Eagles

The Eagles are an American rock band that was formed in Los Angeles, California in the early 1970s. With five Number 1 singles and four Number 1 albums, the Eagles were among the most successful recording artists of the 1970s. At the end of the 20th century, two of their albums, Eagles: Their Greatest Hits 1971–1975 and Hotel California, ranked among the ten best-selling albums according to the Recording Industry Association of America. The best-selling studio album Hotel California is rated as the 37th album in the Rolling Stone list "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time", and the band was ranked number 75 on Rolling Stone's 2004 list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. They are also the best-selling American group ever, with Eagles: Their Greatest Hits 1971–1975 being the best-selling album in the U.S. to date.

The Eagles broke up in 1980, but reunited in 1994 for Hell Freezes Over, a mix of live and new studio tracks. They have toured intermittently since then, and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998.

In 2007, the Eagles released Long Road Out of Eden, their first full studio album in 28 years.

Eagles gathering..

The band formed in 1971 when Linda Ronstadt's then-manager, John Boylan, recruited Glenn Frey, Bernie Leadon, and Randy Meisner from their previous affiliations to back Ronstadt. They were short of a drummer until Frey telephoned Don Henley, whom he had met at the Troubadour club in Los Angeles. After auditioning for Ronstadt, she approved and the band backed her up on a two month tour and provided the opportunity for their first album recording, on her 1970 album Silk Purse. After their tenure with Ronstadt and with her encouragement, they then decided to form their own band, signing in 1970 to Asylum Records, the new label started by David Geffen. Geffen and partner Elliot Roberts also initially managed the band. The new group chose the name the Eagles as a nod to The Byrds (Leadon had been in Dillard & Clark with former Byrds singer Gene Clark and in The Flying Burrito Brothers with former Byrds Gram Parsons, Chris Hillman and Michael Clarke).

The first one in 1972!!

Their first album, Eagles, was filled with natural, sometimes innocent country rock, and yielded three Top 40 singles. The first single, "Take It Easy," was a song written by Glenn Frey and his neighbor and fellow country-folk rocker Jackson Browne. Frey heard Browne recording it, contributed two lines to it (for which he got co-writing credit) and asked if the Eagles could use it. Browne agreed and the song reached number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 and propelled the Eagles to stardom. The single was followed by the bluesy "Witchy Woman" and the soft country rock ballad "Peaceful Easy Feeling," charting at No. 9 and No. 22 respectively. The Eagles were a major force in popularizing the southern California country rock sound around the nation. Rolling Stone magazine's 2003 list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" ranked Eagles at number 374.

Desperado (1973)

Their second album, Desperado, was themed on Old West outlaws and introduced the group's penchant for conceptual songwriting. It was during the recording sessions that Don Henley and Glenn Frey began writing with each other, co-writing eight of the album's eleven songs. Included are two of the Eagles' most popular songs: "Tequila Sunrise" and "Desperado" were both written by Henley and Frey. The bluegrass songs "Twenty-One," "Doolin' Dalton" and the ballad "Saturday Night" showcased guitarist Bernie Leadon's abilities on the banjo, fingerpicked guitar and mandolin. Throughout the album, the story of the notorious Wild West "Doolin-Dalton" gang was the main focus, featuring in the songs "Doolin-Dalton," "Bittercreek" and "Desperado." The album was less successful than the first, reaching only number 41 on the U.S. pop album charts, and yielding only two singles, "Tequila Sunrise," which reached No. 61 on the Billboard charts, and "Outlaw Man," which peaked at No. 59.

The album marked a significant change to the band, with Henley and Frey co-writing the bulk of the album, a pattern that would continue for years to come. As a result, the pair began to dominate the band in terms of leadership and songwriting, turning the focus of the band away from Leadon and Meisner. Ironically, many had thought that it would be Leadon and Meisner who would be leading the band.

On the Border (1974)

For their next album, On the Border, Henley and Frey wanted the band to break away from the country music style they were known for, moving more towards hard rock. Initially, the Eagles started off with Glyn Johns producing, but he tended to emphasize the lush side of their double-edged music. After completing only two songs, the band turned to Bill Szymczyk to produce the rest of the album. Szymczyk brought in Don Felder to add slide guitar to a song called "Good Day in Hell," and the band was so impressed that two days later they invited Felder to become the fifth Eagle. He appeared on only one other song on the album, the uptempo breakup song "Already Gone," where he performed the guitar duet with Glenn Frey. On the Border yielded a No. 1 Billboard single with "Best of My Love," which hit the top of the charts on March 1, 1975, becoming the Eagles' first of five chart toppers.

Leadon leaves the band.. Release of Their Greatest Hits!!

Their next album, One of These Nights, had an aggressive, sinewy rock stance. The album further displayed the growing strength of the Henley/Frey songwriting team, particularly on the album's title track and the Grammy Award winning "Lyin' Eyes." "One of These Nights" hit No. 1 on the Billboard chart on August 2, 1975. The song itself has often been cited by Frey as his all-time favorite Eagles tune.

By this time, members of the band had started to fight with each other. Recording and touring had been strained since the eponymous debut album; tempers were boiling over, and egos were clashing. Between the release of One of These Nights and the subsequent tour, Bernie Leadon left the group, disillusioned with the direction the band's music was taking. They were no longer concentrating on the country rock in which Leadon excelled and the hiring of Don Felder meant that Leadon's role had been significantly diminished. Leadon was also dating Patti Davis, Ronald Reagan's daughter, at the time - the two of them had co-written "I Wish You Peace" on the album - which created political tensions within the group. Leadon left the band in December 1975, famously announcing his resignation by pouring a beer over Frey's head. In order to continue with their tour schedule, the group quickly replaced Leadon with Joe Walsh, a veteran of such groups as the James Gang and Barnstorm and a solo artist in his own right, who (like the Eagles) was produced by Szymczyk and managed by Irving Azoff.


