Eagles – ‘One Of These Nights’

• Writers: Don Henley and Glenn Frey
• Producer: The Eagles and Bill Szymczyk
• Recorded: Late 1974 and early 1975 at Criteria Studios, Miami, and The Record Plant, Los Angeles
• Released: June 14th, 1975 (single); June 28th, 1975 (album)
• Players:
  Don Henley — vocals, drums
  Glenn Frey — guitar, lead vocals
  Bernie Leadon — guitar, vocals
  Don Felder — guitar
  Randy Meisner — bass, lead vocals
• Album: One Of These Nights (Elektra/Asylum, 1975)
• Also On:
  Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975 (Elektra/Asylum, 1976)
  Selected Works 1972-1999 (Elektra, 2000)
  The Very Best Of The Eagles (WSM, 2003)
• The Eagles album One Of These Nights took three months to produce, which was unusual for them at the time. As production stretched into the winter of 1975, the joke among the Eagles became “one of these nights we might actually finish this thing.”
• This was the group’s chart-topper, after “Best Of My Love.” It was also the first Eagles single to chart in the U.K., peaking at Number 23.
• The album hit Number One on the Billboard 200 chart, and has sold more than five million copies.
• There was tension at the sessions when guitarist Bernie Leadon insisted his girlfriend Patti Davis — the daughter of then-California Governor Ronald Reagan — be allowed to sit with him in the studio, which angered the band and contributed to a growing alienation between Leadon and chief songwriters Don Henley and Glenn Frey.
• The One Of These Nights album was the fastest-selling Eagles release up to that point, and was responsible for a huge sales jump for the group’s other three titles.
• The album and subsequent tour were so successful that Time magazine called the group “the top U.S. rock band” in August 1975.
• The Time article also featured characterizations of each of the individual Eagles: Frey was “a nocturnal playboy,” Henley an intellectual who “reads Rimbaud,” bassist Randy Meisner a happily married family man, and guitarists Don Felder and Leadon “almost recluses.”
• The success of One Of These Nights also got the band onto the cover of Rolling Stone magazine.
• “Lyin’ Eyes,” another single from One Of These Nights, brought the Eagles a Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Group.

FAST FORWARD:

• Leadon left the Eagles in 1975, and Meisner left in 1978, at the conclusion of the Hotel California tour.
• The Eagles called it quits when Frey left the group in late 1980.
• All of the members went on to solo careers, with Henley’s being the most successful. The band reunited in 1994 for the Hell Freezes Over album and tour.
• The Eagles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998.
• Henley and Frey fired Felder from the band in 2001. He then sued over what he claims was his wrongful termination from the group and its associated businesses.
• Henley and Frey are among the leaders in the ongoing battle between artists and record companies to reform accounting processes.

The Eagles have continued to work steadily in recent years, and in 2007 released Long Road Out Of Eden, the group’s first set of all-new material since The Long Run.