The best-selling album of all time in the United States: The Eagles - Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975) poll

i think i'm voting "One of These Nights." don't think i'm going to actually listen to these songs before the poll closes however.

I could be the guy who reps heavily for this because it plays such an important, nostalgic role in my life, but I'm not going to because its probably a losing proposition. If we're voting best guitar solo, it's "Peaceful, Easy Feelin'"; if we're voting vocal harmonies, it's "Tequila Sunrise" and if we're voting best song, it's "One Of These Nights."

They lost me after "Take It Easy," which I've heard too often but still sounds good. Simon Frith once called "Lyin' Eyes" a perfect pop song; really interesting to me, though I can't relate.

"Lyin' Eyes" has a really weird arrangement! Three verses, chorus, two verses, chorus, three verses, chorus. And none of the verses repeat.

really love this rmx of one of these nights

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zvOdt0wZmE

Here's my favorite version:

http://youtube/watch?v=WczItlE0kLg

http://t.co/nYwnxsTO

Take it to the Limit, no contest

that Jimmy Michaels mix is great. where are the acapella vocals from?

voted "one of these nights' -- i'll always go for the shameless disco crossover if there is one.

Take it to the Limit, no contest

― harvester of lols (Drugs A. Money), Thursday, February 21, 2013 1:51 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^ this.

The Eagles couldn't rock out convincingly (or at all, really), and this hits the perfect sweet spot between their failed rock and their failed pseudo-Flying Burrito Brothers attempts. Also, the best vocals in their oeuvre.

the irony of this comp being so hugely popular is how many of the biggest or best songs came later -- i may do a poll of other stuff after this thread runs its course. of these, i'm voting for "One of These Nights" narrowly over "Take It To The Limit."

Pre-emptive vote here for "New Kid In Town."

many of the biggest or best songs came later

The recent David Geffen bio on PBS had an interesting bit on this. The WEA beancounters were sure it was too soon in The Eagles' career for a best of, and tried to talk Geffen out of his plan.

The big Eagles/Rolling Stone feud of the late '70s still makes me laugh (adjudicated over a softball game, I think). Do pop stars ever feud with specific publications any more? If they do, does anyone notice? Has the feel of a When We Were Kings situation on both sides.

How do I vote for "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'"?

Well, first we need publications.

As a Britisher I recognise none of these song titles.

No softball game in 2013--Twitter feud, of course.

I am pretty sure there have been band feuds with Pichfork... I mean, there had to be, right?

arguably there are more artist/publication feuds in the twitter era -- lupe fiasco crying "boycott spin" because of a blog post in his timeline, etc.

One Of These Nights. Never occurred to me that it was a shameless pitch for disco, but yeah, could be right. The AOR Disco aesthetic makes a little more sense now, thanks.

I actually went to see them a few years back, at someone else's behest - One Of These Nights was the absolute banker tune they just had to play to make the experience to be worthwhile. I got there early enough I thought, but for some reason the fuckers took the stage at 7pm sharp, and OOTN was what I could just about hear booming out as I got to within earshot of the stadium.

As stated above, OoTN is the ne plus ultra of RAWK acts going disco

Hmmmmm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNGNLo8K6Fk

Never occurred to me that it was a shameless pitch for disco,

it's no Disco Strangler

Miss You is surely the sine qua non of rock -> disco

Incredible that Hotel California isn't on this. There can't be a more defining song not on a proper Greatest Hits set.

It wasn't recorded or released when this came out.

For that, you want this:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/80/Eagles_greatest_vol_2.jpg

Ha!

Wait, they'd gone disco by 1975?

I meant that OoTN is actually good, unlike KISS and Rod's disco sexploits

I never know whether to capitalise the T

I'd take the Kiss song over "Miss You," Rod's song too. The Kiss is definitely the most amusingly anomalous. (That they'd do a disco song, I mean, not that they'd do something crass or shameless.)

I'll 2nd Phil D.'s comments about the Eagles above. But, anyway, tough to pick here, yet "One of These Nights" gets my vote. Also like "Best of My Love" and "Take It To The Limit". I think this album has made Jack Tempchin a very rich man.

"Lyin Eyes" is very underrated as douchy-singer-songwriter-dude cover material imo...

