Hotel California (album)

Untitled

This article is about the album. For its title track, see Hotel California (song).

Hotel California is an album released by American rock band Eagles in late 1976 (see 1976 in music). It is the first Eagles album without founding member Bernie Leadon, and the first album with Joe Walsh. It is also the last album featuring original bass player and singer Randy Meisner.

History

Hotel California was the Eagles' fifth album of original material and became a major commercial hit; since its release in late 1976, it has sold over 16 million copies in the U.S. alone, and is considered their best-selling album of original material. The album was at #1 for eight weeks between late 1976 and early 1977 (non-consecutively), and included two tracks which became #1 hits as singles on the Billboard Hot 100: "New Kid in Town", on February 26, 1977, and "Hotel California" on May 7, 1977.

Hotel California is one of the top 15 best-selling albums of all time in any category which makes the Eagles as the only band to have 2 albums in that list - Eagles Greatest Hits Vol 1 (1971-'95) which is ranked 1, ahead of Thriller (rank 2), and Hotel California (rank 13). This also makes them one of the top 5 best-selling bands of all time, the list including two other rock bands - The Beatles and Led Zeppelin. These statistics concern only the United States, as the popularity of the Eagles overseas has never been impressive.

In 2001 the TV network VH1 named Hotel California the 15th greatest album of all time. Hotel California was ranked 13th in a 2005 survey held by British television's Channel 4 to determine the 100 greatest albums of all time. Template:RS500

Themes

Hotel California touched on many themes, including innocence (and the loss thereof), addiction to drugs, death, the dangers, temptations, and transient nature of fame, shallow relationships, divorce and loss of love, the end results of manifest destiny, and the "American Dream".

Members of Eagles have described the album as a metaphor for the perceived decline of America into materialism and decadence. In an interview with Dutch magazine ZigZag shortly before the album's release, Don Henley said:

This is a concept album, there's no way to hide it, but it's not set in the old West, the cowboy thing, you know. It's more urban this time (. . . ) It's our bicentennial year, you know, the country is 200 years old, so we figured since we are the Eagles and the Eagle is our national symbol, that we were obliged to make some kind of a little bicentennial statement using California as a microcosm of the whole United States, or the whole world, if you will, and to try to wake people up and say 'We've been okay so far, for 200 years, but we're gonna have to change if we're gonna continue to be around.'

The album's final track, the epic "The Last Resort", was about the demise of society. Glenn Frey on the Hotel California episode of In the Studio with Redbeard explained about the track:

It was the first time that Don took it upon himself to write an epic story and we were already starting to worry about the environment...we're constantly screwing up paradise and that was the point of the song and that at somepoint there is going to be no more new frontiers. I mean we're putting junk, er, garbage into space now.

Album cover

The cover image is of the Beverly Hills Hotel. However, claims have been made by various hotels around the world to be the actual inspiration for the song, most notably the Hotel California in Todos Santos, Baja California Sur, Mexico. However Don Henley has explicitly denied this claim.

A number of rumors arose as to the meaning of the album cover. The hotel of the title was linked to either a mental hospital, or the headquarters of Anton LaVey's Church of Satan. A shadowy figure on a balcony in an inner cover photograph was identified as LaVey or Satan (it was actually a woman), another figure in the same photograph was supposedly a propped up corpse, and the "Beast" mentioned in the lyrics of the title song was identified with Satan or Aleister Crowley. None of these views has ever been substantiated.

