(Credits: Far Out / The Eagles)
Tue 20 January 2026 18:16, UK
No artist wants to spend their lives living in the shadow of their heroes. Even though it might be easy to copy everything in one’s record collection, it takes a master’s touch to create songs that seem to have no clear inspiration, as if they were picked out of the air and put down onto vinyl by some form of musical magic. While Glenn Frey had already made a handful of bulletproof songs with the Eagles, he believed no other rock band could hope to equal one of their essential ballads.
Then again, most of the California rockers’ greatest material often involved a downtempo style. For all of the barnburners that the band made, like ‘Life in the Fast Lane’ and ‘Get Over It’, songs like ‘Desperado’ and ‘Best Of My Love’ would become anthems for generations of rock fans, soundtracking the most heartbreaking moments of people’s lives.
Balladry is a more challenging part of the music game than most rock bands would like to admit. It is far more difficult to sit down and write a harmonised piece of perfectly balanced pop than to thrash out a powerhouse punk anthem. Add to the mix Eagles’ incredible vocal ranges, and it is easy to understand why Frey might have been so certain that nobody else could quite hit the heights his band did.
As the band started to make their way towards Hotel California, Frey knew that they would not settle for anything less than perfection. While the album would be home to some of the most celebrated songs of the band’s career, there were just as many tracks that came together through a lot of tension, including editing out Don Felder’s vocals on the track ‘Victim of Love’.
Telling the story of the trials and tribulations of going through Hollywood, the album’s first half settles on the track ‘Wasted Time’, as Don Henley reflects on the fallout of one of his relationships. Instead of the usual country-infused songs in the band’s catalogue, Frey wanted to take the song in a soulful direction, channelling the Philadelphia soul songs he had loved as a kid to inject a bit of R&B into the track.
The smiling Glenn Frey. (Credits: Far Out / The Eagles)
After recruiting an orchestra to bring the song to a finish, ‘Wasted Time’ would even be stretched out for another track on the album, opening up the second side of the record with an instrumental version of the tune. While the song works just as well as a classic composition without vocals, Frey knew that no one could touch what Henley did with the vocals.
When discussing the track in The Very Best of the Eagles, Frey thought that Henley turned the song into one of the band’s greatest compositions, recalling, “We did a big Philly-type production with strings — definitely not country rock. You’re not going to find that track on a Crosby, Stills & Nash record or Beach Boys record. Don’s singing abilities stretched so many of our boundaries. He could sing the phone book. It didn’t matter. We had Golden Throat”.
Then again, having Henley take the lion’s share of the vocals wasn’t by accident. During History of the Eagles, Frey knew he needed to back off during the Hotel California, saying, “I sang less and less. It was intentional…we had Don Henley”. Even though Henley delivers the song beautifully, the trademark sound of the band wouldn’t be fully realised until they all harmonised together.
Henley’s vocals were legendary, and they offered Eagles something that very few other band could compete with. While the band were a collection of fantastic performers in a range of different meidums, it was their voices that rocketed them into the stardust.
By the time the song reaches its roaring crescendo, hearing Frey, Joe Walsh, and Randy Meisner coming in behind Henley was the sound that made them so celebrated in the world of classic rock and beyond. While many bands focus on getting the right guitar sound or nailing the perfect drum track, the Eagles knew that their trademark magic took place whenever they opened their mouths.
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