Author: Phil Bausch

There’s good news, bad news, and half-good news.

The good news is there are new and expanded remixed stereo versions of the Red & Blue collections.

The bad news is the Rubber Soul remixed box set is delayed.

The half-good news is that half of the Rubber Soul remix (7 songs) can be found on the Red remix.

Because this year is the 50h Anniversary of the Red & Blue albums, Apple decided to issue expanded and remixed versions.  The release date was November 10th, 2023.

The Red Album is the main attraction for Beatles fans in that it’s filled with remixed stereo versions of songs that had poor stereo mixes, or even just monophonic versions.  In fact, the first 30 songs are brand new remixes.  Three classic songs The Beatles didn’t write (like “Twist And Shout”) are  included, the Revolver album is much better represented, and so is George Harrison.  Here are the song lists.  *Indicates added songs.

The Blue Album  has only six songs that hadn’t been remixed, but it also has nine songs that weren’t on the original release.  *Indicates added songs.

You can see the set ends with “Now And Then”.  It’s a new recording that was released on November 2nd, 2023.  “Now And Then” is from a 1977 demo by John Lennon.  Using new technology, they were able to extract and enhance John’s voice.  Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr added instrumental and vocal parts, and George Harrison’s guitar and background vocals came from an earlier attempt of the song at the time of the Anthologies in the ‘90’s.  Here’s the artwork for the single.

There are various versions of the single that can be ordered through The Beatles Apple Store online.

The song is also available to stream, or to buy digitally.  There’s a link to a review of the single and music video at the end of this article.  Update:  “Now And Then” went to #1 in the U.K., 54 years after their last British #1 in 1969.

Here are the various CD and vinyl album versions as shown on The Beatles site.  Some of the colored vinyl versions will only be available at that online store.  Photos can be enlarged with a touch or click.

(A sleeve is added if you buy the discs as a set.) [They sold out]

The song order for the vinyl versions is not completely in chronological order like the CD’s.  The first two vinyl albums in each set are exactly like the original releases, and the third albums contain the added songs.

Red Album:

Blue Album:

Looking at how well various albums are represented…there are 9 songs from the Rubber Soul recording sessions, 8 from the Revolver sessions, 8 from the White Album sessions, 7 from the Sgt. Pepper sessions, and 6 each from the Let It Be and Abbey Road sessions..

The Red & Blue albums are not really “Greatest Hits” collections (many of the songs were not singles), nor “Best Of” collections (there are other Beatles songs that are better than some of these).  But, the expanded versions give a good overview of The Beatles’ full career.

Review:  Here’s a link to my “Review & Perspective” of the remixed Red & Blue sets:

https://ontherecords.net/2023/11/the-beatles-red-blue-remixes-review-perspective/

Extra:  For a review of the “Now And Then” single & video, click this link:

https://ontherecords.net/2023/10/the-beatles-last-single-now-and-then/

It’s not just a rumour, Fleetwood Mac is finished…according to Stevie Nicks.  Their Fleetwood Mac and Rumours albums from the mid ‘70’s are two of the most popular albums of all time, and every tour they played since then was very successful.

(Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Christine McVie, Lindsey Buckingham, & Stevie Nicks in the 1970s.)

This week, Stevie Nicks said it’s over, and that it actually ended when Christine McVie passed away (on November 30th, 2022).  Nicks says there’s no reason to get together without Christine.  The band continued to tour when McVie took an 18-year break from the group.  She returned in 2014, and the band toured into 2019.  Nicks says the band would miss all of the pop-style hits McVie wrote for the group.

Another unspoken reason Fleetwood Mac has ended is that the band is also without Lindsey Buckingham.  They were missing Buckingham on their last tour.  He had a falling out with the group in 2018, and was replaced by Heartbreaker Mike Campbell and Neil Finn of Crowded House.  Stevie Nicks recently toured with Billy Joel, and has continued touring solo.

The reason talk of Fleetwood Mac’s end came up is that Stevie Nicks was asked the question during the recent release of the “Stevie Doll”.  It’s a Barbie doll custom-made to look like Fleetwood Mac’s most popular member.

The doll is based on Nick’s appearance at the time of the Rumours album (1977).

Although the doll is not an exact image of Stevie Nicks, it does a decent job of representing her.

Stevie Nick’s fans must have been happy with it, because the doll sold out in one day.  It was $55 from Mattel, and the doll was seen online the next day for $160.  Who knows what a rabid fan might be willing to pay…probably not the $65,000 someone jokingly put on eBay.

Although there will be no new recordings or touring by Fleetwood Mac, it wouldn’t be surprising if their label finds a way to re-release their old recordings.  In fact, there was a recent release of an old concert.  The album title is Rumours Live.

The album is a performance from 1977 that was released on September 8th, 2023.  Maybe future releases will include an anthology of alternate studio versions and demos.  That might be a good one.

It’s been over 50 years since we saw Jim Croce in concert, August of 1973.  It’s better to remember that excellent performance, than to recall his sad death a month later, September 20th, 1973.  Jim Croce was only 30-years-old, and his accompanying guitarist and harmony singer, Maury Muehleisen, was just 24 when their small plane crashed on takeoff, killing all onboard.

But let’s go back to a little over a year earlier, mid 1972.  Jim Croce released his breakthrough album, You Don’t Mess Around With Jim.  That was also the name of his first Top-10 single at #8.  His second single was “Operator”, and it reached #17.  We bought the album at that time, and found it had other great songs, including “Time In A Bottle” and “Photographs And Memories”.

Jim Croce’s songs  joined those by some of our favorite artists of that time, James Taylor, Jackson Browne, Carole King, and other singer-songwriters.  Croce, who was from Philadelphia, had his own style of songwriting.  His album included uptempo urban stories, such as the pool hall setting of “You Don’t Mess Around With Jim”, along with the insightful and emotional lyrics of his ballads.  We also purchased Jim Croce’s next album in 1973.

Life And Times came out only a month before we saw his concert, but two singles from the album…”One Less Set Of Footsteps” and “Bad Bad Leroy Brown” had been released earlier, and “Leroy Brown” hit #1.  Then we saw Jim Croce at the Hampton Roads Coliseum near Norfolk, Virginia.

It was August 6th, 1973, and Croce opened for Loggins & Messina.  The concert was one of our favorites, and the musicianship was amazing for the whole night.  We attended the show with friends Don and Linda MacLeod, and the four of us were in the second row.  Don took the photos of Jim and Maury.

They performed the best songs from Jim’s first two albums, and we were also treated to new songs from an album he was recording.  Those songs included “I Got A Name” (#10), “I’ll Have To Say I Love You In A Song” (#9), and “Workin’ At The Car Wash Blues” (#32).  That last one is actually my favorite of his “character” songs, even though it wasn’t as big a hit as a couple others.

We left the concert very impressed with Jim Croce, and we were looking forward to his next album.  Then came the tragic news of the plane crash on September 20th, 1973.  The crash was listed as “pilot error”.  He took off in darkness and fog, and didn’t clear a tree near the end of the runway.

The album, I Got A Name, was released December 1st, 1973, and went to #2 on the charts for two weeks.  It was behind You Don’t Mess Around With Jim, which was #1 for five weeks after Croce’s death.  Besides the three hits on Jim’s last album, there are a couple more songs of that quality…”Age (Right Back Where I Started)” and “Thursday (You Were Looking For A Friend)”.  

“Time In A Bottle” was released posthumously as a single, because of how appropriate the lyrics are…”There never seems to be enough time to do the things you want to do…”.  The song reaching #1 was what helped pull Croce’s 1972 album to #1 too.

After 50 years, Jim Croce’s recordings remain popular with the public, and on our own playlists.

The Eagles launched “The Long Goodbye” tour with a sold-out concert at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Their setlist was made up of twenty-three songs, including a couple of surprises.

The last three songs were played for the encore.  Songs 15 & 16 were included as a salute to their good friend Jimmy Buffett who recently passed away, September 1st, 2023.

