''Hell Freezes Over'' is the second live album by the

Eagles Eagle is the common name for many large birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of genera, some of which are closely related. Most of the 68 species of eagle are from Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, just ...

, released in 1994. The album is the first to be released after the Eagles had reformed following a fourteen-year-long break up. The band's lineup was that of the '' Long Run'' era: Glenn Frey,

Don Henley Donald Hugh Henley (born July 22, 1947) is an American musician and a founding member of the rock band Eagles. He is the drummer and one of the lead singers for the Eagles. Henley sang the lead vocals on Eagles hits such as "Witchy Woman", "Despe ...

, Don Felder, Joe Walsh, and

Timothy B. Schmit Timothy Bruce Schmit (born October 30, 1947) is an American musician, singer, and songwriter. He has performed as the bassist and vocalist for Poco and the Eagles (band), Eagles, having replaced bassist and vocalist Randy Meisner in both cases ...

. It contains four new studio tracks and eleven tracks recorded live in April 1994 for an

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

special. Two Top 40 Mainstream singles, "Get Over It" and "Love Will Keep Us Alive", were released from the album. It also features an acoustic version of " Hotel California". The four new studio recordings are the last to feature Don Felder, who was fired from the band in 2001. The album went to No. 1 on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' album chart upon its release where it stayed for two weeks. The album has sold over 9 million copies in the United States. ''Hell Freezes Over'' was also released in video form on VHS,

LaserDisc The LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium, initially licensed, sold and marketed as DiscoVision, MCA DiscoVision (also known simply as "DiscoVision") in the United States in 1978. Its diam ...

and DVD. Before the album was released, the Eagles also started a tour, which would last from 1994 to 1996 and became one of the most successful tours in music history.

Background

The album name is in reference to a quote by Don Henley after the band's breakup in 1980. Henley was asked in an interview about when the band would play together again, to which he responded "when Hell freezes over". Glenn Frey also said in 1982 on the break-up: "I just rule out the possibility of putting the Eagles back together for a Lost Youth and Greed tour." In 1993, an Eagles tribute album, '' Common Thread: The Songs of the Eagles'', was recorded by several country artists. Travis Tritt, who covered " Take It Easy" in the album, asked the band to appear in his video for the song. The former Eagles band members agreed, and it would be the first time the group had appeared together in 13 years. Two months later, Glenn Frey and Henley had lunch with their management and decided to reunite. The band members performed live for the first time in April 1994 at

Warner Bros. Studios Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

Burbank, California Burbank is a city in the southeastern end of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located northwest of downtown Los Angeles, Burbank has a population of 107,337. The city was named after David Burbank, w ...

for an MTV special. The recording sessions produced 11 tracks for the ''Hell Freezes Over'' album, including a new arrangement of "Hotel California" that features an extended acoustic guitar and percussion opening. At the beginning of the concert, Frey joked to the audience: "For the record, we never broke up; we just took a 14-year vacation". The tour began on May 27, and the ''Hell Freezes Over'' album was released on November 8, 1994. The album is the band's second live album, after their live album in 1980. A new song " Get Over It" became a modest hit and another new song, " Love Will Keep Us Alive", reached No. 1 on the ''Billboard'' Adult Contemporary chart. The DVD is one of the first music releases to feature a DTS format soundtrack in addition to a

PCM Pulse-code modulation (PCM) is a method used to digitally represent sampled analog signals. It is the standard form of digital audio in computers, compact discs, digital telephony and other digital audio applications. In a PCM stream, the amp ...

stereo soundtrack. The DVD also featured the song "Seven Bridges Road" in DTS audio only. The DVD has since been re-released with an additional

Dolby Digital Dolby Digital, originally synonymous with Dolby AC-3, is the name for what has now become a family of audio compression technologies developed by Dolby Laboratories. Formerly named Dolby Stereo Digital until 1995, the audio compression is lossy ...

soundtrack. The album was also released as a DTS CD in 1997.

