Best of My Love (Eagles song)

"Best of My Love" is a song written by Don Henley, Glenn Frey, and J.D. Souther. It was originally recorded by the Eagles (with Henley singing lead vocals), and included on their 1974 album On the Border. The band's first Billboard Hot 100 #1 single in March 1975, the song also topped the easy listening (adult contemporary) chart for one week a month earlier.^[1] Billboard ranked it as the No. 12 song for 1975.^[2]

Background

In 2009 J.D. Souther would recall of "Best of My Love": "Glenn found the tune; the tune I think came from a Fred Neil record...We were working on that album (On the Border) and came to London. The three of us were writing it and were on deadline to get it finished. I don’t know where we got the inspiration."^[3] Musically, Glen Frey recalled: "I was playing acoustic guitar one afternoon in Laurel Canyon, and I was trying to figure out a tuning that Joni Mitchell had shown me a couple of days earlier. I got lost and ended up with the guitar tuning for what would later turn out to be 'The Best of My Love.'"^[4] The Eagles had begun working on On the Border at Olympic Studios in London with producer Glyn Johns who had helmed their Eagles debut album and the follow-up Desperado album. Despite the success of their debut album the Eagles had taken umbrage at Johns' predilection for country rock toning down their own rockabilly aspirations: the Eagles' dissatisfaction with Johns was reinforced by the similarly honed Desperado album which was a comparative failure, and after six weeks in London - which yielded "Best of My Love" and one other usable track: "You Never Cry Like a Lover" - the Eagles discontinued working with Johns spending eight weeks touring in Europe and the USA and then completing the recording of On the Border at the Record Plant with Bill Szymczyk producing.^[5]

The release of the Eagles' "Best of My Love" as a single has been attributed to the track's airplay at WKMI-AM in Kalamazoo MI, where radio dj Jim Higgs - also station music & program director - began playing the track off its parent album On the Border soon after that album's release in the spring of 1974, favoring "Best of My Love" over the official single releases "Already Gone" and "James Dean". Advised by Higgs of the strong positive response of WKMI's listeners to "Best of My Love", Asylum Records gave the track a limited single release of 1000 copies available only in the Kalamazoo area, with reaction to this test-release securing the full release of "Best of My Love" as a single on November 5 1974.^[6]

Cover versions

Prior to the release of the Eagles version as a single, John Lees released his version of "Best of My Love" as a single in 1974. Another early cover was by Tanya Tucker recorded in 1974 in her final sessions for Columbia Records; her version was first issued on the You Are So Beautiful album in June 1977. Best of My Love was also recorded by The Emotions on June 9 1977. "Best of My Love" has also been recorded by Yvonne Elliman on her 1975 album Rising Sun; by La Costa on her 1976 album Lovin' Somebody; by reggae group Aswad on their 1990 album, Too Wicked; and by Rod Stewart on his 2006 album Still the Same... Great Rock Classics of Our Time. Brooks & Dunn remade "Best of My Love" for the Eagles tribute album, Common Thread: The Songs of the Eagles.

See also

• List of RPM number-one singles of 1975
• List of Hot 100 number-one singles of 1975 (U.S.)
• List of number-one adult contemporary singles of 1975 (U.S.)

References

External links

• Full lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics