Eagles: Every Album, Every Song

Eagles began as a backing group for Linda Ronstadt, then realised they had the potential to strike out on their own. All being accomplished vocalists, musicians and songwriters, they jointly set themselves the goal of ’number one singles and albums, great music, and a lot of money’. With guitarist Glenn Frey and drummer Don Henley as the combined driving force, by 1975, they had topped the singles and album charts at home, found major success in Britain and across the world, and established themselves as America’s foremost band. The global success of Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975 and Hotel California, to this day the first and third best-selling albums in America of all time, proved impossible to surpass, and after line-up changes, they disbanded in 1980. A ’resumption’ in 1994 was cemented with the live/studio album Hell Freezes Over and their first studio album for 28 years, Long Road out of Eden, followed in 2007. After Frey’s death in 2016, they recruited new members, with a live schedule lasting into the 2020s post-pandemic era. This book recounts the rise, fall and rise again, with a detailed look at every track on each studio and live album, and an overview of original songs and cover versions recorded but never officially released.

John Van der Kiste has published over ninety books, mostly historical biography and music, including 1970: A Year in Rock, and titles on Mott the Hoople and Ian Hunter, Free and Bad Company, and Manfred Mann’s Earth Band in the 1970s, for Sonicbond’s Decades series. He has reviewed books and records for the local and national press and fanzines, co-founded and edited the 70s fanzine Keep on Rockin, and written booklet notes for CD reissues from EMI and other labels. A former DJ and performer with various groups, he also co-wrote one track on Riff Regan’s Milestones (2015), and played harmonica on London’s The Hell for Leather Mob (2020). He lives in Devon, U.K.