Meanwhile, in early 1976, Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975) was released. It went on to become the best-selling album in U.S. history, selling over 29 million copies in the United States to date.

Hotel California (1976).. Meisner leaves the band.

The group's next album, Hotel California, came out in late 1976. "New Kid in Town" was a No. 1 hit in Billboard on February 26, 1977, and "Hotel California" on May 7, 1977. "Life in the Fast Lane" was also a major success, becoming a catchphrase in the process and established Joe Walsh's position in the band with its more hard rock sound. The ballad "Wasted Time" closed the first side of the album, while an instrumental reprise of it opened the second side. The album concluded with "The Last Resort," the song Frey, to this day, refers to as Don Henley's greatest work. The run out groove on side two has the words "V.O.L. Is Five-Piece Live", this means that the song "Victim of Love" was recorded live, with just the band and no overdubbing. Don Henley confirms this on the inner booklet of The Very Best of the Eagles. Hotel California has appeared on several lists of the best albums of all time. It is also their best-selling studio album, with over 16 million copies sold to date in the United States.

During the final leg of the ensuing tour, Randy Meisner left the band and moved to Nebraska, where he began a solo career. The band replaced Meisner with the man who had succeeded him in Poco, Timothy B. Schmit. In 1977, the group, minus Don Felder, performed some instrumental work and backing vocals for Randy Newman's album Little Criminals.

Break up in 1977 after the Long Run

In 1977, the Eagles went into a recording studio to produce their next studio album, The Long Run. The album took two years to make, but yielded the group's fifth and last No. 1 single in Billboard, "Heartache Tonight" (November 10, 1979).

On July 31, 1980, in Long Beach, California, tempers boiled over into what has been described as "Long Night at Wrong Beach." Frey and Felder spent the entire show describing to each other the beating each planned to administer backstage. "Only three more songs until I kick your butt, pal," Frey recalls Felder telling him near the end of the band's set. Felder recalls Frey making a similar threat to him just as they began to sing "The Best Of My Love."

It appeared to be the end of the Eagles, although the band still owed Warner Bros. a live record from the tour. Eagles Live (released in November 1980) was mixed by Frey and Henley on opposite coasts; the two decided they couldn't bear to be in the same state, let alone the same studio, and as Bill Szymczyk put it, the record's perfect three-part harmonies were fixed "courtesy of Federal Express." With credits that listed no fewer than five attorneys, the album's liner notes simply said, "Thank you and goodnight."

Hell Freezes Over in 1994!!

Fourteen years after the breakup, an Eagles country tribute album titled Common Thread: The Songs of The Eagles was released in 1993. Travis Tritt insisted on having the Long Run-era Eagles in his video for "Take It Easy" and they agreed.

After the "Take It Easy" video was completed the following year, and following years of public speculation, the band finally formally reunited. The lineup comprised the five Long Run-era members -- Frey, Henley, Walsh, Felder and Schmit -- supplemented by additional musicians on stage. "For the record, we never broke up, we just took a 14-year vacation," announced Frey at their first live performance in April 1994. The ensuing tour spawned a live album titled Hell Freezes Over (named for Henley's recurring statement that the group would get back together "when hell freezes over") which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart, and included four new studio songs, with "Get Over It" and "Love Will Keep Us Alive" both becoming top forty hits. The album itself proved as successful as the reunion tour, selling 6 million copies in the United States alone. While the tour was briefly interrupted in late 1994 due to Frey's serious recurrence of diverticulitis, it resumed in 1995 and continued into 1996.

In 1998, the Eagles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. During the induction ceremony, Frey, Henley, Felder, Walsh and Schmit performed together, and former members Bernie Leadon and Randy Meisner rejoined the band for the performance, where the band played "Take It Easy" and "Hotel California." Several subsequent reunion tours followed (without Leadon or Meisner), notable for their record-setting ticket prices.

Long Road Out of Eden (2007)

In 2007, the Eagles consisted of Frey, Henley, Walsh, and Schmit. On August 20, 2007, "How Long," written by J.D. Souther - who had previously worked with the Eagles co-writing some of their biggest hits including "Best of My Love," "Victim of Love," "Heartache Tonight" and "New Kid in Town" - was released as a single to radio with an accompanying online video at Yahoo! Music and debuted on television on CMT during the Top 20 Countdown on August 23, 2007. The band performed the song as part of their live sets in the early to mid 1970s, but did not record it at the time due to J.D. Souther's desire to use it on his first solo album.

On October 30, 2007, the Eagles released Long Road out of Eden, their first album of new material since 1979. For the first year after the album's initial release, it will be available in the United States exclusively via the band's website, Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores, and commercially available through traditional retail outlets in other countries. The album debuted at No. 1 in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Netherlands and Norway.

In an interview with CNN, Don Henley declared, "This is probably the last Eagles album that we'll ever make."

The Eagles made their awards show debut on November 7, 2007, when they performed "How Long" live at the Country Music Association Awards.

Eagles Awards:

Grammy awards:
(1975) Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo, Group or Chorus: Lyin' Eyes
(1977) Record of the Year: Hotel California (single)
(1977) Best Arrangement for Voices: New Kid in Town
(1979) Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group: Heartache Tonight

The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998.

On December 7, 1999 the Recording Industry of America honored the group with the Best Selling Album of the Century for Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975).

Eagles were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2001.

The group ranked number 34 on CMT's 40 Greatest Men of Country Music in 2003. They were one of four artists who were either a duet or a vocal group on the list with the others being Alabama at number eleven, Flatt & Scruggs at number 24, and Brooks & Dunn at number 25.