70s Music Groups The Eagles- Glenn Frey

Glenn Frey died in January 2016 from complications from rheumatoid arthritis, acute ucerative Colitis. Frey was a founding member of the group.

The Eagles were one of the great forces of 1970s rock. They may not have had the dynamics of Led Zeppelin or the tangled relationships of Fleetwood Mac, but they dominated the airwaves. AM radio would play the hits, filled with flawless harmonies, while FM stations would spin the longer, unedited album cuts.

Frey emerged as one of the band's chief songwriters, the Lennon to Don Henley's McCartney. He penned their breakout hit Take It Easy - a song as laid back as its title suggests - with Jackson Browne. But later singles, including Take It To The Limit and Hotel California, were group efforts, while the two front men would share vocal duties - Frey's supple tones a perfect counterpoint to Henley's rasp.

In the US, they scored five number one singles and four number one albums; while their greatest hits sold 30 million copies.

Formed in 1971 in California this is a group that is always mentioned when talking about music IN THE 1970S. It was 1972 when the album Eagles appeared and in the U.S. the hit singles the Witchy Woman written by Don Hendley and Bernie Leadon ( left The Eagles in 1975) group members themselves.

The second hit from the album was Take It Easy written by Glenn Frey and Jackson Browne. Jackson also wrote the Jackson Five song Doctor My Eyes.


 Take It Easy mentions Winslow Arizona in the lyrics, and now has a statue of the Eagles to commemorate that very lyric. According to Frey, the message of the song is, "You shouldn't get too big too fast."

Lyrics to Take It Easy

Also from that album came another U.S. hit with  Peaceful Easy Feeling a No.22 hit in the U.S.. The next album was Desperado and the next single only got to No. 64, and was the amazing Tequila Sunrise written by Henley and Frey. What was it about I wonder?

Other small single hits came during 1973 and 1974 like Outlaw Man, Already Gone and then the big No. 1 in the U.S. in 1974 called Best Of My Love. The song has a beautiful romantic theme, but when you really listen carefully you will hear it is a "split up" song.

Lyrics to Best Of My Love

It is fair to say that single wise 1975 was the big year for the UK and The Eagles with three top thirty singles in a row. The first from the album One Of These nights was the title track written by Frey and Henley.Frey has said that the song was all about keep putting things off. Joe Walsh left the group at around this time too.

From the same album came the Grammy Award winning single Lyin' eyes. The song is all about a woman cheating on her lover. The woman really just wants to be loved that's all. Amazingly, this still did not get in the UK top twenty.

However the next song from the same album managed to get up to No. 12 in the British charts, and it is a classic. Take It To The Limit written by Henley, Frey and Meisner and the song was all about being lonely.

The group only had one single release in 1976 called New Kid In Town from the album Hotel California. The song is about fleeting fame and romance and how soon we forget. Another Grammy hit too.

In 1977 from the same album came the next hit single which again scored another Grammy Award. It was the title track called Hotel California. Singer Don Henley told the  Daily Mail  in 2007 "Some of the wilder interpretations of that song have been amazing. It was really about the excesses of American culture and certain girls we knew. But it was also about the uneasy balance between art and commerce."

Lyrics to Hotel California 

More hits in 1977 when the single Life In The Fast Lane was a U.S. hit (Not a hit in the UK).

But in 1978 the Eagles produced two non album singles the first being  Please Come Home For Christmas and the No. 1 U.S. Heartache Tonight, the song dragged itself up to No. 40 in the UK. But it was a Grammy Award winner again. 

The very last single of the 1970s was a minor hit in the UK, a No. 8 hit in the U.S. with The Long Run from 1979. The songs of the Eagles are still heard everywhere, and thanks to biggest selling album in the U.S.