Buffett’s excellent hit “Come Monday” was sung by Timothy B. Schmit.  He had been a member of Buffett’s Coral Reefer Band, and is credited with coming up with the name “Parrotheads” for Buffett’s fans.  Joe Walsh did the lead vocal honors on the other Buffett song “Fins”.

The rest of the setlist is made up of classic Eagles hits, with just a few songs Don Henley and Joe Walsh recorded outside the band.  Reviews of the concert were highly complimentary, and the band’s vocals remain strong.  We saw the Eagles over 25 years ago, and the setlist is not much different, because there’s an obvious group of hits Eagles fans want to hear.  The band is making the right choice to include them, plus the Buffett songs were a nice addition.

Another treat for fans at the concert was the appearance of Steely Dan, which is the opening act for the whole tour.

According to reviews of the concert, Donald Fagen was in good voice, and his accompaniment included a four-piece brass section.  Steely Dan hits played included “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number”, “Reelin’ In The Years” and “Hey Nineteen”.  What a great bonus for Eagles fans.  Update:  Due to an illness, Donald Fagen missed some performances, so Sheryl Crow, Steve Miller, and The Doobie Brothers each helped open shows.  Fagen is doing better now, and has continued with the tour in 2024.

(MSG concert photos by Charles Sykes)

The concert wrapped up with one of the most classic of all Classic Rock songs…”Hotel California”.  The Eagles have always been one of the best-sounding live bands, and their “Long Goodbye” gives fans one last chance to hear them.  In keeping with the name of the tour, it may run for at least a couple of years, and dates are being added.

Update:  The Eagles are now set to play 20 concerts from September 20, 2024 through January 25, 2025 at the Sphere in Las Vegas.

The reviews are in, and the Eagles put on a great show with impressive visuals!

So, my wife and I were watching the “Sherlock” style British mystery show, Endeavour, when this shot of a suspect came on the screen.

I quickly paused it.  What the heck is that in the back?  Because of the close proximity of the record collection, I deduced that it might be a stereo.  The murder suspect was a soccer star in a story set in 1971, and he had an ultra-modern apartment.  I asked my trusty assistant, Google, to check on a “space age stereo”, and here’s one of the pictures that was produced.

It turns out it really is a stereo!  It’s by the Weltron company, and was first manufactured in Japan in 1970.  Here’s a close look at the stereo workings inside the shell.

According to a print ad by Weltron, the “Shape Of Sound” concept includes a BSR record changer, an 8-track tape player, and an AM/FM radio, all in what they called a “flying saucer” design.  It then said…“the Model 2005 Space Odyssey lists for under $300.”  The name was obviously inspired by the 1968 movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.  

Although there were stereo speakers built into the shell, you could also get cool-looking external speakers for better quality sound.

By 1973, Weltron had a Model 2007 that played & recorded cassettes, and came in an optional yellow case.  You can see the company also had colorful portable radio/tape players.

The clever stereo design includes four round feet so the saucer can “land” on a flat surface, maybe a record cabinet.

The main character on the show is Detective Sergeant Endeavour Morse.  Here he’s trying to decide if his next purchase should be that nifty little TV, or the trend-setting “Space Age” stereo.

Vinyl record albums have made a comeback.  It’s time for an updated “flying saucer” turntable too!

Extra:  So now I’m imagining an updated Weltron stereo wirelessly connected to my HomePods.

Does it seem real?  The average amount each Taylor Swift fan is spending to see her Eras Tour concert is $1,300.  That includes a ticket, travel, hotels, meals and other expenses.  Swift is able to sell out SoFi stadium in Los Angeles for six nights in seven days.  At 80,000 people per concert, that’s nearly half-a-million fans!  Those concerts were the final ones of Swifts’ 53 U.S. concerts from March 17th through August 9th, 2023.

