Track Listing

1. Take It Easy
2. Witchy Woman
3. Lyin' Eyes
4. Already Gone
5. Desperado
6. One of These Nights
7. Tequila Sunrise
8. Take It to the Limit
9. Peaceful Easy Feeling
10. Best of My Love

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #789 in Music
• Brand: Eagles
• Released on: 1990-10-25
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Album Description
Import pressing of Their Greatest Hits 1971-75. Vinyl replica CD comes housed in a slipcase. Rhino UK. 2006.

Amazon.com essential recording
The pre-Hotel California years were arguably the best for The Eagles (though there were, thanks to Joe Walsh, some stellar future moments). Their mix of country, folk, and rock had a harder, grittier edge, and helped define what would become known as the Southern California sound. There was just enough of a country feel in the beautiful harmonies of "Best of My Love," to blur the edges between the genres. "Take It Easy" and "Lyin' Eyes" could easily have come out of the new Nashville school, as well. The twang that characterizes the guitar intro to "Already Gone" and the leads in "Witchy Woman" and "One of These Nights," also pays tribute to country's guitar greats. Greatest Hits 1971-1975 houses a scant ten singles, but not only does it illustrate the magic of the collaboration between Glen Frey and Don Henley, it shows the breadth of The Eagles impact on the many who would follow their lead. --Steve Gdula

Customer Reviews

A greatest hits that could have taken it to the limit
Having read David Fuller's review, I couldn't agree more...buy the gold disc! Worth every penny!

This album has, as of November 1999, become the biggest seller of all time: 26 million copies worth. Thriller is in second place at 25 million. And it's easy to see why. This perfectly captures the Eagles early years of country rock, before the Eagles turned all out rockers with Joe Walsh and Hotel California.

In fact, the ten selections are well sequenced flowing nicely together. Henley's vocals are judiciously split four per side. Each album is evenly represented on both sides of the LP.

The gold disc boasts superior sound, remastered directly from the two track stereo tapes. Curious is the fact that the track times are two seconds longer on each track. Compression on the orginal LP and CD perhaps? The jacket depicts the 3-D effect on the eagles skull, and features all the orginal graphics, including the LP labels.

One reviewer wished this CD could have been expanded. A couple of interesting facts: One, there were two singles from Desperado, Tequila Sunrise is on this, but Desperado was not a single. I'm glad it is on this. It is a track deserving of being on a greatest hits. However, the other single was Outlaw Man! Interesting!

Second, On The Border had three singles. Two of them are on this, but James Dean is not.

Lastly, we have a missing B-Side. The flip side to Take It Easy is a song penned by Henley-Frey called Get You In The Mood. To my knowledge, it is not on any Eagles album. I do not have much information on this 3:52 obscurity.

What we need is a comprehensive Eagles singles anthology. Let's hope we will get that, I mean the 30th anniversary is coming shortly. That's a hint!

The greatest "Greatest Hits" album of them all
Having sold well over 14 million copies to date, this is now the biggest selling record of all time. Not bad for a band of talented but unknown musicians who were originally gathered together by a record producer to be Linda Ronstadt's back-up band.

Personally, I'm not a big fan of the "Greatest Hits" album concept, because they tend to be superficial selections of what got radio play, and often don't represent the artist's best work. Never has that been less true than it is here, though. This is a great greatest hits package because it also is representive of the best work the Eagles did between 1971 and 1975.

The Eagles recorded a total of only six studio albums before disbanding to pursue solo projects after the release of 1979's THE LONG RUN. This album draws from what is commonly noted as being the pre-Joe Walsh era--the first four albums, including THE EAGLES, DESPERADO, ON THE BORDER, and ONE OF THESE NIGHTS.

Originally, banjo/mandolin player and founding member Bernie Leadon was crucial to the band's sound. However, with the addition of Don Felder on guitar, the band moved toward a more mainstream California rock sound.

All of the songs on this collection are strong, particularly TAKE IT EASY, LYIN' EYES, DESPERADO, and the rare Eagles song from this period that doesn't feature lead vocals by either Don Henley or Glen Frey, the bassist Randy Meisner sung TAKE IT TO THE LIMIT.

I've had this album in one format or another since I was 12 years old, and I keep coming back to it for whatever you listen to music for.

Early Country-Rock, mellow and easy on the ears
The Eagles have a reputation that would seem to put them into the same class as the greats of rock. This reputation comes in spite of the fact that The Eagles released but seven albums in their two incarnations, six of which were released between 1972 and 1979. The last album was "Hell Freezes Over", an orphan released in 1994.

The first four Eagles albums provided enough material for the first of six collections, titled "Their Greatest Hits". This album covers The Eagles from 1972 to 1975, the pre-Joe Walsh years. In general, their music during these years had a country flavor, but was well balanced with rock influences. I consider The Eagles of these first four albums to be one of the first true country-rock bands. I also think that Don Henley and Glen Frey brought to this genre a style and talent that reminds me of The Beatles in their middle years.

This album captures quite a range. "Desperado" is probably the most overtly country in styling. "Witchy Woman" has a rhythm that can only be described as based on Native American music, and thus is not true country, but has enough country elements to be considered either country or pop/rock. Other songs move further away from country, but still show their country influences, such as "Already Gone" and "Peaceful Easy Feeling".

While the country influence is there, you can also detect elements of The Eagles that would be more strongly manifested in "Hotel California" and "The Long Run". "Witchy Woman" has a strong electric guitar lead. "Already Gone" also has a dominant lead guitar, which at that time was more associated with rock. The latter song could have gone on "The Long Run", an album that moved The Eagles away from a country flavor.

I think The Eagles are highly regarded because of the quality of the songs created by the group, and perhaps because of the influence they had on other country-rock groups. They showed others that country and rock could be successfully married and people would buy such music when it was performed well. They also showed others that the same group could create a song that would be considered rock, and on the same record have a song with strong country influences. Along with a number of other groups in the 60s and 70s, The Eagles were groundbreaking in their own way.

It's easy to look back on this music and put it down because 30 years later it is no longer fresh, new, or original. There have been hundreds of imitators of The Eagles. However, The Eagles were one of the first, and in many ways, were the first. Those who came later imitated The Eagles and performed similar music so many times that after a while the impact of The Eagles appears to have been diluted. In truth, that impact occurred when these songs were released, and are part of the continuing evolution of music. Try to put yourself back in the early 70s when this music was released. It was great then, new, fresh, innovative, and young. The jungle beat of disco, techno-pop, the discordant chords of Nine Inch Nails were all yet to be, and The Beatles had only broken up recently. I will always remember this music for how unique it was when released.

If you like what you hear on the radio of The Eagles, then you will enjoy this CD. I prefer the albums to this collection, because I think the albums have music equal to the music on this CD, but this collection is a good introduction to the early Eagles. Enjoy!