''Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975)'' is the first
compilation album
A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several Performing arts#Performers, performers. If by one artist, then generally the tr ...
by the American rock band 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 by
Asylum Records
Asylum Records is an American record label, founded in 1971 by David Geffen and partner Elliot Roberts. It was taken over by Warner Communications (now the Warner Music Group) in 1972, and later merged with Elektra Records to become Elektra/As ...
on February 17, 1976. It contains a selection of songs from the band's first four albums, which were released from 1972 to 1975. On the U.S.
''Billboard'' 200 chart, the album reached number one, where it stayed for five weeks.
The album has the distinction of being the first album to receive the
RIAA
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...
's
Platinum
Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver".
Platinu ...
certification, which was introduced in 1976 to recognize albums that ship one million copies in the United States. It was ranked number four on ''Billboard''s year-end album chart for 1976, and has spent a total of 239 weeks on the ''Billboard'' 200 (as of August 2018). The RIAA has certified the album 38 times platinum, indicating sales of 38 million copies in America alone, which would make ''Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975)'' the
best-selling album of the 20th century in the United States (it was surpassed in platinum certifications by
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over a ...
's
''Thriller'' after Jackson's
death
Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whole brain, including brainstem, and brain ...
in 2009,
but regained the title in August 2018). In 2017, the album was selected by the
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...
for preservation in the
National Recording Registry
The National Recording Registry is a list of sound recordings that "are culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant, and/or inform or reflect life in the United States." The registry was established by the National Recording Preservati ...
as being "culturally, historically, or artistically significant".
Background
''Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975)'' comprises nine singles released between 1972 and 1975, plus the album track "
Desperado
Desperado may refer to:
* Outlaw, particularly in the American Old West
Books
* ''Desperadoes'' (comics), a comic book series
* ''Desperadoes'' (novel), a 1979 novel by Ron Hansen
* Desperado Publishing, an American independent comic book publ ...
". All of the singles except "
Tequila Sunrise" had charted in the
top 40
In the music industry, the Top 40 is the current, 40 most-popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "Top 40" or " con ...
of the
''Billboard'' Hot 100, and five had reached the top ten. "
One of These Nights
''One of These Nights'' is the fourth studio album by the Eagles, released in 1975. In July that year, the record became the Eagles' first number one album on ''Billboard''s album chart, yielding three Top 10 singles: " One of These Nights", "Lyi ...
" and "
Best of My Love" had both topped the chart.
Irving Azoff
Irving Azoff (; born December 12, 1947) is an American entertainment executive and chairman of Full Stop Management, which represents recording artists. In the mid-1980s, he brought success to MCA Records.
Since September 2013, he has been chai ...
, the manager of the Eagles, said: "We decided it was time to put out the first greatest-hits because we had enough hits."
According to
Don Felder
Donald William Felder (born September 21, 1947) is an American musician who was the lead guitarist of the rock band Eagles from 1974 until his termination from the band in 2001. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998 with th ...
, however, none of the band members had any say in the decision to release the compilation album,
[. '']The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
'' (London). October 12, 2007 which they complained was "nothing more than a ploy by the record company to sell product without having to pay additional production costs".
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 ...
was unhappy that songs like "Tequila Sunrise" and "Desperado" were lifted out of the context of the original album in a way that he thought was detrimental to the nature, quality, and meaning of the music. He said: "All the record company was worried about were their quarterly reports. They didn't give a shit whether the greatest hits album was good or not, they just wanted product."
Despite being unhappy with the album's release, the band nevertheless reasoned that it gave them more time to work on the ''
Hotel California
"Hotel California" is the title track from the Eagles' album of the same name and was released as a single in February 1977. Writing credits for the song are shared by Don Felder (music), Don Henley, and Glenn Frey (lyrics). Joe Walsh came up ...
'' album, which was released later in 1976.
Artwork
The cover of the album is an image of a piece of art created by artist
Boyd Elder
Harold Boyd Elder (January 12, 1944 – October 6, 2018), was an American artist. Born in El Paso, Elder was raised by Hal Elder and Billye Lee Bell Elder with brothers Kenneth Mack Elder and Howard Stanton Elder. Boyd Elder studied at Burges Hig ...
(aka "El Chingadero"), whose work was also used for the cover of ''
One of These Nights
''One of These Nights'' is the fourth studio album by the Eagles, released in 1975. In July that year, the record became the Eagles' first number one album on ''Billboard''s album chart, yielding three Top 10 singles: " One of These Nights", "Lyi ...