I was tempted to vote for Tequila Sunrise probably because it was a relatively minor hit and hasn't been so overplayed. But I'll go with A-list Eagles and vote for Take It To The Limit.

It's amazing how the Greatest Hits package overwhelmed any interest in the underlying albums. I must have heard the hits hundreds of times from the 70s onwards without being at all curious about other songs from the same era. Well, one exception I tumbled to much later. I would have voted for this if it had been included:

http://youtu.be/iv-fjv1bbXI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iv-fjv1bbXI

Waits' original is amazing but I think the Eagles harmonies are a worthy add.

First mention/vote for "Already Gone?" The only one on that list I would actually turn UP if I heard it on the radio.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1d4cYRxFCko

These are such great songs though. I cant've heard them on the reg since I was in the habit of being driven around by my dad - i.e. for about three-quarters of my life - yet just that list of titles got me humming those choruses instantly.

the perfect sweet spot between their failed rock and their failed pseudo-Flying Burrito Brothers attempts.

lol @ "failed" rock

When released in September 1979, The Long Run debuted at #2 on Billboard's Pop Albums chart and a week later hit #1 dethroning Led Zeppelin's In Through the Out Door. It was the last #1 album of the 1970s, and reigned for eight weeks in the #1 slot. "The Long Run" has sold more than seven million copies to date in the US alone

It's rare that a more disgusting batch of songs were assembled on one album, but my vote is "Take It Easy."

I'd vote for "The Long Run" if we polled the second comp.

My parents' record collection was enough of an influence to me growing up that I cannot help but like most of these, despite probably containing as much misogyny-per-lyric as a Nickelback record.

Went with "Desperado."

this is a pretty happenin' greatest hits. if you can overlook overexposure and the fact that they were written by henley and frey, some really great tunes.

i'm with Dan - "Already Gone" is: 1) not overplayed and B) a rocker and helps make OtB a pretty damn fine alblum

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItlY6oIfRVg

lol @ "failed" rock

Exactly. Their pitiful attempts to rock out weren't gratingly unpleasant or anything, but certainly laughable.

There is not a single bad song on this album. Fuck the haters.

i really don't care for best of my love but like the rest

I hope Mr. Snrub wasn't Being sarcastic. Because he's right.

zzzzzzzzzz

To my ears, the Eagles are a remarkably inconsistent band capable of greatness. About 1/4 of all Eagles songs are absolutely beautiful. A little overproduced, perhaps, but still written and executed well enough to rank with the best songs of the 1970s. The other 3/4 aren't anything to write home about but I usually won't change the radio station to avoid them..

That said, this isn't a particularly strong Eagles record for me. Only "Tequila Sunrise" and "Peaceful Easy Feeling" really hit home like "Hotel California" and "Doolin Dalton" or "Desperado."

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAH97-TDFzk

Bud Scoppa's original Rolling Stone review of the first LP is good:

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/the-eagles-19720622

(Although "Witchy Woman" is "moderately fast" like Prince Fielder is moderately fast.)

is xgau's initial takedown of the eagles his most famous long review? definitely got under henley's skin, can remember reading an interview w/ him in the late 80s/early 90s still seething over 'ny critics' that hated the eagles but loved - get this - the ny dolls! he said this mockingly, as if history had clearly vindicated him.

anyhow i should probably in some weird way thank the eagles for keeping their stuff of spotify as i have mellowed on them considerably and they are totally the kind of band i would check out on spotify and possibly finding myself liking more than the 2-3 songs i like now.

I don't know (xpost). The most infamous Eagles-related review for me was Marcus going completely off the edge over Henley's The End of the Innocence. Can't find it online--it was in a "Real Life" column.

as if history had clearly vindicated him.

I mean, by any criterion Don Henley might conceivably care about, history probably had, right?

tbf it had vindicated him at the time 'ny critics' were favoring the dolls over the eagles, reading it was just apparent that he thought it hilarious, as if the dolls were this superobscure flop, like a critic preferring pink lady and jeff to mash. considering he had axl on the end of the innocence i wonder if he's even heard the ny dolls (or maybe he's never heard guns n roses?).

