Heartache Tonight

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"Heartache Tonight"
Single by Eagles
from the album The Long Run
B-side "Teenage Jail"
Released September 18, 1979
Format 7"
Genre Hard rock, country rock
Length 4:25
Label Asylum
Writer(s) Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Bob Seger and J. D. Souther
Producer(s) Bill Szymczyk
Eagles singles chronology

"Please Come Home for Christmas"
(1978)
"Heartache Tonight"
(1979)
"The Long Run"
(1979)

"Heartache Tonight" is a song written by Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Bob Seger and J. D. Souther, and recorded by the Eagles. The track was included on their album The Long Run and released as a single in 1979. It reached #1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in November of that year. Although it remained in the top position for only one week, the single sold 1 million copies.

The recording also received a Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. The song originated from an electric jam session between Glenn Frey and J. D. Souther who would visit Frey's home in Los Angeles whenever he was in town on tour. Frey and Souther wrote the first verse while listening to Sam Cooke songs. In the heat of jamming, Frey called Seger on the phone and sang him the verse. Seger then blurted out the chorus. According to Frey, "J.D. [Souther], Don and I finished that song up. No heavy lyrics-the song is more of a romp-and that's what it was intended to be."[1] The song was covered by country music singer John Anderson on the tribute album Common Thread: The Songs of the Eagles and was also covered by Michael Bublé on his album Crazy Love.

Personnel

Chart performance

Chart (1979) Peak
position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 1
U.S. Adult Contemporary 38
UK Singles Chart 40
Canadian RPM Singles Chart[2] 1
Preceded by
"Pop Muzik" by M
Billboard Hot 100 number one single
November 10, 1979
Succeeded by
"Still" by Commodores
Preceded by
"Good Girls Don't" by The Knack
Canadian "RPM" Singles Chart number-one single
November 17, 1979November 24, 1979
Succeeded by
"Babe" by Styx

Conway Twitty version

"Heartache Tonight"
Single by Conway Twitty
from the album Lost in the Feeling
Released August 1983
Format 7"
Recorded February 1–2, 1983
Sound Stage Studio, Nashville, Tennessee
Genre Country
Length 4:17
Label Warner Bros.
Producer(s) Jimmy Bowen, Conway Twitty
Conway Twitty singles chronology

"Lost in the Feeling"
(1983)
"Heartache Tonight"
(1983)
"We Had It All"
(1983)

"Heartache Tonight" was revived four years later in a cover version by country music artist Conway Twitty. Released as the second single from his Lost in the Feeling album, Twitty's version reached No. 6 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart in the fall of 1983.[3]

Twitty's version featured the Osmond Brothers on backing vocals. Allmusic reviewer Thom Jurek wrote that "Heartache Tonight" and its follow-up single, "Three Times a Lady," "offer(ed) a solid view of Twitty's amazing crossover potential, and his ability to take well-known pop tracks and turn them into solid country smashes long after the countrypolitan days of Chet Atkins and RCA."[4] (In addition to "Three Times a Lady" (a cover of a song by The Commodores), Twitty had successfully covered "Slow Hand" and "The Rose," previously pop hits for the Pointer Sisters and Bette Midler, respectively.)

Chart performance

Chart (1983) Peak
position
U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles 6
Canadian RPM Country Tracks 3

References

  1. The Very Best of the Eagles (CD). Warner Music Group. 2003. R2 73971.
  2. "RPM 100 Singles". Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved 2012-09-14. 
  3. Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Book Of Top 40 Country Hits: 1944-2006, Second edition. Record Research. p. 363. 
  4. Jurek, Tom, Lost in the Feeling album review, Allmusic.

External links

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