''. The piece consists of a painted plastic cast of an eagle skull
against a light-blue background made of silver
mylar
BoPET (biaxially-oriented polyethylene terephthalate) is a polyester film made from stretched polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and is used for its high tensile strength, chemical and dimensional stability, transparency, reflectivity, gas and aro ...
. The bumpy appearance of the background gave rise to a myth that it was covered in
cocaine
Cocaine (from , from , ultimately from Quechuan languages, Quechua: ''kúka'') is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant mainly recreational drug use, used recreationally for its euphoria, euphoric effects. It is primarily obtained from t ...
powder that the band snorted after the photo shoot. The band chose not to debunk that myth, though
Glenn Frey
Glenn Lewis Frey (; November 6, 1948 – January 18, 2016) was an American singer, guitarist and a founding member of the rock band Eagles. Frey was the co-lead singer and frontman for the Eagles, roles he came to share with fellow member Don ...
reportedly also noticed the resemblance and told Elder that the background reminded him of "a field of blow" (a slang term for cocaine).
The artist was paid $5,000 for his work on the cover.
As with ''One of These Nights'', the original vinyl editions of ''Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975)'' featured messages printed onto the inner
dead wax. In this case, "Happy New Year, Glyn" and "With Love from Bill" appear on sides one and two, respectively.
Critical reception
William Ruhlmann of
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
said the songs in the compilation are melodic, immediately engaging, and lyrically consistent, so, "unlike the albums from which they come, these songs make up a collection consistent in mood and identity, which may help explain why ''Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975)'' works so much better than the band's previous discs and practically makes them redundant. No wonder it was such a big hit out of the box".
In a 1978 poll of 50 rock critics and DJs organized by
Paul Gambaccini
Paul Matthew Gambaccini (born April 2, 1949) is an American-British radio and television presenter and author in the United Kingdom. He has dual United States and British nationality, having become a British citizen in 2005.
Known as "The Grea ...
, the album was ranked number 141. It was voted by the public as the sixth best compilation album in the 1994 edition of ''
All Time Top 1000 Albums
''All Time Top 1000 Albums'' is a book by Colin Larkin, creator and editor of the ''Encyclopedia of Popular Music''. The book was first published by Guinness Publishing in 1994. The list presented is the result of over 200,000 votes cast by the ...
''.
Commercial performance
''Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975)'' debuted at number four on the U.S.
''Billboard'' 200 album chart and reached number one the following week, where it stayed for five weeks. It ranked number four on ''Billboard''s year-end album chart for 1976, and has spent a total of 239 weeks on the Billboard 200 (as of August 2018).
Of its 465 weeks on the ''Billboard''
Top Pop Catalog Albums
Top Pop Catalog Albums is a 50-position weekly albums chart produced by ''Billboard'' Magazine which ranks the best-selling catalog albums in the United States, regardless of genre. ''Billboard'' defines a catalog title as one that is more than 18 ...
chart, the album has spent 15 non-consecutive weeks at number one.
The album has the distinction of being the first album to receive the
RIAA
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...
's
Platinum
Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver".
Platinu ...
certification, which was introduced in 1976 to recognize albums that ship one million copies in the United States.
It received its first platinum certification a week after its release (on February 24, 1976), was certified 12× platinum in August 1990, 14× platinum in 1993, and 22× platinum in 1995. On November 10, 1999, the album became the best-selling album of the 20th century in the United States when it was certified 26× platinum.
[ In a 2001 radio interview, ]Randy Meisner
Randall Herman Meisner (born March 8, 1946) is a retired American musician, singer, songwriter and founding member of the Eagles. Throughout his professional musical career, Meisner's main role was that of bassist and backing high-harmony vocal ...
said neither he nor Bernie Leadon
Bernie Leadon (pronounced ''led-un''; born July 19, 1947) is an American singer, musician, songwriter and founding member of the Eagles, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998. Prior to the Eagles, he was a member ...
were notified of the 1999 certification, "so we had to call and we finally received it." The album was certified 29× platinum on January 30, 2006, and, in August 2018, it was certified 38x platinum under a new system that tallies album and track sales as well as streams, surpassing Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over a ...
's '' Thriller'' (certified 34× platinum) to again become the highest-certified album by the RIAA.
There is skepticism of the album's RIAA certifications. The additional certifications it received in 1995 indicate it had sold eight million units since 1993, but, per Nielsen SoundScan
Luminate (formerly Nielsen SoundScan, Nielsen Music Products, and MRC Data) is a provider of music sales data. Established by Mike Fine and Mike Shalett in 1991, data is collected weekly and made available every Sunday (for albums sales) and eve ...