It's an interesting question. Twenty-five years ago I likely would have ridiculed Henley, and hung that ridicule on the idea of influence--you sold 100 million albums, but did you actually influence anyone in any meaningful way? But I take it that the Eagles' influence has been huge on a generation or two of country music, and probably also on lots of pop music that doesn't necessarily mean anything to me. The New York Dolls influence was intense for a time, and has been receding for years. So I guess he wins that argument, above and beyond fortune and fame and the fact of being alive. (I'm only partly playing devil's advocate here.)

I remember reading once about King Buzzo meeting Gene Simmons and how the only time during this that the god of thunder could be arsed to even pretend to give a shit about the Melvins was when Buzzo told him (lied to him) that Kurt had played on their cover of Going Blind

I listened to The Long Run (again) on Friday. Thing that always hits me when I listen to these albums made up of singles that I've only heard one-at-a-time on the radio is how off the sequencing is compared to the way I had it in my head.

"I Can't Tell You Why" as Track 2? Please.

haha (that's one of my fave eagles fwiw). i heard 'heartache tonight' the other day and was instantly transported to when it was current on the radio, me five years old sliding around in the back seat of my mom's z28, absolutely loving that song. maybe i will download some eagles.

Heartache Tonight takes me back to the local pizza parlor, same kind of deal. Local teens leaning up against my mom's car as we go out to the parking lot.

That one and Crazy Little Thing Called Love sit on the same shelf of my memory.

ohh man "Heartache Tonight." Eagles Greatest Hits Vol. 2 is so much better song for song than this one.

Btw this is actually tied with Thriller, both at 29 million shipped

man balls its way cool you're making your peace with the Eagles but I highly doubt I will ever come to a point in my life where I will respond to Heartache Tonight with anything but pure hateful derision

'crazy little thing called love' and 'another one bites the dust' i'm sliding around in the back seat of my paternal grandmother's car. 'queen of hearts' i'm in the front seat of my maternal grandmother's car. she made me wear a seat belt.

i think it kinda helps that i almost never ever hear them anymore. which was not true for the longest time (which reminds me i've done a similar mellowing on billy joel). mind you i still get outraged when the atlanta oldies/classic rock station ('the river') plays them insanely too much. i think i've probably gotten more pleasure out of yelling out 'ALRIGHT HERE WE GO "LEATHER AND LACE"! "LEATHER AND LACE"!' any time a couple goes onstage at karaoke than i have from actually listening to the eagles ("in the city" which doesn't count anyway excepted obv).

Still say In The City stuck out like a sore thumb as the coda for The Warriors.

"Yo, we just survived a hyper conceptual run for our lives from candy colored ultraviolet street gangs, from one end of this post-Ford metropolis to the other, and now the sun is finally coming up? Let's lay on some Joe Walsh and THROW DOWN."

(Almost said "Let's lay on some Joe Walsh and JAM," but didn't want it to look like I was making a music pun.)

no surprise balls and I agree. I've made my peace with their influence on country and I can enjoy a few of these tunes now, but, god, they remain one of the few bands I have no problem being Robespierre and condemning to the guillotine because their personal lives are sufficiently generous and ecumenical to fellow human beings. Fortunately these songs often reflect these attitudes, so hate is easy.

*INSUFFICIENTLY

The best freelance assignment of my life: reviewing the Eagles's 2003 show, a three-hour Ringling Bros extravaganza during which every member got solo terms and Glenn Frey, cokehead, made a crack about never trusting women with credit cards.

Not sure what to go with here. It ain't "Desperado", though, yuck.

the gaudiness of "Take it to the limit" has really grown on me over the years.

that thing milks its refrain like nothing this side of "Hey Jude"

You can spend all your time making money.
You can spend all your money making time.

Now that's deep, man.

dude that's the Frey-Henley life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neY7D4aCW_A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXfPWstSOsw

is xgau's initial takedown of the eagles his most famous long review? definitely got under henley's skin, can remember reading an interview w/ him in the late 80s/early 90s still seething over 'ny critics' that hated the eagles but loved - get this - the ny dolls! he said this mockingly, as if history had clearly vindicated him.

