Minneapolis, MN, on July 19, 1947) arrived in L.A. in 1967 as a member of Hearts and Flowers before joining Dillard & Clark and then the Flying Burrito Brothers. Singer/drummer Don Henley (born in Gilmer, TX, on July 22, 1947) moved to L.A. in June 1970 with his band Shiloh, which made one self-titled album for Amos Records before breaking up. Glenn Frey (born in Detroit, MI, on November 6, 1948) performed in his hometown and served as a backup musician to Bob Seger before moving to L.A. in the summer of 1968. He formed the duo Longbranch Pennywhistle with J.D. Souther, and they signed to Amos Records, which released their self-titled album in 1969.

In the spring of 1971, Frey and Henley were hired to play in Linda Ronstadt's backup band. Meisner and Leadon also played backup to Ronstadt during her summer tour, though the four only did one gig together, at Disneyland in July. They did, however, all appear on Ronstadt's next album, Linda Ronstadt, released in early 1972. In September 1971, Frey, Henley, Leadon, and Meisner signed with manager David Geffen, agreeing to record for his soon-to-be-launched label, Asylum Records; soon after, they adopted the name the Eagles. In February 1972, they flew to England and spent two weeks recording their debut album, Eagles, with producer Glyn Johns. It was released in June, reaching the Top 20 and going gold in a little over a year and a half, following the release of two Top Ten hits, "Take It Easy" and "Witchy Woman," and one Top 20 hit, "Peaceful Easy Feeling."

The Eagles toured as an opening act throughout 1972 and into early 1973, when they returned to England and Glyn Johns to record their second LP, Desperado, a concept album about outlaws. Released in April 1973, it reached the Top 40 and went gold in a little less than a year and a half, spawning the Top 40 single "Tequila Sunrise." The title track, though never released as a single, became one of the band's better-known songs and was included on its first hits collection.

After touring to support Desperado, the Eagles again convened a recording session with Glyn Johns for their third album. But their desire to make harder rock music clashed with Johns' sense of them as a country-rock band, and they split from the producer after recording two tracks, "You Never Cry Like a Lover" and "The Best of My Love." After an early 1974 tour opened by singer/guitarist Joe Walsh, they hired Walsh's producer, Bill Szymczyk, who handled the rest of On the Border. Szymczyk brought in a session guitarist, Don Felder (born in Gainesville, FL, on September 21, 1947), an old friend of Bernie Leadon's who so impressed the rest of the band that he was recruited to join the group. On the Border was released in March 1974. It went gold and reached the Top Ten in June, the Eagles' fastest-selling album yet. The first single, "Already Gone," reached the Top 20 the same month. But the most successful song on the LP, the one that broke them through to a much larger audience, was "The Best of My Love," released as a single in November. It hit number one on the easy listening charts in February 1975 and topped the pop charts a month later.

The Eagles' fourth album, One of These Nights, was an out-of-the-box smash. Released in June 1975, it went gold the same month and hit number one in July. It featured three singles that hit the Top Five: the chart-topping title song, "Lyin' Eyes," and "Take It to the Limit." "Lyin' Eyes" won the 1975 Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo, Group, or Chorus, and the Eagles also earned Grammy nominations for Album of the Year (One of These Nights) and Record of the Year ("Lyin' Eyes"). The group went on a headlining world tour, beginning with the U.S. and Europe. But on December 20, 1975, it was announced that Bernie Leadon had quit the band. Joe Walsh (born in Wichita, KS, on November 20, 1947) was brought in as his replacement. He immediately joined the tour, which continued to the Far East in early 1976.

The Eagles' extensive touring kept them out of the studio, and with no immediate plans for a new album, they agreed to the release of a compilation, Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975), in February 1976. The first album certified platinum for sales of one million copies, it topped the charts and became a phenomenal success, eventually selling upwards of 25,000,000 copies and dueling with Michael Jackson's Thriller for the title of the best-selling album of all time in the U.S.

