The Eagles: 5 Essential Facts About the Rock Band

Since they first blended country-rock with California cool in 1971, the Eagles have remained a fixture of the American soundtrack.

The band's broad appeal stems from their “American sound” and the way it redefined music in the 1970s, says Marc Eliot, author of To the Limit: The Untold Story of the Eagles. “It makes perfect sense that they would be the barometer against which all other bands and solo acts would be measured." 

As of 2026, the Eagles’ Their Greatest Hits 1971–1975 has sold more than 40 million copies. That makes it the best‑selling album in U.S. history, reports the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

How did four bar-band veterans turn their blend of harmonies and tales of love, loss and life in the American West into a lasting legacy? Here are five questions answered about one of America's most popular bands.

In 1971, musician Glenn Frey was trying to land a record deal when he received some critical advice, Eliot explains. David Geffen, who founded the successful label Asylum Records, told Frey solo acts weren’t selling; he needed to be in a band. At the same time, musician Linda Ronstadt was looking for a backing band for a tour. Frey (guitar), Don Henley (drums), Bernie Leadon (guitar and banjo) and Randy Meisner (bass) were hired. 

Recalling the moment in her 2014 memoir Simple Dreams, Ronstadt wrote that the band rehearsed vocal parts in her small living room. “When we walked in a few hours later, they sounded fantastic,” she writes. “They had worked out a four-part harmony arrangement of a song that Bernie and Don wrote… In that small room, with only acoustic guitars and four really powerful voices, the sound was huge and rich. They called the new song ‘Witchy Woman.’ I was sure it was going to be a hit.” 

That confidence soon proved well-founded. “The last shows I played with the Eagles as my official backup band were at Disneyland in 1971 for a week of end-of-school-year festivities called Grad Night,” Ronstadt wrote. Geffen signed the Eagles to Asylum shortly afterward, launching the band to stardom.

The Eagles released a string of chart-topping singles throughout the 1970s, but “Hotel California” is their most famous. The Grammy-winning title track from their 1976 album of the same name spent 19 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 and remains the Eagles’ signature hit. As of 2026, it ranks No. 3 on the list of the best-selling singles of all time in the United States, according to the RIAA.

Henley has described the song as the band’s take on the seductive glamour of Los Angeles. “It’s about the dark underbelly of the American dream,” he told CBS in 2016. “It’s about excess, it’s about narcissism. It’s about the music business ... It can have a million interpretations.”

Eliot says the song’s appeal lies partly in its cinematic quality. “It's a story song that has a lot of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho in it,” he says. It’s also layered with references to the end of the ’60s and the band’s own unraveling. He adds that the lyric “We haven’t had that spirit here since 1969,” is a nod to both alcohol and a fading cultural attitude. Behind the scenes, the band was also burning out fast.

“There were a lot of drugs, a lot of cocaine, a lot of drinking, a lot of womanizing, and that began to take its toll on the band,” Eliot says. “They knew they would destroy themselves. And yet, like most young people, they thought they could live forever.”

He adds that “Hotel California’s” most famous line captures that contradiction: “You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.”

Released in February 1976, Their Greatest Hits 1971–1975 is stacked with chart-toppers, including two No. 1 singles ("Best of My Love," "One of These Nights") and top‑10 staples like "Take It to the Limit," "Lyin' Eye" and "Witchy Woman." It was even the first album to earn platinum certification (1 million copies sold) from the RIAA. 

Its strength, Eliot says, is in the curation. “They’ve cherry‑picked the best of their first three or four albums and made something very special,” he says. “No fat. All lean.”

The album also arrived at a cultural turning point. While music in the 1960s was steeped in politics and protest, the Eagles spoke to the late baby boomers entering adulthood in the early ’70s. And because the original lineup of the Eagles—Frey, Henley, Leadon and Meisner—came out of bar bands, their sound carried a working‑class directness, Eliot adds.

“It was about the disintegration of relationships, the destruction of trust,” Eliot says. “This was by a group of men singing to men who have been hurt.”

Their themes of cynicism, heartbreak and suspicion resonated in the post‑Vietnam era. For example, Eliot views “'Take It Easy' as a reaction to all that went on in the '60s." It told a generation to "Take a deep breath, take it easy. Let's grow up and talk about men and women. That's the Eagles," he says.

Henley wasn’t a fan of "I Wish You Peace," according to American Songwriter. Written by Leadon and Patti Davis, daughter of Ronald Reagan, the track was released on the 1975 album One of These Nights. “Nobody else wanted it,” Henley said, according to the music publication. “We didn’t feel it was up to the band’s standards, but we put it on anyway as a gesture to keep the band together.”

Henley also had complicated feelings about the recording of Desperado, one of the Eagles’ most popular songs. He told Mojo magazine in 2015 that the recording session made him a “nervous wreck” and recalled hearing orchestra members muttering, “Well, you know, I don’t feel much like a desperado.” 

“I was so intimidated that I didn't sing my best,” Henley said, adding that producer Glyn Johns “wanted to get the album done quickly and economically, and he didn't let me do many takes. I wish I could have done that song again."

By the time they had released Eagles Live in 1980, the band was already fraying. Over the years, its lineup had shifted, creative tensions had mounted and there were rumors of conflict—particularly between Frey and Henley. Shortly after the album’s release, the group officially broke up, a split that would last 14 years. “They had gone as far as they could go,” says Eliot, “and like most bands, they went one album too many.”

Frey had been the band’s founder and early leader, but the balance of power had shifted toward Henley over the year, explains Eliot. While Frey pursued solo work and branched out into acting—with roles in Miami Vice and Jerry Maguire—Henley remained singularly focused on music.

When the band reunited in 1994, Frey and Henley returned alongside Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmit. Walsh had replaced Leadon after his departure in 1975, while Schmit had replaced Meisner in 1977.

“Why did they get back together?" asks Eliot. "M‑O‑N‑E‑Y. They became a tribute band to themselves.” The band’s habit of announcing “final tours” has become part of the lore as they retire and un‑retire, he adds.

After Frey died in 2016, Henley is the only original member still in the Eagles. The updated lineup includes Walsh and Schmit, along with Vince Gill and Glenn Frey’s son, Deacon Frey.

Inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, the band remains a major force. Their Las Vegas Sphere residency, launched in September 2024, is the venue’s longest‑running show as of 2026. Young people love the Eagles because they’re rock 'n' roll,” Eliot says. “Their parents go because they remember when they were young.”