The most popular Eagles songs will be no surprise to fans both committed and casual. They’re the ones that classic-rock radio has played like clockwork for decades now. They’re the platinum-sellers, the concert staples, the stone-cold classics.
The ageless story-song “Hotel California” tops them all, as expected, with almost two billion streams on Spotify alone. “Take It Easy” is rounding the corner on the same platform with one billion listens. “One of These Nights” and “Life in the Fast Lane” both have nearly 400 million Spotify streams.
But every album has that one song listeners tend to skip – and Eagles LPs are no exception. They can’t all be enjoyed billions (and billions) of times.
READ MORE: Ranking Every Eagles Album
Sometimes, the tracks fans listen to the least makes some sense. They may be an instrumental, a segue or reprise. Those kind of songs are well-positioned within the flow of the LP but might not contain a thought that’s complete enough to stand on their own.
In other cases, however, true gems get lost in the rush to listen to “Hotel California” one more time. As shown by the following list of most skipped songs on every Eagles album, that’s certainly the case with this short but legendary seven-entry catalog.
Listeners have been surprisingly even-handed with what they prefer to skip, too. Five different members of the group are showcased here – including Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Bernie Leadon, Don Felder and Randy Meisner. (The other most-skipped songs are instrumentals.)
Here’s a look at what Eagles fans are listening to on Spotify. All streaming totals as of Sept. 3.
‘Eagles‘ (1972)
Most Popular Track: “Take It Easy” – 820,121,235 streams
Most Skipped Track: “Earlybird” – 2,497,764 streams
Bernie Leadon boasts seriously fleet fingers on the banjo, but there’s only so much he can do to distract from everything else on “Earlybird.” The initial tweeting sound effect is both too on-the-nose and quite annoying. It doesn’t get any better, with a lyric that’s as predictable as it is facile. Then the tweeting returns. It’s all very, very skippable.
‘Desperado‘ (1973)
Most Popular Track: “Desperado” – 224,219,992 streams
Most Skipped Track: “Doolin-Dalton (instrumental)” – 2,065,993 streams
“Doolin-Dalton” was a great scene-setter. Maybe too great. They ended up going overboard with the iffy Old West subject, while returning to the original song’s musical theme an utterly unneeded number of times. The instrumental version of “Doolin-Dalton” is just behind “Out of Control” (with 2,864,982 streams) but, oddly, has less than half the numbers of a reprise of “Doolin-Dalton” (4,416,543) that closes out the album.
‘On the Border‘ (1974)
Most Popular Track: “Already Gone” – 83,956,786 streams
Most Skipped Track: “Is It True?” – 1,631,040 streams
Eagles fans are simply wrong about this one. Randy Meisner’s later growth as a songwriter is one of the group’s intriguing secondary storylines. “Is It True?” was the first hint that he could more fully emerge from behind the long shadows of Glenn Frey and Don Henley, as Meisner offered a lovelorn, nearly complete ballad. He left in an unfortunate line about chainsaws during the middle eight, but Frey saves things with a sharply drawn turn on lead guitar.
‘One of These Nights‘ (1975)
Most Popular Track: “One of These Nights” – 370,405,315 streams
Most Skipped Track: “Visions” – 2,967,197 streams
A trend with title tracks begins to emerge. Meanwhile, fans are staying away in droves from guitarist Don Felder’s lone vocal turn while in the Eagles lineup. He’ll never be confused with this band’s better-known singers, but thankfully Felder’s scorching runs on his main instrument on this riffy, Southern rock-informed track provide plenty of rough-hewn distractions.
‘Hotel California‘ (1976)
Most Popular Track: “Hotel California” – 1,975,412,809 streams
Most Skipped Track: “Wasted Time (reprise)” – 9,429,179 streams
Another album with a title track produces another streaming juggernaut. Elsewhere, Hotel California is such a blockbuster that its most-skipped song is still surging toward 10 million listens. “Wasted Time” was girded by Glenn Frey’s long-held passion for R&B music – in this case, ’70s-era Philly soul. They played up the original song’s distinctly un-country rock-like strings for this reprise.
‘The Long Run‘ (1979)
Most Popular Track: “I Can’t Tell You Why” – 134,469,646 streams
Most Skipped Track: “Teenage Jail” – 2,128,962 streams
Meisner replacement Timothy B. Schmit’s first Eagles showcase breaks the streak of title-song champions, easily besting “The Long Run” with its (still very respectable) 58 million listens. Then there’s “Teenage Jail.” Irritating musically, unfocused lyrically and featuring a squiggly synthesizer solo(!) by Frey, this somehow ended up as the B-side to his galloping chart-topper “Heartache Tonight.” That’s the definition of Eagles yin and Eagles yang.
‘Long Road Out of Eden‘ (2007)
Most Popular Track: “How Long” – 24,763,195 streams
Most Skipped Track: “Business as Usual” – 1,944,680 streams
This is a tight race to the bottom, with “Business as Usual” at 1,944,680 streams and “Center of the Universe” (the very next song on the too-long Long Road Out of Eden) at 1,945,924. Henley finds the right balance of anger and introspection on “Business as Usual” while flaxen Eagles harmonies elevate his sense of country-road contentment on the quietly effective “Center of the Universe.” Unfortunately, this deep into a double-album slog, many fans are apparently just wandering off.
Listen to Don Felder on the ‘UCR Podcast’
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Gallery Credit: Nick DeRiso
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