Revisiting Hotel California - Eagles (1976)

 Hotel California - Eagles

Asylum Records

Produced by Bill Syzmczyk

Released 8th December 1976

US Chart #1

UK Chart #2

Australian Chart #1

Dutch Chart #1

New Zealand Chart #1

US 16x Platinum (Diamond with sales of 10 million)

UK 6x Platinum

Australia 8x Platinum

New Zealand 9x Platinum

Eagles
    Don Felder – guitars, pedal steel guitar, slide guitar, vocals
    Glenn Frey – guitars, piano, clavinet, synthesizer, vocals
    Don Henley – drums, percussion, synthesizer, vocals
    Randy Meisner – bass, guitarrón, vocals
    Joe Walsh – guitars, slide guitar, piano, electric piano, organ, synthesizer, vocals

Side 1

Side 2

Singles Released from Hotel California

(Links Below Are For Live Versions)

(Belgian Picture Sleeve)

New Kid in Town / Victim of Love

December 1976

US Chart #1

UK Chart #20

Belgian Chart #19

J.D. Souther had written the chorus the year before and had played it to the band but it wasn't until the recording of the Hotel California album that he sat down with Henley and Frey and they completed the lyrics.

Don Henley said in the liner notes to The Very Best of Eagles album that "It's about the fleeting, fickle nature of love and romance. It's also about the fleeting nature of fame, especially in the music business. We were basically saying, 'Look, we know we're red hot right now but we also know that somebody's going to come along and replace us - both in music and in love'."

There's a nice contribution on the song from Joe Walsh as well but not on the guitar but on piano and organ.

(UK Picture Sleeve)

Hotel California / Pretty Maids All In A Row

February 1977

US Chart #1

UK Chart #8

The record label were not very keen to release the Title Track as a single unless it was edited down because it far exceeded the time for singles played on the radio at six and a half minutes. The band took a stand and refused and it was great they did because an edit of the song would have lost some of the magic about it.

The single won the 1977 Grammy Award For Record Of The Year.

There have been a fair few interesting interpretations about the song down through the years (google it I'm sure you'll find most of them).

 Henley has said "It's basically a song about the dark underbelly of the American dream and about excess in America, which is something we knew a lot about." In the 2013 documentary, History of the Eagles, Henley reiterated:

    "On just about every album we made, there was some kind of commentary on the music business, and on American culture in general. The hotel itself could be taken as a metaphor not only for the myth-making of Southern California, but for the myth-making that is the American Dream, because it is a fine line between the American Dream, and the American nightmare."

(German Picture Sleeve)

Life In The Fast Lane / The Last Resort

May 1977

US Chart #11

*********************** 

On the back of two #1 albums - One Of These Nights (1975) and Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975 (1976) the Los Angeles based Eagles bounced back into limelight with one of the biggest albums of 1976 (going into 1977) and their fifth studio project Hotel California.

Hard to believe that the album is forty years old today! I know there is always lots of debate regarding the worth of the Eagles and the music that they released over the years and how sometimes the Music Police try and pull you up for liking something that they don't think fits the type of person they assume you are. Well personally I've never really cared too much what the Music Police have to say and although at the time of this release I was beginning to lean towards Punk and New Wave there was no letting go of the fact that here was an album brimming over with musical delights and wonderful songwriting.

I can remember hearing the title track on Nicky Horne's Your Mother Wouldn't Like It Show on Captial Radio and just being floored by the epic guitar coda that finishes off the song to fade (performed by both Walsh and Felder), and sitting quietly and pondering every word of The Last Resort - which to this day I think is one of the best, if not The Best lyric that Don Henley has ever penned! Glenn Frey said that Henley really found himself as lyricist with the song and that "he out did himself".

I'd always been impressed by the wealth of talent the Eagles had in their ranks. Good songwriters, vocalists and musicians and on Hotel California, whilst the majority of lead vocals are by drummer Don Henley (a multi-tasking drummer - almost unheard of today!), Joe Walsh gets a shot at singing his most "unlike Joe Walsh" song - Pretty Maids All In A Row, Bassist Randy Meisner sings his song Try And Love Again, and Glenn Frey takes the lead on New Kid In Town.

With regard to the writing Henley and Frey are the dominant team and with Don Felder they co-wrote Victim of Love and Hotel California;  J.D. Souther added some touches to Victim of Love and New Kid In Town; Life In The Fast Lane was born from that opening riff played by Joe Walsh in a rehearsal and a song was crafted around it; and then as I already mentioned above Walsh and Meisner each contributed a song. Jim Ed Norman also gets a credit for the instrumental Wasted Time (Reprise) with regard to his String Arrangement on the track.

