There’s a reason why Eagles are one of the biggest bands in all of rock music. They have a massive audience, but they also have tunes that are known on a universal level. Even if you’re not an Eagles fan, you’re definitely familiar with these three hits.
“Hotel California”
“Hotel California” is one of those songs that stays stuck in your head, long after the first listen. As Eagles guitarist Don Felder explained, he came up with that guitar riff, and his bandmates wrote the lyrics.
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“Don Henley and Glenn Frey, especially Don, wrote some just brilliant lyrics,” he told Dan Rather. “Don as a lyricist writes these little postcard pictures, and he throws you a picture on a dark desert highway. You can see that cool wind in my hair. You can feel it. the warm smell of Kitus.”
He continued, “You know, he’s got a brilliant way of writing these little picture postcards lyrically that takes you up to a place where when he sees the chorus, then you’re like, it all makes sense, you know?”
“Take It Easy”
Written by Jackson Brown and Glenn Frey, this song is still one of Eagles’ quintessential hits. Honestly, for a debut single, “Take It Easy” is pretty strong. As Henley told Rolling Stone, this song is about “the [American] need to keep moving.”
“The song’s primary appeal, I think, is that it evokes a sense of motion, both musically and lyrically,” he shared. “The romance of the open road. The lure of adventure and possibility—Route 66, the Blue Ridge Parkway, Pacific Coast Highway…”
“Life in The Fast Lane”
This song, which was inspired by the chaotic, often unfulfilling lifestyle that comes with overpartying, is easily one of Eagles’ most amped-up tracks. From the first few seconds, the song’s guitar riff hooks you immediately.
“[‘Life in The Fast Lane’] wasn’t really a statement about the guys in the band, or about anybody in particular – just it’s kind of disturbing to see the extremes that the bourgeois jet set will involve themselves in,” Frey explained in an interview. “For instance, disco almost turned into a lifestyle, and it’s such a non-meaningful thing on which to base one’s life.”
Photo by: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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