When Don Henley took Don Felder’s lead vocal in a classic Eagles song
For all his legendary abilities as a guitarist, Don Felder was never much of a singer during his tenure with the Eagles. From the time he first arrived during the sessions for 1974’s On The Border, Felder only sang lead vocals on a single Eagles song, ‘Visions’, from 1975’s One of These Nights. Even then, Felder’s lead vocal is heavily backed up by harmonies from his bandmates.
As the band entered into sessions for 1976’s Hotel California, Felder became an integral part of the band’s songwriting as well. While he contributed to two album cuts from One of These Nights – ‘Too Many Hands’ and ‘Visions’ – Felder was an essential writer behind two of Hotel California’s biggest songs, the title track and ‘Victim of Love’. For the latter, Felder purposefully edged the Eagles away from their signature country rock sound.
“We were trying to move in a heavier direction, away from country rock. And so I wrote 16 or 17 song ideas, kind of in a more rock and roll direction, and ‘Victim of Love’ was one of those songs,” Felder told SongFacts in 2013. “I remember we went in the studio and we recorded it live with five guys playing. The only thing that wasn’t played in a live session was the lead vocal and harmony on the choruses. Everything else was recorded live.”
As one of the song’s main architects, Felder was initially under the impression that he would be the lead vocalist on ‘Victim of Love’. All of the other band members received one lead vocal on Hotel California: Glenn Frey had ‘New Kid In Town’, Joe Walsh had ‘Pretty Maids All In a Row’, and Randy Meisner had ‘Try and Love Again’. The rest of the vocals were handled by Don Henley, something that irked Felder
“Don Felder, for all of his talents as a guitar player, was not a singer,” Frey claimed in the documentary The History of the Eagles. Henley felt the same way: “He sang it dozens of times over the space of a week, over and over,” he claimed. “It simply did not come up to band standards.”
In order to get Henley’s vocal down, the rest of the band had to come up with a ruse to occupy Felder. While Henley laid down the final take, band manager Irving Azoff took Felder out to dinner and informed him of what was going on, leaving Felder in a state of disbelief.
“It was a bitter pill to swallow. I felt like Don was taking that song from me,” Felder said in History of the Eagles. “But there was no way to argue with my vocal versus Don Henley’s vocal.”
Check out ‘Victim of Love’ down below.