Just in passing whilst it's in my head, this was actually the first Eagles album to feature Joe Walsh as he replaced founding member Bernie Leadon and also the last album for Randy Meisner who departed the band after some health issues throughout the Hotel California Tour of 1976-77. His replacement would be Timothy B. Schmit (who strangely enough had also replaced Meisner when he departed Poco to join the Eagles!).

The Making of Hotel California

Interview with Glenn Frey, Joe Walsh and Randy Meisner.

Don Felder's Original Demo Cassette for Hotel California. 

Overall there's not a bad track on the album and forty years later it still sounds great I think, there's not a lot of albums you could still say that about!

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!: Day 343 - Eagles

Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975 - Eagles

Asylum Records

Released February 1976

US Album Chart #1

UK Chart #2

Side 1

Side 2

Notes on Singles

Take It Easy / Get You In The Mood

May 1972

US Chart #12

Witchy Woman / Earlybird

August 1972

US Chart #9

  

Peaceful Easy Feeling / Tryin'

December 1972

US Chart #22

  

(Italian Picture Sleeve)

Tequila Sunrise / Twenty One

April 1973

US Chart #64

  

(German Picture Sleeve)

Already Gone / Is It True?

April 1974

US Chart #32

 

(Dutch Picture Sleeve)

Best Of My Love / Ol '55

November 1975

US Chart #1

 

(Belgian Picture Sleeve)

One Of These Nights / Visions

May 1975

US Chart #1

UK Chart #23

(German Picture Sleeve)

Lyin' Eyes / Too Many Hands

September 1975

US Chart #2

UK Chart #23

(German Picture Sleeve)

Take It To The Limit / After The Thrill Is Gone

November 1975

US Chart #4

UK Chart #12

**********************

Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975 has the honour of being the first ever album to be awarded Platinum status! Not bad for a Greatest Hits album! It is currently the second highest certified album behind Michael Jackson's Thriller having gone Platinum 29 times in the USA and certified as Diamond (twice)!

Now, it's worth pointing out a particular truth regarding this Greatest Hits collection: The manager of Eagles, Irving Azoff, said: "We decided it was time to put out the first greatest-hits because we had enough hits." Infact the band had actually had 11 hit singles (some outside of the Top 40). However, according to Don Felder, none of the band members had any say in the decision to release the compilation album. The band complained that the album was "nothing more than a ploy by the record company to sell product without having to pay additional production costs". Don Henley was unhappy that songs like "Tequila Sunrise" and "Desperado" (the only track on the album not to be released as a single) were lifted out of the context of original album in a way that he thought detrimental to the nature, quality and meaning of the music. He said: "All the record company was worried about were their quarterly reports. They didn't give a shit whether the greatest hits album was good or not, they just wanted product."

The album actually sold four times as many copies as the band's first four studio albums. Whilst they might have been unhappy with their record label putting the album out and the choices made for the tracklist, I'm pretty sure that I have not read anywhere that they balked at the royalty payments that would be coming their way as a result of it's success!

Now you maybe wondering why on earth I'm posting an Eagles album. I  do not have to justify my choices to anyone let alone the Music Police who always seem to be lurking in the background ready to pounce upon anything they deem as not worthy listening material.

I actually quite liked a number of these early singles back when I was a kid, yes, remember, I was only twelve years old when this album was released! So Mr Music Policeman, incase you are reading I'd like to ask you what you were listening to at 12 years old?

I particularly loved the Take It To The Limit and One of These Nights singles and the others I kind of knew of through hearing them on the radio but the two singles mentioned were probably the first ones that really stuck with me.

Since this album has come out there have been many other Greatest Hits/Best Of /Very Best Of/Collection/Best of the Best/ The Complete Greatest Hits/ Legend of Eagles albums but none of them has come close to selling the amount this very first one has (the Eagles Greatest Hits Volume 2 released in November 1982 has been certified 11x Platinum. It was released two years after the band had broken up and no doubt a "smart move" by the label to cash in on the solo success of both Henley and Frey who had both released Debut Solo albums the same year!). Like I've said before regarding other Greatest Hits collections it is the always the first one that is the standard and also not to be forgotten is that there's not another album that bears the mantle of The Best Selling Album of the Twentieth Century in the USA.

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!

Glenn Frey Checks Out! 6th November 1948 - 18th January 2016

Woke up this morning to the news that Glenn Frey passed away yesterday. He was 67 years old and died after complications from a recent surgery.

The first time I ever heard the Eagles when I was a kid (maybe about 9 or 10 years old) it was the voice of Glenn Frey singing Take It Easy (a song that he co-wrote with Jackson Browne).

