Here is an excerpt on the best-selling American band, The EAGLES, as we in the Philadelphia area celebrate the Super Bowl winning football Eagles. This excerpt is taken from my music history/reference book, MUSIC TITANS – 250 GREATEST RECORDING ARTISTS OF THE PAST 100 YEARS—

In the 1970s, no other American band so captured the zeitgeist as did the Eagles. They took a narrow genre, country rock, and made it mainstream, transforming country music itself in the process. Along the way, they released two of the most iconic, best-selling albums of all time.

            Originally, they were four separate musicians who had migrated to L.A.; they came together to back Linda Ronstadt and formed a band, signing with David Geffen’s Asylum. Glen Frey, rhythm guitarist, and Don Henley, drummer, wrote most of the songs and handled most of the lead vocals. Bernie Leadon played guitar and brought a country sensibility while Randy Meisner added bass. Their 1972 debut featured “Take It Easy,” which put them on the musical map… Don Felder joined the band in ’74, bringing his considerable guitar skills to the mix, and, the following year, the Eagles broke through with One of These Nights, which featured three Top 10 hits. Leadon soon departed over creative and personal differences, to be replaced by the harder-rocking Joe Walsh. In early ’76, they released Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975), and the album surprised the world, leaping off the shelves and continuing to sell for years, eventually vying with Michael Jackson’s Thriller for the title of all-time U.S. bestseller. Later that year, they released their fifth LP, the superlative Hotel California. The title track has become mythic, with its lyrical exploration of the underbelly of the American Dream, its iconic intro, and its Walsh-Felder dual lead guitar outro, which was deemed by Guitarist magazine the finest guitar solo in history…          

Through much of the ’70s, the Eagles gave rock fans who were uncomfortable with the glam of Bowie, the metal of Zeppelin, and the disco of the clubs somewhere to go musically, but, as the decade waned, punk and new wave emerged. Perhaps the Eagles could have dominated the charts for decades, perhaps not, but internal conflicts were pulling the band apart…Henley once quipped they’d reunite when “Hell freezes over.” Sure enough, in 1994, back together, they released the LP Hell Freezes Over and resumed touring. In 2016, co-leader Frey died; there have been other lineup changes, including the 2023 passing of Meisner, but, as of this writing, the Eagles carry on.

Suggested Songs:

Desperado (1973)

One of These Nights (1975)

New Kid in Town (1976)

Hotel California (1977)

MUSIC TITANS remains on sale in both paperback and eBook formats through Amazon, B&N, BookBaby, and other online stores. Thanks for reading.