The Story Of The Song: “Best of My Love” By The Eagles

The Story Of The Song: “Best of My Love” By The Eagles | Society Of Rock Videos

via Eagles - Topic/YouTube

A Surprise Hit

“Best of My Love” originally appeared on The Eagles third studio album “On The Border”. Released as the LP’s third single, it became their first #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100.

Written by Don Henley, Glenn Frey, and J. D. Souther, the band wanted to move towards a more hard rock sound instead of the country rock tunes of their first two records. They hired guitarist Don Felder whose talents added more edge and depth to their music. While they scrapped most of their songs with producer Glyn Johns whom they eventually parted with, one of those they retained is “Best of My Love”.

It had their old country flavor but even though it sounded like a simple track, The Eagles actually struggled while working on it.

Glenn Frey told Cameron Crowe, “I was playing acoustic guitar one afternoon in Laurel Canyon, and I was trying to figure out a tuning that Joni Mitchell had shown me a couple of days earlier. I got lost and ended up with the guitar tuning for what would later turn out to be ‘The Best of My Love.'”

Frey and Henley then got stuck and didn’t know where to go from there. They reached out to Souther who admitted he doesn’t remember where they found the inspiration, just that they were trying to meet a deadline. At the time, Souther was in Los Angeles while The Eagles were in London. Henley pleaded with Souther to get on a plane and help them.

The next day, Souther was on his way to the Olympic Studios in London. He wrote the bridge and completed the song. They wrote most of the lyrics in a booth at Dan Tana’s restaurant where both Frey and Henley were regulars and the band even thanked the maître d’ in the liner notes.

Frey wasn’t the only one hesitant to release “Best of My Love” as a single but as a radio DJ kept on playing it, it gained momentum and received positive response from the listeners. It became an unexpected hit for them.

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