Track Listing

1. Early Days
2. Take It Easy
3. Hollywood Waltz
4. Already Gone
5. Doolin' Dalton
6. Midnight Flyer
7. Tequila Sunrise
8. Witchy Woman
9. Train Leaves Here This Morning
10. Outlaw Man
11. Peaceful Easy Feeling
12. James Dean
13. Saturday Night
14. Ballads
15. Wasted Time
16. Wasted Time
17. I Can't Tell You Why
18. Lyin' Eyes
19. Pretty Maids All In A Row
20. Desperado
21. Try And Love Again
22. Best Of My Love
23. New Kid In Town
24. Love Will Keep Us Alive
25. Sad Cafe
26. Take It To The Limit
27. After The Thrill Is Gone
28. Fast Lane
29. One Of These Nights
30. One Of These Nights
31. Disco Stranger
32. Heartache Tonight
33. Hotel California
34. Born To Boogie
35. In The City
36. Get Over It
37. King Of Hollywood
38. Too Many Hands
39. Life In The Fast Lane
40. Long Run
41. Long Run Leftovers
42. Last Resort
43. Random Victims
44. Hotel California (2)
45. Victim Of Love
46. Peaceful Easy Feeling (2)
47. Please Come Home For Christmas
48. Ol' 55
49. Take It To The Limit
50. Those Shoes
51. Funky New Year
52. Dirty Laundry
53. Funk 49
54. All She Wants To Do Is Dance
55. Best Of My Love

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #104334 in Music
• Released on: 2000-11-20
• Number of discs: 4
• Format: Box set
• Dimensions: 1.62 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review
It's tough to forecast which bands are built for the long run. The Eagles emerged as part of a genre (country rock) that proved to be a passing fancy. And with two talented frontmen sharing the spotlight, how could artistic differences be fended off for long? But, of course, Don Henley, Glenn Fry and the boys had a juggernaut on their hands, generating a dozen top-10 hits in their initial eight-year spurt. Selected Works 1972-1999 gathers all the highlights from the group in all of its 1970s/early 1980s glory on four discs, dubbed "The Early Years", "The Ballads" and "The Fast Lane". The handsome box is fleshed out with a live disc from New Year's Eve 1999 ("A Night To Remember"). With striking packaging, extensive liner notes and a surplus of vintage photos, Selected Works is a suitable retrospective on a band that defined the California sound and took it easy, and, in the process, took it to the limit. --Steven Stolder

CD Description
This four-disc box set takes the listener on a detailed tour of the Eagles' career. One of the most successful Americangroups of the '70s, the Eagles combined country-rock roots with the burgeoning L.A. soft-rock aesthetic that reigned inthe U.S. at the time. The artfully arranged SELECTED WORKS moves from the early, earthy "Take it Easy" and "Already Gone" to the pure pop balladry of "The Best of My Love", "I Can't Tell You Why", and the roadhouse rock of "Heartache Tonight" and "Life in the Fast Lane".
The unerringly infectious melodies and carefully constructed, tight-as-a-drum arrangements go a long way toward explaining why some regarded the Eagles as the "American Beatles". The live material included on the fourth disc offers an au natural glimpse of the band, revealing that they were solid even with all the studio polish stripped away.

Customer Reviews

Going the distance.
Even before they published their first album, the Eagles declared that they wanted to be more than a one-hit wonder; they wanted to create something lasting. They certainly have - although you don't even need this particular compilation as evidence of that fact. Maybe even more probative in that respect is their surprise reunion after their bitter 1980 break up and subsequent "14-year vacation," fittingly entitled "Hell Freezes Over." So why bother with this one?

First, because of the Millennium Concert CD; not only because you don't get that particular CD without the boxed set anyway. (OK, I admit I went to the show, loved it, and would have bought the boxed set for that reason alone. But even if you didn't see the show, it's still worth the expense.) The disc opens, as the Eagles' shows have for years, with "Hotel California" - their signature song which personally, I can't get enough variations of; so I am very happy with yet another live version, particularly as (in hindsight) this is probably the last recording with the participation of Don Felder. In addition, this CD contains the first live version of "Take It to the Limit" since the departure of Randy Meisner (with Frey, who declared during the show that the song "is now in G," taking over lead vocals), and several tracks the Eagles have never officially recorded live; although Glenn Frey may have been a bit tongue-in-cheek when he said during the concert that they didn't even remember ever *performing* those songs live before: "Victim of Love," "Please Come Home For Christmas," "Funky New Year," "Those Shoes" (one of my all-time favorites) and Tom Waits' "Ol' 55." (According to Frey, Tom Waits wasn't very happy with their cover at first "... but then he got the check. And since then, Tom and I, we're really close.") The Millennium Concert CD is also an adequate reflection of the Eagles' tour program ever since "Hell Freezes Over:" Like it or not, they have been performing the individual band members' greatest solo releases in concert alongside the band's songs for years now (and conversely, all of them are doing Eagles tracks in their solo live appearances), so it's only fair that at least some of those tunes should be included in the band's live CDs. The inclusion of at least one of Frey's songs, e.g., "Smuggler's Blues," would have been nice; but short of that, I'm happy to at least have Eagles versions of two of Henley's solo releases and of Walsh's "Funk #49" ... to me, Walsh's guitar work in "Dirty Laundry" alone is worth the bargain, not to mention Frey's and Schmit's harmony vocals in Walsh's solo track.