SoFi Stadium has a roof, so here’s an aerial view of one of the Taylor Swift concerts in Pittsburgh:

I had no idea any musician was so popular that people would pay thousands of dollars for tickets.  My wife and I attended many concerts from 1970 through just recently, including some of the biggest artists, like Paul McCartney, Crosby Stills & Nash, the Eagles, James Taylor, Billy Joel, and many more.  The highest-priced tickets we ever got were $94 each.  That was for a Dark Side Of The Moon concert by Roger Waters.  The prices we paid for concerts seem really quaint now.  (Update: 2/16/24  We paid $200 each for tickets to see Alison Krauss & Robert Plant.)

Taylor Swift’s shows are nearly 3-and-a-half-hours long, and she sings 44 songs.  The production quality is exceptional.  Swift completed four shows in Mexico City (8/27/23), and takes a breather until November for more international shows.  Right now she’s set for a total of 146 concerts…make that 152, she added more shows in Vancouver, Canada, and London.

(The dates are in the international style, with the day and then the month.)

Is she going to be able to complete such a schedule without health problems, weather problems, or logistical issues?  If it all works out, the tour should be the first to gross in the Billions of dollars.

Update:  According to Pollstar, Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour is officially the biggest tour ever.  It passed one-billion-40-million-dollars in 2023 in about nine months.  That compares to the second biggest tour, which is by Elton John.  His multi-year 330 show tour made 939-million-dollars.  With the 2024 portion of Swift’s tour, the total is expected to be around two-billion-dollars.

While the numbers are huge, the expense of such a large tour will eat into the profits…plus Swift is sharing those profits.  She gave her tour crew members $55-million in bonuses…such as $100,000 to each of the 50 truck drivers.  Swift has also given undisclosed “significant donations” to food banks in cities where she’s performed.  The tour has already generated an estimated $5-billion in revenue for the cities she played.

But it’s not just the concerts.  Taylor Swift is a songwriting and album-producing machine.  By the end of April 2024, she had 14 albums in a row enter the charts at #1, with seven of those albums being released in just over the last three years.

Three of those albums, Folklore, Evermore, and Midnights, were completely new, and have an average of 18 songs each.  That’s enough songs for about 4 & 1/2 typical albums.  Then there are the four re-recorded albums.  Not only did Taylor Swift completely re-record those albums, but they have another 26 new “from the vault” songs that Taylor Swift wrote, but hadn’t recorded.  That would be another two-albums-worth of new songs!  Update:  InApril of 2024, her The Tortured Poets Department added 31 songs!

Besides her massive song output, maybe the most unusual part of Taylor Swift’s popularity is how deeply her fans are into her music. They seem to know all the lyrics…not just the hits, but the album tracks and the bonus tracks.  During her U.S. Eras Tour, Swift performed approximately 150 different songs (who does that?), and fans sang along with all of them.  That speaks highly to the quality of the songs and the recordings.

So far so great, but where does it go from here?  How long could any artist maintain the heat Taylor Swift is currently generating?  Will the extreme popularity cause over-exposure to the point that people get tired of her?  Some of that has already occurred with her appearances at NFL games.  Swift’s relationship with her fans seems passionate and personal.  So, if she ever makes a mistake and alienates them, it would seem like a betrayal.

There’s also the possibility that Swift (like most artists) will eventually have trouble creating the quality of songs and recordings she now makes.  Swift has directed award-winning music videos, and has expressed interest in directing movies, so that could change her career path.  At some point, the 33-year-old may opt for marriage and a family.  That would at least necessitate a significant slowdown in her professional activities.

It’s probably not fair to think about the distant end to Taylor Swift’s career when she is having truly historic success.  Her songwriting has become even more sophisticated in recent years.  Members of indie group The National, who have provided Swift with “song starter” chords and riffs, were amazed how quickly Swift was able to write melodies and lyrics to complete the songs.

There’s a story in Variety by writer Chris Willman, who attended the final Eras concert in L.A.  She said this tour surpassed the other historic tours she witnessed, such as those by Michael Jackson, U2, and Bruce Springsteen.  Willman compared it to how it would have been if The Beatles had stayed together for an “Eras Tour” of their own.  She said the demand for tickets in Los Angeles was so great Swift could have easily sold out the stadium six more times.

It would seem impossible for Taylor Swift to keep up her unbelievable success of the past few years, but there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight for the Taylor Swift era.

