THE EAGLES
The Eagles are an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1971 by Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Bernie Leadon, and Randy Meisner. With five number-one singles, six Grammy Awards, five American Music Awards, and six number one albums, the Eagles were one of the most successful musical acts of the 1970’s. At the end of the 20th century, two of their albums, Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975) and Hotel California, were ranked among the 20 best-selling albums in the United States according to the Recording Industry Association of America. Hotel California is ranked 37th in Rolling Stone’s list of “The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time”, and the band was ranked number 75 on the magazine’s 2004 list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. (More from Wikipedia)
James (Jimmy) Fox dropped out of college and formed the James Gang in 1966, a band that enjoyed considerable success over the coming decade and, with songs like “Walk Away” and “Funk #49”, were tailor-made for the “album rock” era that was just starting to emerge in the very early 1970’s on FM radio. One of their later bandmembers, Joe Walsh became a bonafide superstar and joined the Eagles for a time.
(February 2010)
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Linda Ronstadt’s music is normally described as country rock, though she performs in a multitude of styles; as examples, Ronstadt covered numerous Motown songs in this period and recorded a New Wave album in 1980, Mad Love. This has required her to hire a variety of back-up musicians for her albums; several of the backing musicians for some of her recordings evolved into the Eagles.
(October 2013)
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After leaving Poco, Randy Meisner played with Rick Nelson for a while and then joined another country-rock outfit that eventually dubbed themselves the Eagles. Jim Messina left not long after that and started a fruitful collaboration with Kenny Loggins as Loggins and Messina.
(April 2014)
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People bought more albums in the 1970’s than at any time before or since. For what it’s worth, 6 of the 10 biggest selling albums of all time were released during the 1970’s – in order, they are The Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd; Bat out of Hell by Meat Loaf; Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975) by the Eagles; the Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack (featuring the Bee Gees and others); Rumours by Fleetwood Mac; and Led Zeppelin IV by Led Zeppelin. However you might feel about these chestnuts, it is hard to imagine a more varied group of albums. Thriller by Michael Jackson (1983) remains Number One, but I was certainly surprised to see Back in Black (1980) by AC/DC in second place.
(December 2016)
