Hotel California is an album released by the American rock band the Eagles in late 1976.
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.
Hotel California was the Eagles' fifth album of original material and became a critical
success and a major commercial hit; since its release in late 1976, it has sold over 16
million copies in the U.S. alone. The album was at #1 for eight weeks in 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.
In 2001 the TV network VH1 named Hotel California #38 on 100 Greatest Albums 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. In 2003, the album was ranked number 37
on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.[2]
Following its original release on standard LP, cassette and 8-track cartridge formats,
the album was slated for Quadraphonic release in early 1977; this idea was ultimately
dropped following the demise of the Quadraphonic format. However, 25 years later, the
album was released in a Multichannel 5.1 DVD-Audio disc.
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 some point there is going to be
no more new frontiers. I mean we're putting junk, er, garbage into space now.
Track listing
Side one
1. "Hotel California" (Felder, Henley, Frey) – 6:30
2. "New Kid in Town" (J.D. Souther, Henley, Frey) – 5:03
3. "Life in the Fast Lane" (Walsh, Henley, Frey) – 4:46
4. "Wasted Time" (Henley, Frey) – 4:55
Side two
1. "Wasted Time (Reprise)" (instrumental) (Henley, Frey, Jim Ed Norman) – 1:22
2. "Victim of Love" (Felder, Souther, Henley, Frey) – 4:11
3. "Pretty Maids All in a Row" (Walsh, Joe Vitale) – 3:58
4. "Try and Love Again" (Meisner) – 5:10
5. "The Last Resort" (Henley, Frey) – 7:28
Format : MPEG Audio
File size : 15.0 MiB
Duration : 6mn 32s
Overall bit rate : 320 Kbps
Album : Hotel California
Track name : Hotel California
Track name/Position : 1
Performer : The Eagles
Accompaniment : Eagles
Composer : Don Felder/Don Henley/Glenn Frey
Publisher : Elektra / Wea
Genre : Rock
Recorded date : 1990
Writing library : LAME3.92
Cover : Yes
Cover type : Cover (front)
Cover MIME : image/jpeg
Audio
Format : MPEG Audio
Format version : Version 1
Format profile : Layer 3
Mode : Joint stereo
Duration : 6mn 32s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 320 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 44.1 KHz
Stream size : 15.0 MiB (100%)
Writing library : LAME3.92
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