Update:  A film of the Eras Tour opened worldwide on October 13th, 2023.  The film passed 261-million-dollars in ticket sales. This young woman and her marketing team are geniuses.  They got this film out just two months after her last U.S. concert date, and two weeks before the release of 1989 (Taylor’s Version).

Update (Oct. 28th, 2023):

1989 (Taylor’s Version) is her 13th album to debut at #1, and instantly became the highest selling album of 2023.  The year’s next two highest sellers are Midnights & Speak Now (Taylor’s Version).

And the music machine that is Taylor Swift released a 31 song double album on April 19th, 2024.

Tortured Poets is Taylor Swift’s 14th straight #1 album, and it set a record for having the top 14 songs on Billboard’s Hot 100 singles chart.

While researching for an article about The Beach Boys, I was surprised by some strange statistics.

Here are the studio albums from 1962 to 1973 by The Beach Boys in order of release (minus a Christmas album & live albums).

So, out of all these classic albums, how many of them went platinum (sold a million copies) in those years?

I was shocked that none of The Beach Boys’ regular albums sold a million.  I was expecting that nearly all of them would have passed that mark.  Decades  later, only two of their studio albums finally became platinum, Little Deuce Coupe and Pet Sounds.

Back in 1963, I was too young to get a drivers license, but not too young to love the “car songs” by The Beach Boys.  The very first album I ever bought was Little Deuce Coupe, which came out in October of 1963.  It was the fourth album by The Beach Boys, who had only been recording for a year.  Oddly, the main songs on the album, “Little Deuce Coupe”, “Shut Down” and “409”, had already been released on the group’s previous albums.  The title song had even been featured on the Surfer Girl album which had been released only three weeks earlier.  All but one of the eight new songs on the album were about cars.  That one, “Be True To Your School”, is another of the best tracks, and became a single in a remixed form.

I was also one of the relatively limited number of people who bought Pet Sounds in 1966.  At that time, the album’s performance was considered disappointing.  Since then, the album has been elevated as one of the greatest of all time.  Because of that, it should have sold many millions by now.  According to the Recording Industry Association of America, Pet Sounds has only one-million in sales (It took until 2000 to hit that).  That makes no sense.  Compare that to another critical favorite from 1966…Revolver…which has sold over 27-million copies.

Here’s another numerical curiosity about The Beach Boys.  They recorded 29 studio albums, yet there have been 56  “Greatest Hits” albums and various collections.  Since we now know The Beach Boys’ regular albums sold way less than expected, the group’s popularity was mostly in its hit singles.  Five of those greatest hits collections have gone multi-platinum, and Capitol Records keeps pumping them out.  Sometimes they use “remastered” or “remixed” as reasons for us to again purchase the same songs.

The first big double album of hits was 1974’s Endless Summer.  It covered most of The Beach Boys hits up to, but not including, Pet Sounds.  It’s sold over 3-million copies, and is the only Beach Boys album of studio recordings to hit #1 (another surprise!). The other double album above, Sounds of Summer, covers the group’s entire career.  It’s from 2003, and has also sold over 3-million copies.  One problem with it is that some of the songs are presented in mono, even though there are excellent stereo versions available of nearly every Beach Boys song.

Do you know which song written by Brian Wilson was the first to hit #1?  Despite a bunch of great songs by The Beach Boys in 1963, it was not one of theirs.  Instead, the song was recorded by Brian’s friends Jan Barry & Dean Torrence.  It was in the summer of 1963 that “Surf City” (“Two girls for every boy.”) became the first surf song to hit #1.  Brian Wilson had written the music and played it for Jan Berry.  Jan finished off the lyrics.

Brian almost always wrote with a lyricist, and he worked on about a dozen songs with Jan & Dean.  You might remember that The Beach Boys’ song “Catch A Wave” was reworked into “Sidewalk Surfing” by Jan & Dean.  The line “Catch a wave, and you’re sitting on top of the world.” became “Grab your board, and go Sidewalk Surfing with me.”  Other Jan & Dean hits included “Dead Man’s Curve”, “Drag City” and “The Little Old Lady From Pasadena”.