Track listing

1. "Hotel California" (Felder, Henley, Frey) – 6:30
   • Lead vocal & percussion by Don Henley, Guitar solos by Joe Walsh & Don Felder.
2. "New Kid in Town" (J.D. Souther, Henley, Frey) – 5:04
   • Lead vocal & acoustic guitar by Glenn Frey, guitarron & acoustic guitar by Randy Meisner, electric guitars by Don Felder, organ & electric piano by Joe Walsh.
3. "Life in the Fast Lane" (Walsh, Henley, Frey) – 4:46
   • Lead vocal by Don Henley, lead guitar by Joe Walsh, clavinet by Glenn Frey.
4. "Wasted Time" (Henley, Frey) – 4:55
   • Lead vocal by Don Henley, piano by Glenn Frey, electric guitars by Don Felder, Organ by Joe Walsh.
5. "Wasted Time (Reprise)" (instrumental) (Henley, Frey, Jim Ed Norman) – 1:22
   • Strings arranged & conducted by Jim Ed Norman.
6. "Victim of Love" (Felder, Souther, Henley, Frey) – 4:11
   • Lead vocal by Don Henley, lead guitar by Don Felder, slide guitar by Joe Walsh.
7. "Pretty Maids All in a Row" (Walsh, Joe Vitale) – 4:05
   • Lead vocal, piano & lead guitar by Joe Walsh, synthesizer by Joe Walsh & Glenn Frey.
8. "Try and Love Again" (Meisner) – 5:10
   • Lead vocal by Randy Meisner, Lead guitar by Glenn Frey, Gretsch guitar by Joe Walsh.
9. "The Last Resort" (Henley, Frey) – 7:25
   • Lead vocal by Don Henley, piano by Glenn Frey, synthesizer by Joe Walsh & Don Henley, Pedal Steel guitar by Don Felder.

Album pressing

The vinyl record pressings had custom picture labels of a blue Hotel California logo with a yellow background. They also had text engraved in the carry-out groove on each side:

1. "Is It 6 OClock Yet?"
2. "V.O.L. Is Five-Piece Live" This is stating that the song "Victim of Love" was recorded in five parts live, with no overdubbing. Don Henley confirms this on the inner booklet of "The Very Best of The Eagles".

Personnel

• Don Felder: Acoustic guitar, Slide & Electric Guitars, pedal steel, steel guitar, vocals.
• Glenn Frey: Guitars, synthesizer, piano, keyboards, clavinet, vocals.
• Don Henley: Drums, percussion, synthesizer, vocals.
• Randy Meisner: Bass guitar, acoustic guitar, guitarron, vocals.
• Joe Walsh: Electric, Slide & Acoustic Guitars, Lap steel guitar, keyboards, piano, organ, synthesizer, vocals.

Additional personnel

• Jim Ed Norman - conductor
• Sid Sharp - concert master

Production

• Producer: Bill Szymczyk
• Engineers: Allan Blazek, Bruce Hensal, Ed Marshall, Bill Szymczyk
• Mixing: Bill Szymczyk
• String arrangements: Jim Ed Norman
• Art direction: Don Henley, John Kosh
• Design: John Kosh
• Photography: David Alexander
• Artwork: Kosh
• Poster design: Norman Seeff
• CD preparation: Kevin Gray
• Mastering and Remastering: Ted Jensen

Singles

• "New Kid in Town"/"Victim Of Love" - Asylum 45373; released December 7, 1976
• "Hotel California"/"Pretty Maids All In A Row" - Asylum 45286; released February 22, 1977
• "Life in the Fast Lane"/"The Last Resort" - Asylum 45403; released May 3, 1977

Charts

Album - Billboard (North America)

Year	Chart	Position
1977	Country Albums	10
1977	Pop Albums	1

Singles - Billboard (North America)

Year	Single	Chart	Position
1977	"New Kid in Town"	Adult Contemporary	2
1977	"New Kid In Town"	Country Singles	43
1977	"New Kid In Town"	Pop Singles	1
1977	"Hotel California"	Pop Singles	1
1977	"Life In The Fast Lane"	Pop Singles	11

Awards

Grammy Awards

Year	Winner	Category
1977	"Hotel California"	Record Of The Year
1977	"New Kid in Town"	Best Arrangement For Voices

Grammy Award nominations

Year	Nominee	Category
1977	"Hotel California"	Song of the Year
1977	Hotel California	Album of the Year
1977	Bill Szymczyk	Producer of the Year