After releasing two of the best-selling albums in history, the Eagles took a few years off before recording a follow-up. The Long Run, released late in 1979, produced three hit singles and went 7X platinum in the United States yet was still viewed as a disappointment by most critics.
Those hits — the title track, ‘Heartache Tonight’ and ‘I Can’t Tell You Why’ — all reached Billboard’s top ten, with ‘Heartache Tonight’ (featuring Glenn Frey on lead vocals) hitting the top spot.
The Eagles continued their album-per-year streak, releasing the ever-popular Hotel California in 1976. But earlier in the year, the band (or, more appropriately, their record label) put out a greatest hits collection comprised of ten songs from their first four albums.
That album went on to sell more copies than any other release in U.S. history, until finally being surpassed by Michael Jackson’s Thriller — not in the 80s but in 2009 after Jackson’s death. Not bad for ten soft country rock songs. Based on my generally positive response to those first four albums, it seems maybe I should jump on the bandwagon and grab the greatest hits myself.
In 1975, the Eagles released One Of These Nights, their fourth album in as many years. Continuing a trend that started with their second album, Don Henley and Glenn Frey dominated the songwriting on this record, and Henley moved to the forefront as the band’s de facto lead singer.
Founding member Bernie Leadon wasn’t thrilled with the band’s musical direction and quit after touring with this album. Despite the disagreements that bubbled up during the recording, One Of These Nights became the Eagles’ most successful release yet, reaching #1 on the Billboard chart.
1975 saw the release of the Eagles’ third studio album in three years. The band’s goal with On the Border was to shed the country-folk sound of their first two releases in favor of a harder rock vibe.
Producer Glyn Johns, who had helmed the band’s first two albums, was relieved of his duties after cutting just a couple of tracks. He was replaced by the world’s highest-scoring Scrabble word, Bill Szymczyk. Szymczyk had produced two Joe Walsh albums, of which the Eagles were fans (foreshadowing!).
A year after their successful debut album, the Eagles released the concept album Desperado, intent on being taken more seriously as artists.
Initially conceived as an album about anti-heroes, the album turned the Wild West into a metaphor for the rock music industry and society as a whole. Or at least that was the idea. Even the band members admit that the concept was half-baked. As Don Henley put it, “The metaphor was probably a little bullshit. We were in L.A. staying up all night, smoking dope, living the California life, and I suppose we thought it was as radical as cowboys in the old West.”
Meet Me In Montauk 