Eagles

One of the most successful bands of the 1970s was formed in 1971. The members of The Eagles were not the newbies in the music industry – for example, the band's ex-guitarist Bernie Leadon played with former The Byrds musicians in Dillard & Clark and The Flying Burrito Brothers groups. Firstly he, Glenn Frey, Randy Meisner and Don Henley gathered to back singer Linda Ronstadt, and then they decided to become a band. The new group chose the name The Eagles as a nod to The Byrds. In 1972, their first album The Eagles was released. The disk was a big success, and magazines praised it for a "natural, sometimes innocent country rock". The Eagles' second album Desperado (1973) was themed on Old West outlaws (exactly on the story of the notorious Wild West Doolin-Dalton gang) and introduced the group's penchant for conceptual songwriting. Such instruments as banjo and mandolin are featured in the album. For their next album, On The Border (1974), Henley and Frey (who were writing the most of songs) wanted the band to break away from the country music style they were known for, moving more towards hard rock.

Following album, One of These Nights (1975), also had an aggressive rock stance. It was one of the best The Eagles' album, while the track Lyin' Eyes became the Grammy Award winner (Frey always called this track as his all-time favorite The Eagles' tune). But, in the same time, conflicts began to happen within the group. Bernie Leadon felt displeased that the band was no longer concentrating on the country rock, and he left being replaced with Joe Walsh. Meanwhile, in early 1976, Their Greatest Hits album was released. It went on to become the best-selling album in U.S. history, selling over 29 million copies in the United States to date. It was followed by Hotel California (1976), and Leadon was followed by Randy Meisner – Timothy Schmit took his place. But after The Long Run (1979) the group itself broke up.

After the disappearing of The Eagles, each ex-member tried his hand in a solo career. For some it was successfull, for some – not, but fourteen years after the breakup, the group finally reunited. The Eagles country tribute album titled Common Thread: The Songs of The Eagles was being recorded, Travis Tritt insisted on having The Long Run-era The Eagles in his video for Take It Easy and they agreed. After the public speculation, the band finally formally reunited. "We never broke up, we just took a 14-year vacation", announced Frey. The tour resulted in an live album titled Hell Freezes Over (named for Henley's recurring statement that the group would get back together when hell freezes over). It included four new studio songs, with Get Over It and Love Will Keep Us Alive became popular hits. In 1998, The Eagles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And, after some albums consisting of the old hits, The Eagles released Long Road Out of Eden (2007), their first album of new material since 1979.