Second, the sound quality on this boxed set is unquestionably superior to the 1980s' CD releases of the band's individual albums - if you compare those to the vinyl versions of the same albums, there is no mistaking that those CDs were sloppily produced and a lot was lost. Not so here; credit, among others, Elliot Scheiner's sound engineering with that. Eagles fans have been waiting for years for the release of true "original recording remastered" CD versions of the band's studio albums. Barring the repurchase of each and every individual album as an eventually-released originally remastered CD, this is a pretty darn good substitute with regard to most of their songs. I also like the arrangement by themes, which shows the band's continuity - and proves that they are much more than "the people who helped invent country rock." (Witness, for example, "Desperado" on the same disc as "Sad Café," and "Get Over It" on the same disc as "One Of These Nights;" with a rather quirky intro from way back when ... when Felder had just joined the band and they were still getting along great or at least, sounded like they were - and closing on an equally quirky "Random Victims Part 3," almost 10 minutes' worth of the band's goofing off in the studio, secretly [?] recorded on Bill Szymczyk's infamous separate two-track machine.)

Would I have wished for the inclusion of more, or of different songs? Yes, but not many. "My Man," Bernie Leadon's tribute to Gram Parsons, and "Bitter Creek" (likewise by Leadon) are examples. But this compilation is entitled "Selected Works," not "Complete Retrospective" or, on the other hand, "Greatest Hits And A Little More." All in all, it's a very rounded and well-produced selection of the Eagles' work over the course of almost three decades - with a nice 40-page booklet which contains articles by Glenn Frey, David Wild ("Rolling Stone") and the Eagles' long-time producer Bill Szymczyk, and some great photos of the band, not all of which were previously published; some by legendary photographer Henry Diltz, whose work is also featured on the band's studio albums and who is probably best known for his contributions to the Crosby, Stills and Nash biography and his "Under the Covers" portrait CD-Rom of some of rock's greatest stars.

During the production of their last studio album, the Eagles sometimes jokingly called that album "the long one," because it took them all of three years to finish. But not only since then, they have shown that they really are in there for The Long Run; and this compilation is a fitting tribute to their career.

A must for all Eagles fans
Nothing new from the Eagles but some classic songs remastered. The live disc of the millenium concert is top-class, and with live versions of the Eagles so rare, it is greatly appreciated. Every good group releases a definitive collection - this is it for Henley, Frey and co. Even if you have the previous greatest hits albums this is another which needs to form part of your collection and worth every penny.

Newcomers: buy it; Oldtimers: save your money
OK, just to make it clear, I am a MASSIVE Eagles fan and this review is in no way a negative reflection on the music. The set is undoubtedly a good, retrospective collection for most fans, either those who are complete novices to the music, those who have never delved deeper than Hotel California or Greatest Hits, or for people like myself who had old, worn out tapes of all of their albums and were tempted by the remastered sound, the new live CD and the book. And what there is cannot really be faulted. However, I would agree with a previous reviewer that this is not a particularly good value buy. The book is well-produced and informative (nothing I didn't already know but nevertheless), and the box set is fitting. But I still feel that there are a few notable omissions, in particular from the earlier period: "Most of us are sad" and "Tryin'" from their debut album, "Certain kind of fool" from Desperado and "Is it true" from On The Border. OK, critics will always have their favourites. The live CD is not bad but far from worth purchasing if you have most of the other songs - a decent version of Hotel California and Ol' 55, "Please Come Home For Christmas" (probably not in most fans' collections unless they bought the superfluous Greatest Hits Volume 2 in the early 80s), a couple of familiar favourites performed in an unfamiliar way and a couple of Don Henley solo tracks to pad it out. The collection does contain a limited amount of previously unreleased material but most of this consists of studio outtakes or joke songs which, believe me, are not worth their space. So in conclusion, it IS a good collection but if you have most of the stuff already don't bother - better off to go out and buy the 6 original albums separately (all now remastered) at a snip over the box set price. A far more comprehensive and representative reflection of their work.