The five worst covers of the Eagles
The very reason three-part harmonies are so compelling to listen to is because of how hard they are to do. It takes a sort of musical alchemy to combine three separate voices of different timbres and make them merge as seamlessly as the Eagles did in the 1970s.
The band pushed past the regular backstage drama that would follow them around to step on stage and deliver vocals that were akin to the Californian breeze from which they came. Taking hints from The Beatles, The Beach Boys and Crosby, Stills and Nash, who all came before them, the West Coast rockers made a point of building their songs on a bedrock of collective voices.
Crucial to the success of that was their melody writing, which facilitated all of the strengths of each member. When the surrounding voices would drop off in the verses, allowing one vocalist, either Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Don Felder or Randy Meisner to take centre stage, they would be sure to follow it up with a chorus line that welcomes the harmonies back into the fold. On songs done well, it was a truly captivating sonic signature that the band had mastered.
Despite what you may think about the Eagles, there is a surrender to one’s ego that must take place before perfecting this. The quality of the vocals were only as good as the collective within them, and so that meant no overzealous solos à la Celine Dion. All members had to serve the song equally, and to their credit, they did that.
Consequently, it made for a discography that is extremely hard to cover. When solo artists take on one of the Eagles’ songs themselves, it ultimately ends up in a lost bid to cover all vocal bases, which none of their songs were designed for. Many have tried, but many have failed, and as the heartless journalist I am, I am going to highlight all of those in the latter.
Rod Stewart – ‘The Best Of My Love’
Would it be a Far Out worst of list if Rod Stewart’s name wasn’t thrown into the mix? I think not.
The gravelly rock star is trying too hard to be just that on this track: a rock star. It blows my mind how regularly Stewart fails to notice what his strengths are, for when he puts his voice to songs written more faithfully to him, he can be compelling.
But on this, you can almost feel him closing his eyes and imagining he is Glenn Frey, driving down the Pacific Coast Highway with the wind in his hair, singing along to the band’s melody. The Eagles always bordered on sleaze, but got away with it because of their inherent talent as a collective, but Stewart’s rendition just goes to prove that the band were always veering into dangerous territory.
Keb’Mo – ‘One Of These Nights’
Anyone covering this song simply didn’t stand a chance, for it is my favourite Eagles song and one that encapsulates their greatness so succinctly. The guitar playing, the air-tight drum beat and the beautiful melody all make this 1975 hit a masterclass in harmonic execution.
Ultimately, the original version is a smooth and natural listen from start to finish, while Mo’s unfortunately isn’t. The country vocals that try to change the cadence of each line to fit inside the rhythm feel clunky, and the overall arrangement of it plunges it into the realms of unnecessarily depressing ballad.
Where’s the funk? Without it, you’re robbing the actual song of its most compelling profile.
Niall Horan, John Legend, Gwen Stefani and Reba McEntire – ‘Take It Easy’
I think one of the biggest misconceptions within the world of entertainment is that to pay homage to your heroes, you have to cosplay them. What’s wrong with just playing them on your speaker and basking in the brilliance that is the original? No, instead, the judges of The Voice need to make it weirdly about them as they all promote the show by subtly competing with one another from a vocal standpoint.
Which, as I laid out, is the complete antithesis of what the Eagles were about as a band. The song comes first, and is served by the collective performance of harmonic vocals. Here, the song is merely brushed aside and arranged with little care or thought, so that the supposed harmonic voices can battle it out for attention.
Michael Buble – ‘Heartache Tonight’
To his credit, Buble does try to sprinkle some change onto the record by enlisting the help of his swing band. But even the fresh arrangement doesn’t hide the fact that this is a cover the musical world could simply live without.
The Eagles were such brilliant vocalists because of how well they rode the melodies their songs created. But Buble has this knack, which is informed by his big band icons, of singing just outside the beat in a sort of semi-improvised manner. I guess it’s meant to imply that he is really feeling each word and taking the vocals to a place only his voice can, but in reality, it’s clunky and completely contradictory to the intended feeling of an Eagles song.
Bowling For Soup – ‘Already Gone’
My confirmation bias, driven by a hatred for noughties pop-punk, certainly influences my decision to put this one at number one, but nevertheless, I challenge someone to convince me that this sounds good. From the minute that opening note introduces the song, you just know that the Eagles sound is being taken into a realm it simply doesn’t need to be in.
Then, the vocals kick in and you realise that the smooth introspection of Glenn Frey has been replaced by an angsty teenager, who, by the sounds of it, has been grounded for not cleaning his room.
All of this combined would have you think that I would welcome the introduction of the overly powerful drum beat, but by the time it gets to the bridge, I am so overwhelmed with terrible, abrasive sounds that I’ve sadly forgotten what the Eagles sound like in the first place.