By the way, The Beach Boys’ first #1 was “I Get Around” in 1964.  The flip side was “Don’t Worry Baby”.  What a great single!

Thought Beach Boys fans might like to see another fan’s “Best Of” playlists.  As I bought these songs through the years, I eventually found the best stereo versions, instead of mono or re-channeled stereo.  Only “Surfin’ Safari” is mono.

You can see the lists are chronological.  Best 1 is a lot of fun, with a few serious songs mixed in.  The quality continues with Best 2, and the arrangements are at an even higher level.  The vocal harmonies throughout are off the charts.

Recently we’ve been hearing about the astronomical sums of money aging classic artists have been getting for the rights to their songs.  Back in 1969, their manager and the father of three of The Beach Boys, Murray Wilson, apparently thought their music would become passé, because he sold the publishing rights for $700,000.  Even translated to today’s money, that’s way underpriced.  The rights to those songs are now owned by Universal Music.  Fortunately, the band still retained the rights to some of their songs & master recordings, and their name.

(Bruce Johnston, Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine, and David Marks…he was in The Beach Boys for their first year.)

In 2021, The Beach Boys sold the controlling interest for their music and image to Iconic Artists Group run by longtime music manager Irving Azoff.  No money amount was announced.  The company is marketing the band and developing projects to keep Beach Boys music popular far into the future.

Extra:  After the success of The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show in February of 1964, Ed started booking bands regularly.

The Beach Boys first appeared in September of 1964.  They performed “I Get Around” and “Wendy”.

Another really expensive book by another classic band!  As the story circulated today about a new Beach Boys book, the one thing that was left out was the price.  I went to the publisher’s (Genesis) site, and the price was 945-pounds.  So, I Googled what that is in dollars, and it’s 1,238-dollars for pre-orders.

If you order one of the approximately 400 copies of the deluxe edition, you’ll get the book and a box to put it in.  But wait, there’s good news for the rest of us.  A “bookstore version” is set for release in 2024.  Hopefully, it will be reasonably priced.

Update:  The cheaper “bookstore version” was released on April 2nd, 2024 (There’s a review on this site with extra photos).  The list price is $65.  Here’s the new cover:

A Beach Boys documentary will also be released.  It’s on Disney+ starting May 24th, 2024.

Genesis gave us some good examples of what the book contains, and it’s the same as the bookstore version.  You can click to enlarge.

The text includes comments from over 60-years by all of The Beach Boys.  They tell their story along with the historic photos.  Here are some samples of photos of the group.

The Beach Boys are the most iconic American band of the 1960s, with most of their classic recordings made from 1962 through about 1973.  While we wait for that “bookstore version”, wouldn’t it be nice to listen to The Beach Boys, and have some fun fun fun as we’re picking up those good vibrations.

Since the Eagles stopped recording studio albums in 2007, and are on their final tour, it’s time to consider their artistic contributions to America and the world.

The Eagles’ music has been so popular over the years, that it’s sometimes taken for granted instead of appreciated the way it should be.  Here’s a layout of the Eagles’ studio albums released in the 1970s.  As a reminder of which albums produced which hits, the top songs from each album are noted.  (Click to enlarge.)

Seeing these Eagles songs in a single playlist shows why their Greatest Hits album is the best-selling album of all time.  The #1 hits, Top-10 hits, and Grammy winners are noted.

1. Take It Easy
2. Peaceful Easy Feeling
3. Witchy Woman (#9)
4. Desperado
5. Tequila Sunrise
6. (Whatever Happened To) Saturday Night
7. Already Gone
8. Best Of My Love (#1)
9. On The Border
10. Lyin’ Eyes (#2 Grammy-Best Pop Performance)
11. One Of These Nights (#1)
12. Take It To The Limit (#4)
13. Hotel California (#1 Grammy-Record of the Year)
14. New Kid In Town (#1 Grammy-Best Vocal Arrangement)
15. Life In The Fast Lane
16. Heartache Tonight (#1 Grammy-Best Rock Performance)
17. The Long Run (#8)
18. I Can’t Tell You Why (#8)

We’ve been listening to these songs since the 70s.  They still hold up today, because of the quality of the songwriting, performing, and recording.

