{"id":590830,"date":"2026-04-18T01:33:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T01:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/590830\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T01:33:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T01:33:08","slug":"released-53-years-ago-today-the-eagles-hitless-country-rock-wonder-that-contains-don-henleys-greatest-regret","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/590830\/","title":{"rendered":"Released 53 Years Ago Today, the Eagles\u2019 Hitless Country-Rock Wonder That Contains Don Henley’s Greatest Regret"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Eagles successfully introduced themselves to the world in 1972 with their self-titled debut,<\/a> which spawned the Top 40 hits \u201cTake It Easy\u201d, \u201cWitchy Woman\u201d, and \u201cPeaceful Easy Feeling\u201d. Looking to avoid the dreaded sophomore slump, co-lead singer Glenn Frey wanted to solidify the band\u2019s artistic credibility with a concept album. The result was the Wild West-inspired Desperado, released on this day (April 17) in 1973. <\/p>\n

The Beginning of a Successful Songwriting Partnership<\/p>\n

On paper, the Desperado experiment failed. Neither single\u2014\u201dTequila Sunrise\u201d or \u201cOutlaw Man\u201d\u2014managed to crack the Top 50 of the Billboard Hot 100. It\u2019s still the Eagles\u2019 lowest-charting record ever. And yet, history has looked back on Desperado with kinder eyes, as many consider it a touchstone of country-rock.<\/p>\n

The album also marked the beginning of a legendary songwriting partnership between Frey and co-founder Don Henley, who had a hand in penning eight of the 11 songs. In a 2003 interview with Cameron Crowe, Henley described Desperado as \u201cwhen we became a team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Added Frey, \u201cI think I brought him ideas and a lot of opinions; he brought me poetry \u2014 we were a good team.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pair wrote both the title track and the lead single, \u201cTequila Sunrise\u201d, within the first week of their collaboration. For Henley, \u201cTequila Sunrise\u201d is a point of pride. \u201cIt turned out to be a really great song. The changes that Glenn came up with for the bridge are very smart,\u201d he told Crowe. \u201cThat\u2019s one song I don\u2019t get tired of.\u201d<\/p>\n

[RELATED: 3 Iconic Songs That Eagles Didn\u2019t Think Would Become Hits]<\/a><\/p>\n

The Eagles Song Don Henley Still Can\u2019t Listen To<\/p>\n

Desperado contains some artistic peaks (\u201cTequila Sunrise\u201d) as well as valleys for Don Henley. In an interview with CBS Sunday Morning<\/a> earlier this year, the 78-year-old Rock and Roll Hall of Famer admitted he can still hardly listen to the album\u2019s title track.<\/p>\n

Carrying out the record company\u2019s wishes, producer Glyn Johns insisted on spending as little money as possible on the album\u2019s production. \u201cJust get in there and get it and get out,\u201d Henley recalled.<\/p>\n

For this reason, the co-frontman was dissatisfied with his vocals on \u201cDesperado\u201d. \u201cI think I got to do about four takes, maybe five and I still have a little trouble with the intonation on the lead vocal to this day,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t listen to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Featured image by Gijsbert Hanekroot\/Redferns<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Eagles successfully introduced themselves to the world in 1972 with their self-titled debut, which spawned the Top…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":590831,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[2616,2617,88,216,39689],"class_list":{"0":"post-590830","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-1970s","9":"tag-classic-rock","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-music","12":"tag-the-eagles"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=590830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/590831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}