― balls, Sunday, February 24, 2013 7:21 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

As you and Sun4r pointed out, yeah, nothing on Henley's radar would suggest otherwise. "But Don, the Dolls influenced the Replacements!" "[derisive snort]" "[coke snort]"

I haven't made my peace with the Eagles (other than "Take It To The Limit"), and don't know if I ever will. The main sticking point is that the insanely rigid drumming. To his credit, Don must have some notion of his deficiencies in this area, since he got Keltner and Porcaro to play most of the drums on his solo records.

or programmed them

I've softened, but I'm not handing them any Elia Kazan awards either.

obligatory
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_kCR5yQpY0

ohh man "Heartache Tonight." Eagles Greatest Hits Vol. 2 is so much better song for song than this one.

I'm going with "Tequila Sunrise". So light and breezy compared to the others.

Couldn't find a clip of "Life in the Fast Lane" at the Fast Times at Ridgemont High prom...

Totally enjoying reading this thread backwards. Looking forward to seeing entropy reverse itself and the softening positions reorganize themselves back into full on hate.

didn't want to admit how solid Building The Perfect Beast was when I got a copy a few years ago.

Oh wait, this is a new poll. Never mind./roseannerosannadanna

"Heartache Tonight" by far my least favorite of their singles
have mellowed quite a bit on these dudes, probably because of east coast-> west coast migration
would rank these songs

"One of These Nights"
"Peaceful Easy Feeling"
"Tequila Sunrise"
"Lyin' Eyes"
"Best of My Love"
"Take It to the Limit"
"Already Gone"
"Take It Easy"
"Desperado"
"Witchy Woman"

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Dw_zwLsSBT4/URlrqK0hkVI/AAAAAAAAGwQ/bhF_54n1QAo/s640/eagles.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yb_XEwgfmDk

which reminds me i've done a similar mellowing on billy joel

I know it was you, Fredo. You broke my heart. You broke my heart.

don't ask me why aero

"When you ask for a backstage pass to come and see Joe Perry, give me some advance notice so I won't have to be there."

After my sister and her friends would listen to this and then Rod Stewart's A Night On The Town I would ritually cleanse my record player by putting on "This Boy" - I guess this means I was some kind of proto-Sinister kid./flashback_from_wayback

Reminder that thing in the 90s that album of the (Canadian?) grammar school kids singing the famous rock songs and one kid sang "Desperado"? Which in theory was supposed to redeem the song for those who didn't like it but instead has ultimately added yet another layer of unpleasantness.

Take it to the lemming one more time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wm-o7_VVAoU

Didn't Don Henley get up on stage once and sing that with Mojo? Maybe at The Hole In The Wall in Austin?

every star that shines in the back of the bus is just waiting for his cover to be blown

(xp) Yes he did. Supposedly Mojo was impressed with how nice he was and also how he had "balls the size of church bells."

Apparently out of respect, he never does the song anymore, substituting Phil Collins for the former Eagle.

Which I think we can mostly all get behind.

Phil Collins must die?
Can't let him get back together with Glen Frey?

Maybe could work in a Miami Vice context.

Can't let him get back together with those Genesis guys...?

But I take it that the Eagles' influence has been huge on a generation or two of country music, and probably also on lots of pop music that doesn't necessarily mean anything to me.

I used to sometimes use "Take It Easy" in class as an example of 'the moment where music on the radio began to sound more like it does today'.

Anyway, I'm voting for "Witchy Woman".

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

That was my #2 pick.

I used to sometimes use "Take It Easy" in class as an example of 'the moment where music on the radio began to sound more like it does today'.

Whoa... I'd like to hear this elaborated on. Or the concept spun off as the headline of a new thread.

production (particularly the piano) on One Of These Nights is a sumptuous thing.

lol this thread started a few months before the listening thread that destroyed many lives

I survived with my love of "one of these nights" "I can't tell you why" and "in the city" intact.

(And journey of the sorcerer obv)

the music for "One Of These Nights" is partly based on The Spinners' "I'll Be Around" - so obvious once you listen for it. lyrically it's pretty much the opposite tho... musically it sounds soft and soothing but the lyrics are heart of darkness emptiness. but oh the thrill of the chase &...

not that they didn't have it all on a platter (=emptiness in their case)

Renegade Soundwave wrote a song about Cocaine Sex, The Eagles lived it...