It took the Eagles 18 months to follow One of These Nights with their fifth album, Hotel California. Released in December 1976, it was certified platinum in one week, hit number one in January 1977, and eventually sold over 10,000,000 copies. The singles "New Kid in Town" and "Hotel California" hit number one, and "Life in the Fast Lane" made the Top 20. "Hotel California" won the 1977 Grammy for Record of the Year and was nominated for Song of the Year; the album was nominated for Album of the Year and for Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo, Group, or Chorus. The Eagles embarked on a world tour in March 1977 that began with a month in the U.S., followed by a month in Europe and the Far East, then returned to the U.S. in May for stadium dates. At the end of the tour in September, Randy Meisner left the band; he was replaced by Timothy B. Schmit (born in Sacramento, CA, November 20, 1947), formerly of Poco, in which he also had replaced Meisner.

The Eagles began working on a new album in March 1978 and took nearly a year and a half to complete it. The Long Run was released in September 1979. It hit number one and was certified platinum after four months, eventually earning multi-platinum certifications. "Heartache Tonight," its lead-off single, hit number one, and "I Can't Tell You Why" and "The Long Run" became Top Ten hits. "Heartache Tonight" won the 1979 Grammy for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. The Eagles toured the U.S. in 1980, and at a week-long series of shows at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, they recorded Eagles Live. (Also included were some tracks recorded in 1976.) Released in November 1980, the double LP (since reissued as a single CD) reached the Top Five and went multi-platinum, with the single "Seven Bridges Road" reaching the Top 40.

The Eagles were inactive after the end of their 1980 tour, but their breakup was not officially announced until May 1982. All five released solo recordings. (Walsh, of course, maintained a solo career before, during, and after the Eagles.) During the rest of the 1980s, the bandmembers received several lucrative offers to reunite, but they declined. In 1990, Frey and Henley began writing together again, and they performed along with Schmit and Walsh at benefit concerts that spring. A full-scale reunion was rumored, but did not take place. Four years later, however, the Eagles did reunite. In the spring of 1994, they taped an MTV concert special and then launched a tour that ended up running through August 1996. The MTV show aired in October, followed in November by an audio version of it, the album Hell Freezes Over, which topped the charts and became a multi-million seller, spawning the Top 40 pop hit "Get Over It" and the number one adult contemporary hit "Love Will Keep Us Alive."

The Eagles next appeared together in January 1998 for their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, when the five present members performed alongside past members Leadon and Meisner. On December 31, 1999, they played a millennium concert at the Staples Center in Los Angeles that was recorded and included on the box set retrospective Selected Works: 1972-1999 in November 2000. All was not well within the band, however, and Felder was expelled from the lineup in February 2001. A protracted legal battle ensued as the Eagles soldiered on as a quartet, releasing The Very Best of the Eagles in 2003 and achieving minor success with the single "Hole in the World." Felder's case was settled out of court in 2007; that same year, the Eagles returned with the band's seventh studio album, Long Road Out of Eden. William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide


From Rolling Stone Magazine With over 100 million in record sales, the Eagles epitomized commercial Southern California rock in the 1970s, and their appeal continues undiminished decades later. As of late 2007, Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975, a 1976 best-of that was the first album ever certified platinum, is the best-selling album of all time in the U.S., its 29 million copies outstripping the previous champ, Michael Jackson's Thriller (27 million). The group's well-crafted songs merged countryish vocal harmonies with hard-rock guitars and lyrics that were alternately yearning ("One of These Nights," "Best of My Love") and romantically jaded ("Life in the Fast Lane," "Hotel California"). During the band's hugely successful career, it had an increasingly indolent recording schedule until its breakup in the fall of 1980. Subsequently, each of the members pursued solo careers, with Henley's the most successful commercially and critically. In the 1990s, the band's sound was frequently cited as an influence by young country stars and culminated with the band's reunion in 1994. The Eagles continue to be one of new millennium's most successful bands.

