Eagles is the debut album by the rock band of the same name, released in 1972. The album was recorded at London's Olympic Studios with producer Glyn Johns. The album was an immediate success for the young band reaching #22 on the charts and going platinum. The album also released three Top 40 singles with "Take it Easy", "Witchy Woman" and "Peaceful Easy Feeling". The three singles reached #12, #9 and #22 respectively. The album played a major role in popularizing the southern California country rock sound. In 2003, the album was ranked number 374 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.[citation needed] The single "Take It Easy" is part of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame "500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll".[citation needed] This album was slated for Quadraphonic release and even given a Quadraphonic catalog number but it was never released in that format. In the documentary History of the Eagles, Glenn Frey revealed that the band were all on peyote when the pictures for the album cover were shot in Joshua Tree National Park.[2][3]
Robert Christgau felt that the band wrote good songs, but he was unsure about the authenticity of their country roots so what they produced was "suave and synthetic--brilliant, but false."[5] Bud Scoppa of Rolling Stone on the other hand felt that they had "distinguished" country-rock backgrounds, and that after Jackson Browne's debut album, it was the best debut of 1972.[6]
Legacy
Allmusic's William Ruhlmann, in his retrospective review, sums up the album as balanced in terms of songwriting, however noting that the three hit singles were sung by Frey and Henley who would later go on to dominate the band.[7]Rolling Stone listed it as number 374 on their "500 Greatest Albums" with the comment that the album "created a new template for laid-back L.A. country-rock style".[8] It was included in Robert Dimery's 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.[9]
