Credits: Sports and Music Photographer via Flickr
Sun 17 August 2025 2:00, UK
There’s no sense in any pop star trying to eclipse what The Beatles did. Even if you absolutely hated them, you can’t deny that their influence extended far beyond what any other rock band was able to do, but in the case of Don Henley, there were always a few artists who did things a little bit better.
But Henley’s taste was always about reaching farther past the traditional rock and roll setting. He loved all types of American music, and when he first started a band while living in Texas, it began with him playing Dixieland jazz for everyone who walked into the room without worrying about an all-star singer at the front. One of the biggest hurdles might have been Henley cutting his teeth onstage, but he was also getting an education in the best songs the American Songbook ever produced.
And when he moved to Los Angeles, people were already crafting their own versions of Americana. Gram Parsons had pretty much knocked down the door for what country-rock could be when working with The Byrds, and while you can hear a lot of the Fab Four in those trademark Eagles harmonies, there are also hints of American acts like the Everly Brothers and Crosby, Stills, and Nash in their delivery as well.
When talking about American music, though, things tend to lean towards the ‘country’ side of country-rock. As much as bands prided themselves on writing their material, no one could go wrong breaking out tunes by the likes of George Jones or Johnny Cash whenever they were short of material, and when Henley picked his favourite songs, he knew that Buck Owens’s ‘Act Naturally’ was a fine piece of American history.
Outside of the lyrics about becoming a film star, Henley admitted that The Beatles’ version of the same tune that ended up on Help! didn’t manage to match up to what Owens did, saying, “One of [Owens’s] biggest hits was a song called ‘Act Naturally’ that was actually covered by The Beatles. Ringo Starr sang that song and you know, that was a good version. But Buck’s version is my favourite.”
It’s not hard to see why, either. Owens’s version does feel a lot more lived-in, and while Ringo Starr does an admirable job of singing lines about a hapless actor who will play his role of a brokenhearted man with ease, it’s not like the world of country music was their strongest suit, despite some genuinely great countrified tunes later like ‘Rocky Raccoon’.
When listening to Eagles’ music, they find a perfect middle ground between people like Owens, The Beatles, and every other genre they could think of. Desperado is full of country staples, ballads like ‘Best of My Love’ have the kind of ethereal harmonies that the Fab Four were always great at, and there would also be great flirtations with genres like soul when working on ballads like ‘Wasted Time’.
Granted, that has always been the goal for writers like Henley. Genres might put boundaries on where people can go with their musical style, but the point is to be a child of everything you listen to and find ways to incorporate it into your music. After all, no one is preordained to be put on a diet of exclusively one genre, and Henley has helped prove that everything is part of one big musical stew.
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