Track listing

*All new songs were released as studio recordings on the album, but can be seen live on the VHS and DVD versions. *"Seven Bridges Road" – DTS – A remastered version of the recording featured on ''Eagles Live'', with a clearer separation of the five vocal parts to exploit the full potential of a 5.1 speaker set-up: Timothy B. Schmit is on the rear-right, Glenn Frey as the singer of the song's main melody on the front-right, Don Henley on the front-left and Joe Walsh on the rear-left. Don Felder is on the front-center channel.

Personnel

Compiled from ''Hell Freezes Over'' liner notes. Eagles *

– drums, acoustic guitar, percussion, vocals *

– bass guitar, vocals * Glenn Frey – electric and acoustic guitar, piano, keyboards, vocals * Don Felder – electric guitar, acoustic guitar,

pedal steel guitar The pedal steel guitar is a Console steel guitar, console-type of steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings to enable playing more varied and complex music than any previous steel guitar design. Like all s ...

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

, vocals * Joe Walsh – electric, acoustic, and

slide guitar Slide guitar is a technique for playing the guitar that is often used in blues music. It involves playing a guitar while holding a hard object (a slide) against the strings, creating the opportunity for glissando effects and deep vibratos tha ...

, organ, vocals Additional personnel * John Corey – piano * Scott Crago – percussion, drums * Timothy Drury – keyboards, vocals * Stan Lynch – percussion * Jay Oliver – organ, keyboards, piano * Paulinho Da Costa – percussion * Gary Grimm – percussion * Brian Matthews –

Electro-Theremin The Electro-Theremin is an electronic musical instrument developed by trombonist Paul Tanner and amateur inventor Bob Whitsell in the late 1950s to produce a sound to mimic that of the theremin. The instrument features a tone and portamento ...

* Al Garth – trumpet on "New York Minute" *

Burbank Burbank may refer to: Places Australia * Burbank, Queensland, a suburb in Brisbane United States * Burbank, California, a city in Los Angeles County * Burbank, Santa Clara County, California, a census-designated place * Burbank, Illinois, ...

Philharmonic Orchestra – backup on tracks 7-11, 15 (CD); tracks 7-12, 17 (DVD) Production * Eagles – production (all tracks) * Elliot Scheiner – production (all tracks except "Learn to Be Still") * Rob Jacobs – production (all tracks) * Stan Lynch – production ("Learn to Be Still" only) * Joel Stillerman – executive producer * Carol Donovan – program producer * Beth McCarthy – program director * Audrey Johns – program line producer * Rob Jacobs, Elliot Scheiner – engineers * Charlie Bouis, Carl Glanville, Barry Goldberg, Andy Grassi, Tom Trafalski,Ken Villeneuve, Tom Winslow – second engineers *

Todd Bowie Todd or Todds may refer to: Places ;Australia: * Todd River, an ephemeral river ;United States: * Todd Valley, California, also known as Todd, an unincorporated community * Todd, Missouri, a ghost town * Todd, North Carolina, an unincorporated ...

and Chris Buttleman – guitar technician * Ted Jensen – mastering * Rob Jacobs, Dave Kob, Dave Reynolds, Elliot Scheiner – mixing * Adam Armstrong – vocal technician * Ted Jensen – editing * Don Davis, The Eagles, Jay Oliver – horn and

string String or strings may refer to: *String (structure), a long flexible structure made from threads twisted together, which is used to tie, bind, or hang other objects Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Strings'' (1991 film), a Canadian anim ...

arrangement In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orches ...

s * David Hewitt – live recording coordinator * John Halpern, David Skernick – photography * Keith Raywood – production design * Robin Sloane, Janet Wolsborn – art direction * Dwaine "The Peachin' Trucker" Wise – road manager * Andrew Lopez – head driver

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

Video/DVD

Certifications

Album

Video/DVD

References

{{Authority control Live video albums 1994 live albums 1994 video albums Geffen Records live albums Geffen Records video albums Eagles (band) live albums Eagles (band) video albums Albums recorded at A&M Studios