Eagles are an American rock band that was formed in Los Angeles, California in 1971. Currently consisting of vocalist/drummer Don Henley, vocalist/guitarist Glenn Frey, guitarist/vocalist Joe Walsh and bassist/vocalist Timothy B. Schmit, the band had five Number 1 singles and six Number 1 albums. the Eagles were one of the most successful recording artists of the 1970s. The Eagles’ album, Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975 was named as the best-selling album of the 20th Century with 26 million sold, and, along with the album Hotel California, was ranked among the ten all time best-selling albums by the Recording Industry Association of America. The band’s recording and touring schedule gradually slowed until they broke up in the fall of 1980 for what became a fourteen year hiatus.
Each of the members has pursued a solo career, with Don Henley’s the most successful commercially and critically. In the ’90s, after what they considered a “14 year break”, the band’s sound was frequently cited as an influence by young country stars, many of whom contributed tracks to the album Common Thread: The Songs of The Eagles (#3, 1993), which won Album of the Year at the 1994 Country Music Associations’s CMA Awards. That same year, the Eagles revival culminated in the band’s reunion tour and album.
The group originally coalesced from L.A.’s country-rock community. Before producer John Boylan assembled them as Linda Ronstadt’s backup band on her album Silk Purse (1970), the four original Eagles were already experienced professionals. Bernie Leadon had played in the Dillard And Clark Expedition and the Flying Burrito Brothers; Randy Meisner, with Poco and Rick Nelson’s Stone Canyon Band. Glenn Frey had played with various Detroit rock bands (including Bob Seger’s) and Longbranch Pennywhistle (with J.D. Souther, a sometime songwriting partner), and Henley had been with a transplanted Texas group, Shiloh. After working with Ronstadt, Henley and Frey decided to form the Eagles, recruiting Leadon and Meisner.
