Credits: Sports and Music Photographer via Flickr
Wed 8 April 2026 2:00, UK
Every song that Don Henley ever made has always been reverent to the American music that has come before.
While many people like to categorise a lot of the biggest names in classic country to the ‘heritage’ side of music, Henley knew that it was important to look back on those old records so that he realised where he came from whenever he started working on tunes like ‘Desperado’ back in the day. But even if not everyone was going to be a connoisseur of country music, Henley felt that a few records managed to transcend any genre labels that were attached to them.
Because as much Eagles are a great country rock band, they didn’t want to be that for the rest of their lives. Henley knew that he and Glenn Frey could write in a lot of different styles, and while they loved bands like The Byrds and even old-school songwriters like Stephen Foster, it wasn’t out of the question for them to make something that flirted with a little bit of R&B every now and again or making an entire song out of Joe Walsh’s blistering guitar lick for ‘Life in the Fast Lane’.
As far as they could tell, anything had the potential to work as long as it led to a good song, but a good song is also only as good as the vocal that goes with it. Henley already knew that Don Felder wasn’t going to be the right person to provide the lead vocal on ‘Victim of Love’ back in the day, but beyond their own band, the best singers he ever heard were the ones who could deliver years of experience within the span of a few lines.
It’s not easy to do, but when you look at someone like Johnny Cash or Dolly Parton in the country world, you’re hearing a piece of history every time you hear their voices. They had stories to tell about the lives that they saw every single day, but even in the world of country music, Henley had to admit that one of the greatest voices to sing country music came from the R&B world when Ray Charles first made the switch to country music.
You have to remember that R&B was just getting born when Charles became one of the biggest stars in the world, but Henley felt that everything you needed to know about music was in Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music, saying, “That album was one of those seminal albums. I think that’s one of the most important albums of the 20th century. It had ‘Crying Time’ on it and a lot of other great stuff. Again, his voice has always been one of those voices that strikes a deep chord in me. One of the greatest singers that ever lived.”
And it’s not like Charles was doing that album to simply stretch his muscles by any means. When it comes to R&B ballads or country tearjerkers, any kind of heartache is pretty much universal, and you can feel Charles bringing as much melancholy in those songs as he would have when he was singing the more jazz-influenced standards that everyone had known him for.
The piano legend might not be the first person that most people go to when looking at the finest country musicians in the world, but Eagles probably wouldn’t have existed without him, either. The character behind ‘Desperado’ needed that kind of vocal delivery behind it, and while Henley was always a little bit skeptical of his own voice on the recorded version of the song, you can hear him bringing the same kind of feeling that Charles did from the minute he sings those first notes.
So, despite the rest of the world either rejecting country music altogether or settling for whatever Morgan Wallen is serving up, it’s important to recognise what made that music so great to begin with. It’s not necessarily the coolest thing in the world, but I defy you to put on any of Charles’s tunes from this album and not feel an ounce of the same pain that he feels whenever he reaches for those high notes.
