The singer Glenn Frey wanted the approval of: “That would mean a lot”
Being in one of the greatest vocal bands of all time wasn’t something that Glenn Frey did by accident.
He had spent years trying to make Eagles into a powerhouse vocal group, and while you can hear subtle touches of everyone from The Beatles to The Beach Boys in a lot of their harmonies, there’s no mistaking all of their voices on a track like ‘Seven Bridges Road’ whenever they performed. But even if Frey had a laundry list of favourite rock and roll singers, some of the softest singers were the ones that he wanted to please the most when he reached his old age.
When he first left Eagles, though, Frey didn’t exactly leave his rock and roll chops behind. ‘The Heat is On’ was one of the best songs that he could have hoped to make after leaving the band, and while Don Henley was going in a far more personal direction when making a lot of his solo hits, Frey figured that there was a lot more to explore when he started having some fun instead of dwelling on every single line he wrote.
But after his reunion with Eagles, Frey wanted the chance to try out some new sounds. He had already done a passable version of an R&B singer when working on The Allnighter, but he definitely wasn’t going to fit in with the Mariah Carey stripe of music fans when he reached the 1990s. His voice had gone through a lot of changes, but there was always room for him to make music like he heard back in the days before rock and roll music existed.
Although cutting a record of standards practically qualifies as early retirement for most rock musicians, Frey had a much more personal angle when working on After Hours. Linda Ronstadt had pretty much given everyone permission to make these kinds of records all the way back in the 1980s, and while Rod Stewart and Paul McCartney had released their own versions of the Great American Songbook, Frey had Tony Bennett going through his head whenever he played these tunes.
Bennett was among the finest vocalists still working at the time, and while Frank Sinatra gets a lot of credit for bringing vocal jazz to the mainstream, Frey was always attuned to what Bennett could do when working on the record. There were still some favourites from people like Dr John and Brian Wilson on the record, but Frey felt that ‘I Wanna Be Around’ needed to be right, should Bennett actually hear it.
There’s a slim chance that the crooner would have been looking out for what a member of the Eagles was doing, but Frey said he wanted to get his approval of the job he did on this song, saying, “This song holds a special meaning for me because it’s one of the first songs of this ilk that I started to sing. I certainly don’t want to be solicitous and say, ‘Tony Bennett, listen to my record!’ But it’d be nice if somebody would turn him onto it and he’d give it a listen. Maybe he’ll give me a nod of approval – that would mean a lot.”
But given the job he did on the rest of the record, he wasn’t lacking in vocal prowess whenever he sang these tunes. If anything, ‘The Shadow of Your Smile’ is a better indication of how well he fit into this medium, even managing to sprinkle in the slightest bit of twang into the mix to remind everyone he was still the same kid who had brought a song like ‘Take it Easy’ to life back in the day.
Most artists don’t need to be fishing for compliments this late in the game, but it wasn’t so much about Frey trying to be one of the most respected vocalists in the world. He had all the accolades he could have ever wanted, but if he could get the approval of one of the giants of adult contemporary, there would be no one else who could possibly touch him.
