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Eagles · S4 E5
Best of My Love
Their first number one single. A soft ballad on a rock album, proving Eagles can do both at once
Record Plant, Los Angeles, late 1974. Don Henley leans into the microphone and sings "every morning I wake up and worry" so quietly that Bill Szymczyk has to push the fader up just to hear him.
Eagles, Best of My Love (1975). Their first number one single. Henley's vocal is quiet, almost resigned, singing about heartbreak the way you tell a story you have told too many times.
The Third Writer
Henley and Frey have the verse and the chorus, but the bridge will not come together. They call J.D. Souther, their closest friend outside the band and the sharpest songwriter in their orbit. Souther listens to the demo once, sits down, and writes the bridge that carries the song from album track to number one.
TAP TO REVEAL: Why is J.D. Souther called the "hidden Eagle"?
Who co-wrote "Best of My Love" with Henley and Frey?
Best of My Love: The Facts
The Beautiful Irony
Eagles fired their producer for being too soft, added a fifth guitarist, and recorded "Already Gone" as a rock manifesto. Then the quietest song on the album goes to number one. The audience never cared about the identity crisis. They just wanted a great song.
My Man, Eagles (On the Border, 1974)
A Bernie Leadon track buried in the middle of the album that most fans skip right past. While Henley and Frey were chasing number ones, Leadon was quietly slipping songs like this onto the record: gentle, personal, and completely at odds with the band's new direction. Listen to it as a farewell. Within a year, Leadon would pour a beer over Glenn Frey's head and walk out the door for good.
On the Border goes platinum and the first number one is in the bank. But Henley and Frey are already restless, writing about dead icons and outgrowing everyone around them.
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