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With over 100 million in record sales, the Eagles epitomized commercial Southern California rock in the '70s, and their appeal continues undiminished three decades later. As of early 2001, 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, its 27 million copies outstripping the previous champ, Michael Jackson's Thriller. 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 bands hugely successful career, it had an increasingly indolent recording schedule until its breakup in the fall of 1980. Subsequently, each of the members pursued a solo career, with Henleys the most successful commercially and critically. In the 90s, the bands sound was frequently cited as an influence by young country stars, many of whom contributed tracks to the album Common Thread: The Songs of the Eagles (#3, 1993), which won Album of the Year at the 1994 Country Music Awards. That same year, the Eagles revival culminated in the bands reunion tour and album.
The group originally coalesced from L.A.s country-rock community. Before producer John Boylan assembled them as Linda Ronstadts 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 [see entry] and Rick Nelsons Stone Canyon Band. Frey had played with various Detroit rock bands (including Bob Segers) 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 in England. Take It Easy (#12, 1972), written by Frey and Jackson Browne, went gold shortly after its release, as did their debut album. (Another single, Witchy Woman, reached #9 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 1982s 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-70s hits included Best of My Love (#1, 1975), One of These Nights (#1, 1975), Lyin Eyes (#2, 1975), and Take It to the Limit (#4, 1975) - but alienated Leadon. After One of These Nights, Leadon left to form the Bernie LeadonMichael Georgiades Band, which released Natural Progressions in 1977. (Leadon went on to become a Nashville session musician, and in the 90s 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 [see entry] and on his own. His Eagles debut, Hotel California, was their third consecutive #1 album (the second was their record-breaking 1976 greatest-hits compilation). New Kid in Town (#1, 1976), the title cut (#1, 1977), and Life in the Fast Lane (#11, 1977) spurred sales of more than 15 million copies worldwide.
Meisner left in 1977, replaced by Schmit, who had similarly replaced him in Poco. Meisner has released two solo albums, Randy Meisner (1978) and One More Song (1980). (In 1981, he toured with the Silveradoes; later, in 1990, Meisner reemerged in the group Black Tie, alongside Billy Swan and Breads James Griffin.) Henley and Frey sang backup on One More Song, and in the late 70s they also appeared on albums by Bob Seger and Randy Newman. In 1981 Henley duetted with Stevie Nicks on the #6 single Leather and Lace. Between outside projects and legal entanglements, it took the Eagles two years and $1 million to make the multiplatinum LP The Long Run, their last album of all-new material. Parting hit singles included Heartache Tonight (#1, 1979), The Long Run (#8, 1980), and I Cant Tell You Why (#8, 1980).
Walsh continued to release solo albums [see entry], though his biggest single to date has been 1978s cheeky Lifes Been Good (#12). Felder and Schmit also put out their own albums and contributed songs to film soundtracks. Schmits second LP, Timothy B, included Boys Night Out (#25, 1987).
In 1982 Don Henley and Glenn Frey both embarked on solo careers. Frey charted with The One You Love (#15, 1982) and Sexy Girl (#20, 1984) before a movie proved his ticket into the Top 10: The Heat Is On, featured in Beverly Hills Cop, shot to #2 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, Smugglers Blues, which consequently reached #12 (1985). Later in 1985, Freys You Belong to the City hit #2. 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 postMiami Vice series Nash Bridges in the 90s, Frey also cofounded 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 Cant Stand Still) made it to #3, but the 1985 album Building the Perfect Beast was to be his true arrival as solo hitmaker and respected singer/songwriter. The kickoff single, The Boys of Summer, went to #5 - supported by an evocative black-and-white video that fast became an MTV favorite - and earned Henley a Grammy for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Male; the hits All She Wants to Do Is Dance (#9, 1985) and Sunset Grill (#22, 1985) followed. A third album, The End of the Innocence, produced a #8 title track, and the additional singles The Last Worthless Evening and The Heart of the Matter, which both hit #21. The LP won Henley another Grammy, in the same category as before. In the early 90s, 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 studio album of all-new material, Inside Job (coproduced by former Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers drummer Stan Lynch), and embarked on a solo tour to support it. Henley had 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 Jobs tracks were clearly about marriage and family, including the gentle ballad Taking You Home (#58 pop, #1 Adult Contemporary, 2000). Much of the rest of the album, however, still explored Henleys 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 singers 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 Youre Rocking the Boat (1993). In 1993 the Walden Woods Project got a big boost from Common Thread: The Songs of the Eagles, coorganized 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 Tritts version of Take It Easy - hit the road for a massively successful tour, the third-highest grossing concert tour of that year. The tour went on hiatus toward the end of 1994, due to Freys 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 (#31, 1994), Love Will Keep Us Alive (#1 Adult Contemporary, 1994), Learn to Be Still (#15 Adult Contemporary, 1995), and 11 of the old hits culled from the bands 1994 live appearance on MTV. Within months the reunion LP had sold more than 10 million copies and gone to #1 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-90s - reunited again for a few concerts at the end of 1999, including a New Years Eve show in L.A. A four-CD retrospective set, Eagles 19721999: Selected Works (#109, 2000), was released in November 2000.
from The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (Simon & Schuster, 2001)
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