I was a little girl the first time I heard The Eagles, my mother used to play their record album while she cleaned our house. I would pretend to be part of the band as I sang along to their songs. I never thought much about whom they were or what their music would mean to the music industry, all I knew is that I liked them. As I grew up, I developed a music preference of my own, one that did not actively include listening to the Eagles, although every time I heard The Eagles on a radio station I would remember how I felt hearing them as a child. The Eagles had the sound of a rock band with a twang, almost as if they could easily change out their guitars for banjos and become a country band.
Donald Hugh Henley was born July 22, 1947 in Gilmer, Texas. He grew up in the small town of Linden, Texas where he had piano lessons as a kid and played the trombone in his high school band. His parents bought him a drum set after seeing his ability with music, where he practiced till he was good enough to play with a local band. By age 15 he was playing for frat parties and local clubs with his band Felicity, which later changed names to Shiloh. At 18 he graduated high school and attended 3 years of college, returning home when his father got sick, to spend as much time with him as he could before he passed away. He continued playing with his band and in June of 1970 the band moved to California to try their hand at becoming famous.
Glenn Frey was born in Detroit, Michigan on November 6, 1948. He started playing the piano at age 5 but gave up the piano for a guitar at age 16. He played local bands and after high school wanted to pursue a career in music but his mother insisted he attend college. He agreed to attend a 2 year college but later quit to chase his girlfriend to California.
Randy Meisner was born March 18, 1946 in Scottsbluff, Nebraska. At age 10, after watching Elvis Presley on the Ed Sullivan Show picked up a guitar. He was a natural. He played for local bands and at age 20 was invited to open for a band in California. He jumped at the opportunity, packed his car and headed out west.
The three men were hired separately by Linda Ronstadt as part of her band while she was on tour. Until that point the three had seen one another perform, and had only been introduced in passing. They really did not know each other. According to the book To The Limit, The Untold Story of The Eagles, written by Marc Elliot, Bernie Leadon was later added to the band at Randy Meisner's suggestion. The first time they performed together was at a Disneyland show in July 1971(60).
The Eagles were considered a country- rock band that was formed in 1971. Its original members were Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Bernie Leadon, and Randy Meisner. Later members included Don Felder born September 21, 1947 from Topanga, California, Joe Walsh born November 20, 1947 from Wichita, Kansas, and Timothy B. Schmit born October 30, 1947 from Sacramento, California. The Eagles had a different sound, somehow combining the sounds of country and rock, and became one of the greatest rock bands of the '70's.
According to EaglesOnlineCentral.com the name "Eagles" was chosen for a variety of reasons - its association with Western mythology, freedom, Americana... and the fact that in Glenn's mind, it sounded like a sports team or a gang (fun facts and trivia).
Hank Stuever, from the Washington post writes about The Eagles:
People fell in love to Eagles music. They also broke up to it. They took spontaneous road trips to it; many of them through Winslow, Ariz., looking for the girl in that flatbed Ford. They brawled to it. They worked on their cars to it. They piloted space shuttles to it. It can't help but make you think of ice chests and summertime, girls in tube tops and their shaggy-haired boyfriends. When listening to an Eagles song, everybody remembers a '70s that they may or may not have had (1).
While, I was too young to fall in love, or break up to the Eagles, hearing their songs reminds me of my childhood, and growing up in the '70's. My favorite song from the Eagles has to be "The Last Resort" from their Hotel California album.
Rolling Stone Magazine wrote a bibliography about the Eagles, in it they state:
No other band did as much to translate the explosively creative, politicized rock of the 1960s into the massively popular, de-politicized rock of the 1970s, as the Eagles. Specializing in broadly appealing, masterfully crafted tunes, and the southern California band has sold more than 100 million albums. The 1976 compilation, Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975, was the first album ever certified platinum and has sold 29 million copies in the U.S., second only to Michael Jackson's Thriller on the all-time list (1).
James Hunter from Britannica Biographies writes further praise in his bibliography about the Eagles. "Their willingness to play by the rules may have been as responsible for the success of their resolutely formal, exceptionally dramatic songs as was the Eagles' hankering for the fiddles and dusty ambiences of the country rock movement they polished for popular consumption"(1).
