Product Description

'Hotel California' was The Eagles fifth album and it was the one that turned them into soft rock superstars. Founder member Bernie Leadon was replaced by the rock guitarist Joe Walsh and this shift in sound from country to mainstream rock paid dividends. Two number one singles 'Life In The Fast Lane' and the title track along with the huge radio support propelled the album to sales of over 10,000,000.

Track Listing

1. Hotel California
2. New Kid In Town
3. Life In The Fast Lane
4. Wasted Time
5. Wasted Time (2)
6. Victim Of Love
7. Pretty Maids All In A Row
8. Try And Love Again
9. Last Resort

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1336 in Music
• Released on: 1984-07-20
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
Hotel California represented a commercial peak for the Eagles, selling nine million copies in its year of release alone. Founder member Bernie Leadon quit and was replaced with tougher-sounding guitarist Joe Walsh just before the band spent eight months in the studio crafting this album. Unfortunately, as often happens with albums that take so long to make, spontaneity is almost wholly sacrificed to a virtuosity of a somewhat sterile kind, and some of these songs appear in far more energetic and interesting versions on the band's Live album. Still,Hotel California has had a massive influence--its formula of soft country and hard rock has been endlessly imitated, but few acts have recaptured the weary loveliness of the Eagles' template. --JamesSwift

Customer Reviews

Amazing
A very listenable and relaxing album, one that has grown on me over time. The songs fit together very well, in particular I like 'New Kid In Town' and 'Pretty Maids All In A Row'. All of the songs are meaningful, and I'm still getting more from this album each time I listen to it.

Summer Music
Hi, I was given this when it was first released on vinyl and did not find it easily accessible at first. I now own it on Cd & DVD-Audio. This is quite simply the best summer music - EVER - , listen to both the music AND the lyrics this CD is so laid back (the lyrics are so emotionally moving).
I rate this as my favourite CD of all time (treat yourself to the DVD-Audio, the separation of the instruments and the quality of the sound is truly amazing). I rate this my #1 CD followed by #2 Pink Floyd / Dark Side of The Moon, #3 The Doobie Brothers / The Captain and Me, #4 Steve Earle / Exit 0, #5 The Fabulous Thunderbirds / Collection.
Break out the sun lounger and the cold beer, lay back and enjoy.

The album that forever changed my understanding of music.
She'd taped a cool new song off the radio, a friend told me a little less than 25 years ago; she'd play it for me when I'd come to her place after school.

The song was "Hotel California," and my perception of music changed then and there, once and for all. I didn't even really understand the lyrics -- I had barely begun to learn English, and apart from everything else I sure as hell didn't know what "colitas" meant. But understanding all the song's words wasn't necessary. From the first chords played by Felder and Walsh, this song was different from anything I had ever heard before. The layers of electric guitar riffs alternating with and ornamenting Don Henley's vocals, soaring in the chorus and culminating in a moving and evocative duet, touched a spot deep inside me that required no further explanation. Nor, really, did the other songs on this album which I instantaneously knew I had to have. I got the message conveyed in the raw edges of "Life in the Fast Lane," Joe Walsh's riffs throughout the song, the two guitar solos and Don Henley's sneering vocals, as well as I could hear the sense of loss in "Wasted Time," "The Last Resort" and "New Kid in Town."

This is not to say, of course, that the lyrics didn't matter to me once I was able to fully understand them. Rather, that understanding deepened my appreciation for the album; and yet another level of insight was added when I came to California for the first time in 1991. By that time I was an ardent fan, and although the Eagles didn't even exist as a band back then, their music has become an inseparable part of my memory of those months - particularly the album which bears the state's name and is so often called the quintessential California rock album (not only of the 1970s) that this description in itself is bordering on clich now, true as it may once have been.

Since the release of their 1976 studio album, the Eagles have published several other versions of "Hotel California," and I love them all. (I even -- sometimes -- like the ska version Don Henley and his incredible tour band performed during their 2001 "Inside Job" tour.) But ultimately, it all comes back down for me to the duet of those two electric guitars which forever redefined the way I listen to music.