Eagles is the debut studio album by the rock band the Eagles. 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 No. 22 on the charts and going platinum. Three singles were released from the album, each reaching the Top 40: "Take it Easy" (No. 12), "Witchy Woman" (No. 9), and "Peaceful Easy Feeling" (No. 22). The album played a major role in popularizing the southern California country rock sound.[citation needed] In 2012, the album was ranked number 368 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.[1] The single "Take It Easy" is part of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame "500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll".[2] This album was slated for Quadraphonic release and even given a Quadraphonic catalog number but it was never released in that format.
Background
In 1971, the band had just been formed and signed by David Geffen, who then sent them to Aspen, Colorado to develop as a a band. For their first album, Glyn Johns was chosen as the producer by Glenn Frey as he had produced a number of rock albums they liked by British bands such as The Rolling Stones, The Who and Led Zeppelin. Johns was invited by David Geffen to see the band perform at a club called Tulagi in Boulder, Colorado.[3] Johns however was not impressed by the band's live performance, thought that the band was confused with Frey wanting to be a rock & roll band while Bernie Leadon wanting to be country, and refused to produce the album. On a second listening in Los Angeles in a rehearsal setting, Glyn did not changed his opinion until the band started singing harmonies with acoustic guitar, and was impressed by their harmony singing, and later said: "There it was, the sound. Extraordinary blend of voices, wonderful harmony sound, just stunning."[4] Glyn has been credited with shaping the band into "the country-rock band with those high-flyin' harmonies", and Frey later said: "He was the key to our success in a lot of ways".[5] The album was recorded at the Olympic Studios in London.
Album cover artist Gary Burden with photography by Henry Diltz were responsible for the album artwork. 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.[6] The album was initially designed as a gatefold album that would further open up into a poster, however Geffen thought it would be confusing, and glued it together so that it would not open, and the gatefold image of the band members at Joshua Tree then became orientated the wrong side up.[7]
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."[9] Bud Scoppa of Rolling Stone on the other hand, reviewing in 1972, felt that they had "distinguished" country-rock backgrounds, and wrote: "The Eagles is right behind Jackson Browne'srecord as the best first album this year. And I could be persuaded to remove the word "first" from that statement."[11]
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.[12]Rolling Stone listed it as number 368 on their "500 Greatest Albums" with the comment that the album "created a new template for laid-back L.A. country-rock style".[1] It was included in Robert Dimery's 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.[13]