The Eagles first album debuted in June 1972 titled Eagles. There were two songs from the album that hit the Top 10 Hit list; "Take It Easy" and "Witchy Woman", "Peaceful Easy Feeling"; another song from the same album, hit the Top 20 Hit List. The Album went gold a little over a year and a half later. Their second album, Desperado, was released in April 1973. The album hit the Top 40 Charts and went gold in less than a year and a half. The EaglesOnlineCentral.com website claims that the album was inspired by a book about old West Outlaws - including photos of their corpses - that Glenn had received as a birthday present pre-Eagles fame. (Facts and trivia) Their third album On the Border was released in March 1974. This album had more of a classic rock sound to it and became an instant success, going gold only three months after its release. The song "Already Gone" reached the Top 20 chart the same month. Undeniably the most successful song on the album was "The Best of My Love." It hit number one on the easy listening charts in February 1975 and only took another month to make the top of the pop charts. The fourth album released by the Eagles One of These Nights in June 1975, went gold the same month it was released, three of its songs hit the top five charts; " One of These Nights"," Lyin' Eyes", and "Take It to the Limit". "Lyin' Eyes" continued on to win the 1975 Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Performance. The Eagles fifth album, Hotel California, was released in December of 1976. Astonishingly, the album went certified platinum in one week, hit number one in January 1977, and sold over 10,000,000 copies. The songs "New Kid in Town" and "Hotel California" hit number one, and "Life in the Fast Lane" made the Top 20. Additionally, Hotel California went on to win the 1977 Grammy for Record of the Year and was nominated for Song of the Year; the album itself was nominated Album of the Year and for Best Pop Vocal Performance. Although at that point, a huge success; the band was showing signs of problems. In 1982 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame wrote an article which included an interview with Don Henley. He was quoted saying "We probably peaked on Hotel California," after that we started growing apart as collaborators and as friends" (2).
De Curtis and Rolston, from Rolling Stone Magazine wrote that after the success of Hotel California, Don Henley and Glenn Frey emerged as the main voices of the Eagles, in part as a result of their songwriting and singing capabilities, but mainly because Bernie Leadon and Randy Meisner had decided their time with The Eagles had come to an end and left the band (2). The Eagles then picked up Joe Walsh and Timothy Schmit and began working on their sixth album The Long Road. The Rock N Roll Hall of Fame writes that the recording process for The Long Road dragged on for two years and drove the Eagles to the breaking point. "Although it was by all outward standards a success, yielding yet another trio of hits "Heartache Tonight", "The Long Run" and "I Can't Tell You Why", its making had been a draining experience that ultimately contributed strongly to the Eagles' demise" (2). The Long Road was released in September 1979 and only took four months before going platinum.
The Eagles officially disbanded in 1982. Don Henley, Glenn Frey and Joe Walsh ventured out into the music industry separately and had successful careers as solo artists. The Eagles were among the most successful artists that came out of the 70's. Their accomplishments with five number one songs, fourteen Top 40 hits, and four number one albums, undeniably prove that. By the time the 20th century came to an end, two of their albums; Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975) and Hotel California were ranked among the ten best-selling albums ever.
William Ruhlman from All Music.com says that "The Eagles achieved a perennial appeal among generations of music fans who, continued to buy their records many years after they had split up. The support of their fans further helped in inspiring the Eagles' reunion in 1994" (4). The Eagles reunited for an MTV concert recording, launching a tour that lasted till 1996. In January 1998 The Eagles appeared together one more; this time for their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, where the five present members performed alongside past members Bernie Leadon and Randy Meisner.
In 2007 the band reunited once more for Long Road Out of Eden, a double album that contained the Eagles' first collection of completely new material in almost thirty years. James Hunter from Britannica Biographies wrote that "it was a hit with both critics and fans" and the album also signaled the group's departure from the traditional industry model of production and distribution. Released on the band's own Eagles Recording Company label, the North American version of the album was available only through the Eagles' official Web site and at Wal-Mart stores (4). In 2009 "I Dreamed There Was No War", one of the songs from Long Road Out of Eden album, won the Grammy Award for best pop instrumental performance.
The Eagles have been making music my entire life, they have been with me through my childhood, my teens and continued into my adulthood, I don't know if I can name another band, that has been around for 40 years, nor a band that has continued to produce top hits and top albums, throughout its 40 year career. They are truly one of the greatest bands in the history of rock and roll.
