The musical milestone Don Henley never cared about: “It’s not something that we think about”
Don Henley never got into the business to win trophies for his work.
He knew that Eagles had the potential to be a great rock and roll band if they had the right songs, but as long as the fans were singing along whenever they played a concert, that was more than enough for him and Glenn Frey. All they cared about was giving their audience a good soundtrack to their lives, but it turned out that there were a lot more people interested than he had thought when they first started putting their tunes together.
While some consider it sacrilege for Billy Joel to call the Eagles ‘The American Beatles’, there’s at least a little bit of truth to it. There has been no other rock band that has resonated with the public at large as much as the California rockers, and whereas most people could think of the Fab Four as the perfect encapsulation of British rock and roll, the same could be said listening to Henley sing ‘Desperado’ or Frey singing ‘Take It Easy’.
The biggest common factor between them was a firm sense of quality control. Was every song a home run? Not exactly, but when looking at their bodies of work, Eagles and The Beatles did have a solid track record for cramming in more than a handful of classics on every one of their records. Before they even reached their peak, though, Eagles weren’t safe from being bombarded with industry bullshit, either.
Whereas most suits have their own say in what records they put out, Henley was never on board with releasing their first greatest hits album. Their songs were immaculate, and their first four records had more than enough tunes to fill out a best-of album, but since this was a few months shy of Hotel California being released, it’s understandable to think that a compilation record of their best work would kill the momentum.
As it turned out, America had enough time for any incarnation of the group. Aside from Hotel California becoming one of the biggest records in their catalogue, Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975) was unstoppable on the charts. The new fans could sing along to ‘Life in the Fast Lane’, but Henley felt the band could have done without having the biggest-selling album of all time.
The paychecks certainly didn’t hurt, but he felt that this particular musical milestone wasn’t all that special, saying, “I have no idea whether we will retain that position or not, but it isn’t a matter of great concern to any of us. It’s gratifying to have been able to achieve that milestone, but it’s not something that we think about. We’re more interested in the present and the future.”
Even if he wants to live in the present, it’s easy to see why Henley would have been concerned with that kind of release as well. The whole point behind their albums was to create a cohesive statement over the course of two sides of vinyl, so if people cherry-pick songs from Desperado, for instance, they’re going to be missing out on the story of an outlaw that the band had aimed for when they first put it out.
Although the label ultimately followed the demand for a second instalment of their greatest hits after Hotel California, Henley didn’t need to spend time thinking about whether he had the number-one best-selling album of the 20th century. That was left to the suits, and the man knew he was better off finding that next classic song or fighting for the causes he believed in.