(Bernie Leadon, Randy Meisner, Don Henley, & Glenn Frey)

The original four Eagles were responsible for the first two albums, and country-rock songs 1-through-6 above.  All four members were talented vocalists who could sing lead & harmony.  Intricate harmonies were a big part of the group’s identity.   The Eagles wanted to move to more of a rock sound, and they added Don Felder on lead guitar prior to their 1974 album On The Border.  Leaning more to rock was the right move, because it gave the band more airplay on Rock and Top-40 radio stations.

Bernie Leadon, who played guitar, banjo, and mandolin, left the band in 1975, because he wanted to stick with a more country sound.  It’s important to note that the band still incorporated country elements in their songs, received some airplay on country stations, and influenced a lot of country artists.  Leadon was replaced by Joe Walsh, a successful solo artist and impressive guitarist.  Walsh became an important part of the 1976 album Hotel California.

Hotel California is recognized as one of the best albums of all time, both from an artistic standpoint, and as a sales juggernaut.  In fact, it’s the  third-best-selling album in history.

To appreciate how special the Eagles were, try to name the second-best country-rock band.  There really is no one close.  Even though country-rock is an accepted genre of music, similar bands only had scattered hits and limited success in that form of music.  However, because of the Eagles, country artists added more rock-style guitar into their songs.

By 1980, the pressures of stardom, the striving to maintain their success, and egos within the band caused a breakup that lasted 14 years.  It’s not that the Eagles retired, instead they provided more good music with solo careers.  Those recordings are seldom looked at together, but here’s a list of songs members created outside the Eagles.

1. The Boys Of Summer…Don Henley
2. All Those Lies…Glenn Frey
3. Funk #49…Joe Walsh (with James Gang, pre-Eagles)
4. Dirty Laundry…Don Henley
5. The One You Love…Glenn Frey
6. Rocky Mountain Way…Joe Walsh (pre-Eagles)
7. Hearts On Fire…Randy Meisner
8. The End Of The Innocence…Don Henley
9. You Belong To The City…Glenn Frey
10. All Night Long…Joe Walsh
11. Sunset Grill…Don Henley
12. Smuggler’s Blues…Glenn Frey
13. Help Me Through The Night…Joe Walsh (with Eagles backing)
14. The Last Worthless Evening…Don Henley
15. Life’s Been Good…Joe Walsh
16. Heart Of The Matter…Don Henley

These recordings would make another “Greatest Hits” album, and are part of the Eagles’ legacy.  Many of these songs have been featured during Eagles concerts.

Don Henley had two albums, Building The Perfect Beast & The End Of The Innocence, that had sales similar to Eagles albums…3-times platinum and 6-times platinum.

(Joe Walsh, Timothy B. Schmit, Don Henley, Glenn Frey, & Don Felder)

When the Eagles reformed in 1994 (pictured above), they released the live album Hell Freezes Over.  It also contained four studio recordings, including “Get Over It” and “Love Will Keep Us Alive”.  America was happy to have the Eagles back, and the album went 9-times platinum.

It wasn’t until 2007 when we finally got another studio album.

Long Road Out Of Eden was a double album, and a huge success, even though it came 28-years after their previous studio album.  It was the Eagles’ sixth consecutive #1 album, went 7-times platinum, and was the biggest-selling album of 2007.  Featured tracks included “No More Walks In The Woods”, “How Long” (a Grammy winner), “Busy Being Fabulous”, “No More Cloudy Days”, “What Do I Do With My Heart”, and the instrumental “I Dreamed There Was No War” (a Grammy winner).  If the titles are not as familiar as their 1970’s hits, that’s because of the shift in radio formats, with far fewer stations featuring rock music.

Now, the Eagles are leaving us with one final tour that will probably have a long run…from September of 2023 and into 2025.