The group originally coalesced from L.A.'s country-rock community. Before producer John Boylan assembled them as Linda Ronstadt's backup band on her album Silk Purse (1970), the four original Eagles were already experienced professionals. Leadon had played in the Dillard and Clark Expedition and the Flying Burrito Brothers; Meisner, with Poco and Rick Nelson's Stone Canyon Band. Frey had played with various Detroit rock bands (including Bob Seger's) and Longbranch Pennywhistle (with J.D. Souther, a sometime songwriting partner), and Henley had been with a transplanted Texas group, Shiloh. After working with Ronstadt, Henley and Frey decided to form the Eagles, recruiting Leadon and Meisner.

Intending to take the country rock of the Byrds and Burritos a step further toward hard rock, the Eagles recorded their first album with producer Glyn Johns (Rolling Stones, the Who) in England. "Take It Easy" (Number 12, 1972), written by Frey and Jackson Browne, went gold shortly after its release, as did their album. (Another single, "Witchy Woman," reached Number Nine that year.) Desperado was a concept album with enough of a plot line to encourage rumors of a movie version. The LP yielded no major pop hits, but its title track, a ballad penned by Henley and Frey, has become a classic rock standard, covered by Linda Ronstadt, among others. With On the Border, the Eagles changed producers, bringing in Bill Szymczyk (who worked on all subsequent albums through 1982's Greatest Hits Vol. 2) and adding Felder, who had recorded with Flow in Gainesville, Florida (and who once gave guitar lessons to another Gainesville native, Tom Petty), then became a session guitarist and studio engineer in New York, Boston, and L.A.

The increased emphasis on rock attracted more listeners — mid-1970s hits included "Best of My Love" (Number One, 1975), "One of These Nights" (Number One, 1975), "Lyin' Eyes" (Number Two, 1975), and "Take It to the Limit" (Number Four, 1975) — but alienated Leadon. After One of These Nights, Leadon left the band to form the Bernie Leadon-Michael Georgiades Band, which released Natural Progressions in 1977. (Leadon went on to become a Nashville session musician, and in the 1990s formed Run-C&W, a jokester group who played a blend of country and R&B.)

Leadon was replaced by Joe Walsh, who had established himself with the James Gang and on his own. His Eagles debut, Hotel California, was their third consecutive Number One album (the second was their record-breaking 1976 greatest-hits compilation). "New Kid in Town" (Number One, 1976), the title cut (Number One, 1977), and "Life in the Fast Lane" (#11, 1977) spurred sales of more than 16 million copies worldwide.

Meisner left in 1977, replaced by Schmit, who had similarly replaced him in Poco. Meisner has released the solo albums Randy Meisner (1978) and One More Song (1980), and (yes) Randy Meisner (1982). (In 1981, he toured with the Silveradoes; later, in 1990, Meisner reemerged in a group called Black Tie, alongside Billy Swan and Bread's James Griffin.) Henley and Frey sang backup on One More Song, and in the late 1970s they also appeared on album by Bob Seger and Randy Newman. In 1981 Henley duetted with Stevie Nicks on the Number Six single "Leather and Lace."

Between outside projects and legal entanglements, it took the Eagles two years and $1 million to make the multi-platinum LP The Long Run. The album included the hit singles "Heartache Tonight" (Number One, 1979), "The Long Run" (Number Eight, 1980), and "I Can't Tell You Why" (Number One, 1980).

Walsh continued to release solo albums, though his biggest hit to date has been 1978's cheeky "Life's Been Good" (Number 12). Felder and Schmit also put out their own albums and contributed songs to film soundtracks. Schmit's second LP, Timothy B, included "Boys Night Out" (Number 25, 1987).

In 1982 Henley and Frey both embarked on solo careers. Frey charted with "The One You Love" (Number 15, 1982) and "Sexy Girl" (Number 20, 1984) before a movie proved his ticket into the Top Ten: "The Heat Is On," featured in Beverly Hills Cop, shot to Number Two in 1985. Frey followed this success by becoming an actor, making a guest appearance as a drug dealer on the popular TV series Miami Vice. The episode was based on a track from his album The Allnighter, "Smuggler's Blues," which consequently reached Number 12 (1985). Later in 1985, Frey's "You Belong to the City" hit Number Two. While still dabbling in acting with roles in the short-lived TV series South of Sunset, the movie Jerry Maguire, and a guest spot on the Don Johnson post-Miami Vice series Nash Bridges in the 1990s, Frey also co-founded a music label, Mission Records, in 1997.