Vocal duties of course were shared with Don Henley (and other members of the band but mainly Don) and together with Frey they penned some of the finest tracks the band recorded, here's just a few of them: Tequila Sunrise, Desperado, On the Border (also Bernie Leadon contributed), James Dean (with Jackson Browne and J.D. Souther contributing), Best of My Love (with Souther), One of These Nights, Lyin' Eyes, Take It To The Limit (with Randy Meisner), After The Thrill Is Gone, Hotel California (with Don Felder contributing), New Kid In Town (with Souther contributing), Life In The Fast Lane (with Joe Walsh contributing), Wasted Time, Victim of Love (with Felder and Souther contributing), The Last Resort, The Long Run, Heartache Tonight (with Bob Seger and Souther contributing), Get Over It, Busy Being Fabulous, and a stack of other tunes from Long Road Out to Eden (the last Eagles album).

I was never a fan of a lot of his solo material.

It was not condisered a sign of coolness to like the Eagles, especially when Punk came along but I always had a soft spot for them and am unashamed of it.

So that's another one gone from the ranks and January has not even ended yet!

Rest in Peace Glenn Frey.

Happy Birthday Don Henley

(Click on the links to enjoy the music)

Born Donald Hugh Henley on this day back in 1947. 
He was born in Gilmer, Texas and grew up in Linden, Texas. In 1970 he moved to Los Angeles to record an album with his early band Shiloh. Kenny Rogers produced the album (included was a Henley penned song 'God is Where You Find Him').

Not long after the release of the Shiloh album Henley met Glenn Frey and they both ended up in Linda Ronstadt's backing band. They both played on Ronstadt's self-titled 1972 album released on Capitol Records and other musicians who worked on the album included Randy Meisner and Bernie Leadon and in 1971 they all got together and formed The Eagles.

Leadon, Henley, Meisner and Frey.

1st June 1972 saw the release of their debut album. It had been proceeded a month before by the Jackson Browne penned 'Take It Easy'. Actually Browne had begun work on the song in 1971 for his own self-titled debut album but was having trouble completing it. He gave it to Glenn Frey who was his neighbour and he finished the second verse of it. The single would peak at #12 on the Billboard Hot 100. 'Witchy Woman' would follow into the charts at #9 and the third single from the album 'Peaceful Easy Feeling' only made it to #22.

'Desperado' was released in 1973 and the two singles released from it didn't do so well on the chart, 'Tequila Sunrise' (#64) and 'Outlaw Man' (#59).

'On the Border' was the third album release by the Eagles. It arrived on the scene in March 1974. 'Already Gone' (#32), 'James Dean' (#77), and 'Best of My Love' (which became their first #1) were all released as singles.

'One of These Nights' came out in 1975 and was their first #1 Album and three Top 5 singles (including a #1) were taken from it. 'One of These Nights' (#1),'Lyin' Eyes'  (#2) and 'Take It To The Limit' (#4). 'One of These Nights' would also be the a major hit in the UK peaking at #8.

1976 would prove to be a great year for the band with the release of their fifth studio album 'Hotel California'. It was a #1 album in many countries (though in the UK it peaked at #2). 'New Kid In Town' was a #1 single in 1976 as was the release of the title track in 1977. The third and final single from the album, 'Life in the Fast Lane', only made it to #11 and didn't chart in the UK.

In 1978 they released a holiday single, 'Please Come Home For Christmas' that peaked at #18 in the US and only #30 in the UK.

Three years later 'The Long Run' was released and would be their last studio album together until 2007's 'Long Road Out of Eden'. They did get together to record a Live album, 'When Hell Freezes Over' ('Hotel California' from the album) in 1994 and began touring again until 1996.

The band continue to tour to date though with several line up changes.

After first break up of the band, Henley went on to have some success as a solo artist and as a collaborator with various artists.

His debut solo album 'I Can't Stand Still' (released in 1982) included the single 'Johnny Can't Read', which was a minor hit. Also on the album was 'Nobody's Business' - co-written with Bob Seger and J.D. Souther. 'Dirty Laundry' though was the big hit single from the album peaking at #3 in the US.

'Building the Perfect Beast' managed to climb a little higher than the debut solo album peaking at #13 and #14 in the UK. The album was released in 1984 and contained the hit singles 'Boys of Summer' (#5), 'All She Wants To Do Is Dance' (#9), 'Not Enough Love in the World' (#34) and 'Sunset Grill' (#22).

1989's 'End of the Innocence' album was a big success reaching #8 in the US and #14 in the UK. A number of singles from the album gained chart success, the title track - co-written by Bruce Hornsby (#8), 'The Last Worthless Evening (#22), 'The Heart of the Matter' (#21), 'New York Minute' (#48).

In 1981 he gained a #6 hit alongside Stevie Nicks with 'Leather and Lace'. And also a #2 hit in 1992 with Patty Smyth, 'Sometimes Love Just Ain't Enough'.  

Eagles live at The Hydro Glasgow 31st May 2014.

Doolin Dalton.

Hotel California.