It ‘s a great line-up with three Eagles from the 70s, Don Henley, Joe Walsh, and Timothy B. Schmit, plus Vince Gill and Deacon Frey, who’s helping fill in for his father, Glenn, who died in 2016 of medical complications.

Here’s a final summary of the output of America’s most popular band.  It’s the Eagles’ nine studio albums (including their two greatest hits albums) placed in chronological order, and at the bottom are their three live albums.

What a great career…still going after more than half-a-century!

Update (July 27th, 2023)  Original Eagles bassist and high harmony singer Randy Meisner passed away at the age of 77 on July 26th, 2023 of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.  Meisner recorded with Poco and Rick Nelson’s Stone Canyon Band before helping found the Eagles.  He was on all of their studio albums through Hotel California.  The biggest hit Randy Meisner had as a songwriter and lead singer for the band was “Take It To The Limit”.

Extra:  I admit that when it comes to my favorite artists, I too often rebuy their recordings in various forms.

I bought the 4-CD box set on the left when it came out in 2000.  It had most of their recordings, but grouped their ballads and rockers separately.  It also had their “Millennium Concert”.  The small box set on the right was a 2013 CD collection of their six 1970s studio albums.  Each CD is in a cardboard sleeve that matches the original album cover.  Those six CD covers are next to each other in the first photo of this article (the one with the songs superimposed).  

Fifty-one years ago the Eagles started one of the longest runs of Rock & Roll popularity with “Take It Easy”.  Their recordings are among the most successful in history.  They have the best-selling album of all time Eagles Greatest Hits, and the third biggest, Hotel California.  Tours by the Eagles have always been popular, and today they announced they’ll be performing their final tour, The Long Goodbye.  It’s starting September 7th at Madison Square Garden in New York, and likely ending sometime in 2025.  Dates and locations are still being determined, but here are the stops so far.

(Dates are being added as the tour progresses.)

You can see the concerts include another popular Classic Rock act, Steely Dan.  Early demand has caused dates to be added to this tour of U.S. arenas.

The lineup is the main group that has toured after Glenn Frey’s death in 2016.  Three of the members have been together since the 1970s…original Eagle Don Henley, plus Joe Walsh, and Timothy B. Schmit.  Rounding out the band are Glenn Frey’s son Deacon, and Country artist Vince Gill.   Before he became a solo act, Gill sang with an Eagles-style Country Rock band, Pure Prairie League.  You might remember his lead vocal on “Let Me Love You Tonight”.  Gill and Deacon Frey do a great job of carrying on the quality fans know they’ll hear at an Eagles concert.

(Joe Walsh, Vince Gill, Deacon Frey, Don Henley, & Timothy B, Schmit)

In a statement released by the band, they said they will play “as many shows in each market as the audience demands, even if it requires returning to certain cities.”  The Eagles thanked fans for all the years of support, and said “This is our swan song, but the music goes on and on”.

As various media outlets reported on this story, some mentioned that the Eagles did a tour named Farewell 1 Tour in 2003.  What they failed to note is that the title was just a joke, because bands like Kiss, The Who, and many more had been doing multiple “last” tours.

When I heard the announcement of the final tour, I happened to have just watched a video of a 1973 Eagles BBC concert.  What struck me about it was how well the four original members started the show with four acoustic guitars and four voices in perfect harmony.  Unlike some groups that have trouble replicating intricate harmonies in concert, the Eagles have always excelled at it.  They’re sometimes unfairly criticized for being “too perfect” in concert, or that they only play their songs exactly as they were recorded.  That’s simply not true, the band has changed up arrangements many times, it’s just that they respect their fans by making sure their shows are really good.

When we saw the Eagles in 1995 during the Hell Freezes Over tour, they were amazing, but they were also having fun, not some robotic version of perfection.

The final studio album by the Eagles was the #1 multi-million selling Long Road Out Of Eden in 2007.  Now, the final tour of the Eagles is a sad reminder of the winding down of many of our best Classic Rock artists.  We just have to remember how lucky we’ve been to have had them in our lives.  Despite the line in “Hotel California”, the Eagles “can check out anytime” they like…and can leave.