Ultimately, though, Henley was the ex-Eagle who garnered the greatest chart success, and the most critical acclaim as well. His "Dirty Laundry" (from his first solo effort, I Can't Stand Still) made it to Number Three, but the 1985 solo album Building the Perfect Beast was to be his true arrival as solo hit maker and respected singer/songwriter. The kickoff single, "The Boys of Summer," went to Number Five — supported by an evocative black-and-white video that fast became an MTV favorite — and earned Henley a Grammy for Best Rock Vocal Performance; the hits "All She Wants to Do Is Dance" (Number Nine, 1985) and "Sunset Grill" Number 22, 1985) followed. A third album, The End of the Innocence (1989), produced a Number Eight (1989) title track, and the additional singles "The Last Worthless Evening" and "The Heart of the Matter," which both hit Number 21. The LP won Henley another Grammy, in the same category as before.

In the early 1990s, he sought release from his Geffen Records contract, initiating a long and bitter legal dispute. After participating in the release of a solo best-of album in 1995, Henley was freed from his contract. Five years later, he released a solo album of all-new material, Inside Job (co-produced by former Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers drummer Stan Lynch), and embarked on a solo tour to support it. Henley married for the first time in May 1995 and had three children before releasing Inside Job. This life-altering change for the longtime bachelor resulted in a new theme in his songwriting; several of Inside Job's tracks were clearly about marriage and family, including the gentle ballad "Taking You Home" (Number 58 pop, Number One Adult Contemporary, 2000). Much of the rest of the album, however, still explored Henley's cynicism toward the business world and the media.

In 1990 Henley founded the Walden Woods Project, dedicated to preserving historic lands around Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts (where Henry David Thoreau and others reflected and wrote), from corporate development. Among the singer's various fund-raising means were holding charity concerts, featuring other top rock artists, and donating proceeds from some of his own recordings, including a reggae version of the Guys and Dolls standard "Sit Down You're Rocking the Boat" (1993). In 1993 the Walden Woods Project got a big boost from Common Thread: The Songs of the Eagles, coordinated by Henley and featuring Clint Black, Trisha Yearwood, Travis Tritt, and others.

In 1994, after years of fielding off reunion rumors, Henley, Frey, Walsh, Felder, and Schmit — who had appeared together in the video for Tritt's version of "Take It Easy" — hit the road for a massively successful concert tour. The tour went on hiatus toward the end of 1994, due to Frey's gastrointestinal surgery, but it continued in 1995. In November 1994, the band released Hell Freezes Over, which featured four new songs, including the singles "Get Over It" (Number 31, 1994), "Love Will Keep Us Alive" (Number One Adult Contemporary, 1994), "Learn to Be Still" (Number 15 Adult Contemporary, 1995), and 11 of the old hits culled from the band's 1994 live appearance on MTV. Within months the reunion LP had sold more than 10 million copies and gone to Number One on the pop album chart.

In 1998 the Eagles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. All seven members of the band performed together for the first time at the induction ceremony. The core members of the group — the ones who had recorded and toured together in the mid-1990s — reunited again for a few concerts at the end of 1999, including a New Year's Eve show in L.A. A four-CD retrospective set, Eagles 1972-1999: Selected Works (Number 109) was issued in November 2000. In February 2001, the Eagles fired Felder, who retaliated by suing the band, its organization, and Henley and Frey individually; the latter pair countersued. (Felder later wrote a book about his time in the band, Heaven and Hell, which was published in the U.K. in November 2007.) The case was settled out of court in May 2007.

In 2003, The Very Best of the Eagles was released, covering the band's entire 1970s output as well as the new single "Hole in the World." In 2007, Eagles released its first all-new album in 28 years, the double-CD Long Road Out of Eden, exclusively through Wal-Mart, Sam's Club, and Eagles.com in the U.S. It debuted at Number One on the Billboard chart. The band continued to tour successfully through 2008.

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