Hell Freezes Over, to date the last album release from the Eagles, was an amazing 1994 production. I say amazing because this album came 14 years after the group disbanded, and not only contains some of the timeless songs from their successful career but some new material they temporarily re-grouped to produce, and some tracks from the solo careers of the band members.
1972 saw 5 young men from the west coast of the USA join forces to create the Eagles. The popularity of this Californian group soon grew with the release of tracks such as ’Desperado’ and ’Tequilla Sunrise’. Don Henley and Glenn Frey took the majority of lead vocals but all members sang and played guitar.
It was the 1976 release of the album ’Hotel California’ which made the Eagles as well known as they are today. Previously classed as a country group, this album moved them to Rock/Pop status and reached a wider audience. The talented drumming of Don Henley featured more on the tracks than ever before. Country met electric guitar on the classic ’Life In The Fast Lane’ and drum beat, organ and piano blended together for my personal favourite ’Wasted Time’, a ballad type composition.
The album featured just 9 tracks, one of which was an instrumental, but the short playlist was of extremely high quality.
The 1994 album, Hell Freezes Over, features the above mentioned songs amongst others (15 tracks in total), and was so popular that it lead to the 5 band members, Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Joe Walsh, Timothy B. Schmit and Don Felder, joining forces once more for a world tour in 1996. I was lucky enough to get tickets for one of the 3 sellout performances at Wembley Stadium and although the faces were aged somewhat, the vocal talent was still very much alive.
Do not be put off by the late addition of this album to the legacy of the Eagles. It was a brave move to release anything other than a ’best of’ after a 14 year period of absence but if you enjoyed their music back in the 70’s you will not be disapointed in this.