Everybody with an interest in music can spin a theory for why Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975) by the Eagles, released 40 years ago this winter, became what the RIAA considers the #1 album of all time. Its popularity was remarkable: within a week of its release, it became the first album to be certified platinum, having sold at least a million copies in the United States. (It was not the first million-selling album, of course—merely the first to get the new platinum certification.) The album hit #1 on March 13, 1976, and stayed for four weeks; it would spend an additional week at the top starting on April 17th. Although it never topped the charts again, it would never stop selling, and it’s currently sitting at #11 on the Billboard 200 following the death of Glenn Frey.
I am not here today to spin a theory, however. This post is a ranking of the 10 songs on the album, with brief annotations.
10. “Desperado.” On an album where every song could be considered definitive of the band’s sound, something has to rank at the bottom. “Desperado” is a pretty song and a fine performance, but I’m ranking it here for radio geek reasons. A program director of mine said it’s one of the hardest records to schedule because it’s so slow and so sparse. “Desperado”: what radio jingles and sweepers are for.
9. “Peaceful Easy Feeling.” On the radio as 1972 turned to 1973, when it reached #22 on the Hot 100, “Peaceful Easy Feeling” helps me understand why certain critics and listeners hate the Eagles so much. It feels as if it were molded out of plastic, every note and every line calculated.
8. “Tequila Sunrise.” As unlikely as it seems, this was pretty much a stiff on its single release, getting only to #62 as the followup to “Peaceful Easy Feeling.” It’s every bit as slick as its predecessor, but it ranks a notch above because it’s one of Glenn Frey’s best vocals.
7. “Witchy Woman.” The anti-“Desperado.” On the radio, it sounds great next to almost anything, with a killer introduction DJs love.
6. “Take It Easy.” The first song on side one of the first Eagles album, and from the first second, a fitting announcement of what was to come over the next eight years. (And the next 44.) The platonic ideal of country rock.
5. “One of These Nights.” There has never been another record, by the Eagles or anybody else, that sounds quite like this, from whatever Randy Meisner is doing to his bass on the intro to Don Felder’s highly distorted guitar to Don Henley’s falsetto, so high it it must have hurt to sing that way.
4. “Already Gone.” The Eagles were a straight-up country-rock band for only their first two albums; On the Border was the transitional album, and “Already Gone” the transitional track. You can still hear the country, but they’re clearly a rock band now.
3. “Lyin’ Eyes.” Had I been programming this album, I might have left “Lyin’ Eyes” and “Take It to the Limit” off, given that they were both still on the radio as 1975 turned to 1976. The main candidates for a replacement would have been “Outlaw Man,” a #59 single from Desperado, or “James Dean,” from On the Border, which peaked at #77.
2. “Take It to the Limit.” “Lyin’ Eyes” had gone recurrent by early 1976, but “Take It to the Limit” was in hot rotations when Their Greatest Hits was released. It’s one of those songs that didn’t mean all that much to me in the winter of 1976. But about the time I hit my mid-30s, it began rising up my chart. Its tone of weary resignation comes from the realization that you have to keep striving even though you’re tired and would like to give up—which is something you can’t understand when you’re 16.
1. “Best of My Love.” The most deeply romantic song they ever recorded, full of beautiful sounds, that wall of acoustic guitars and the shimmering electric. I am slain absolutely dead, every damn time, by the vocal harmonies on “oh, sweet darlin’.”
The Eagles went back to the greatest-hits well in 1982, but lightning did not strike again like it did the first time. Read about that in a future installment.
The Hits Just Keep On Comin' 
I hate the fuckin’ Eagles, maaaan
That’s just, like, your opinion…
I’ll never admit I said this, but:
Yes, the way they sing “oh, sweet darlin'” *is* glorious.
(For that matter, our opinions on “One Of These Nights” are not a million miles apart either. Another sonic detail you might have mentioned: The two wailing notes with which Don Felder begins his solo. Of the many notes he could have chosen, those are the right ones.)
I think my issues with the Eagles lie mainly with their lyrics and their attitude. In their vocal and instrumental execution, they made some damn catchy noises.
I know you’ll touch on this when you write about Volume 2, but it’s still worth noting that this album was hugely successful, and yet their greatest album and singles success was still to come. I will never be ashamed to say how much I loved the Eagles in the ’70s, nor am I ashamed now. I’ve never understood the “calculated” charge that’s been leveled against them, but to each his own. I certainly could have done without the nasty comments that have flown about online after Frey’s death.
Over/under on how many times I’ve heard these 10 songs in the last 40 years? Let’s say 2,000. If each one was on the charts or in regular free-form rotation for three or four months, say I heard it roughly once a day, so 100 times for each song. Up to 1,000 already. Then say I’ve heard each one at least twice a year at random since. Add another 800 or so. Round it up to 2,000 and there you go.
As someone who grew up in southern California in the 70’s, my entire childhood and adolescence was permeated with the sounds of the Eagles, even though I never bought a single one of their albums or singles, I really liked a good chunk of what they put out. My absolute favorite track of theirs is an album cut from “One of These Nights” that got some FM airplay back then…”Hollywood Waltz”. It’s as pretty as “Best of My Love”, but more interesting.
Though it’s far from my favorite of their hits (in fact, it’s probably one of my least favorites), “Take it Easy” seems to just completely encapsulate what that time and place seemed, to my adolescent self, to be about. My friends older siblings, and other young adults I knew, seemed to live lives just like the guy in that song, and at the time I had no reason to think my future adult life would be any different.
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