, it sold fewer than a million copies during that period, as well as just over five (rather than 17) million copies from 1991 (when SoundScan began tracking) to 2006, and 6.4 million album-equivalent unit
The album-equivalent unit, or album equivalent, is a measurement unit in music industry to define the consumption of music that equals the purchase of one album copy. This consumption includes streaming and song downloads in addition to traditi ...
s from 1991 to February 2020 (again, far fewer than the certifications credit). In 2018, Sony Music CEO Rob Stringer stated the album only sold 2.3 million units from 2006 to 2018, yet it received certifications for nine million additional units. Warner Music, which distributed ''Their Greatest Hits'', claimed the figure came from newly discovered sales dating back to 1976, but a representative from Michael Jackson's estate noted sales audits are usually restricted to three years and said, "The notion that they can go back 10, 15, 20 or 30 years and find units that were never counted before is absurd, they reviewed these records before. Why didn’t they find those uncounted records then?"
Worldwide, the album has sold over 45 million copies as of 2020, making it the best-selling greatest-hits album, and the third best-selling album, of all time.
Track listing
Personnel
Eagles
*Glenn Frey
Glenn Lewis Frey (; November 6, 1948 – January 18, 2016) was an American singer, guitarist and a founding member of the rock band Eagles. Frey was the co-lead singer and frontman for the Eagles, roles he came to share with fellow member Don ...
– guitars, vocals; piano
*Bernie Leadon
Bernie Leadon (pronounced ''led-un''; born July 19, 1947) is an American singer, musician, songwriter and founding member of the Eagles, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998. Prior to the Eagles, he was a member ...
– guitars, backing vocals; banjo, pedal steel
The pedal steel guitar is a 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 steel guitars, it can p ...
, 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 ...
*Randy Meisner
Randall Herman Meisner (born March 8, 1946) is a retired American musician, singer, songwriter and founding member of the Eagles. Throughout his professional musical career, Meisner's main role was that of bassist and backing high-harmony vocal ...
– bass guitar, vocals
*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 ...
– drums, vocals
*Don Felder
Donald William Felder (born September 21, 1947) is an American musician who was the lead guitarist of the rock band Eagles from 1974 until his termination from the band in 2001. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998 with th ...
– guitars on "Lyin' Eyes", "Already Gone", "One of These Nights", and "Take It to the Limit"
Production
*Glyn Johns
Glyn Thomas Johns (born 15 February 1942) is an English musician, recording engineer and record producer.
Biography
Early history
Johns was born in Epsom, Surrey, England. He had three siblings, two older sisters and a younger brother, Andy ...
– producer
Producer or producers may refer to:
Occupations
*Producer (agriculture), a farm operator
*A stakeholder of economic production
*Film producer, supervises the making of films
**Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...
*Bill Szymczyk
William Frank Szymczyk (; born February 13, 1943) is an American music producer and technical engineer best known for working with rock and blues musicians, most notably the Eagles in the 1970s. He produced many top albums and singles of the 19 ...
– producer
*Jim Ed Norman
Jim Ed Norman is an American musician, multi-platinum record producer, arranger and label-head. As an arranger and producer, he was one of the principal architects of the distinctive sound of West Coast 1970s pop and country rock. He was Preside ...
– string arrangements
* Allan Blazek – engineer
Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...
*Michael Braunstein – engineer
*Howard Kilgour – engineer
*Ed Mashal – engineer
*Michael Verdick – engineer
*Don Wood – engineer
*Henry Diltz
Henry Stanford Diltz (born September 6, 1938, in Kansas City, Missouri) is an American folk musician and photographer who has been active since the 1960s.
Career
Among the bands Diltz played with was the Modern Folk Quartet. While a member of ...
– art direction, design
*Glen Christensen – art direction, design
*Boyd Elder – art direction, design
*Irving Azoff
Irving Azoff (; born December 12, 1947) is an American entertainment executive and chairman of Full Stop Management, which represents recording artists. In the mid-1980s, he brought success to MCA Records.
Since September 2013, he has been chai ...
– direction
* Steve Hoffman – digital remastering
Remaster refers to changing the quality of the sound or of the image, or both, of previously created recordings, either audiophonic, cinematic, or videographic. The terms digital remastering and digitally remastered are also used.
Mastering
A ...
*Ted Jensen
Ted Jensen (born September 19, 1954) is an American mastering engineer, known for having mastered many recordings, including the Eagles' ''Hotel California'', Green Day's '' American Idiot'' and Norah Jones' ''Come Away with Me''.
Biography
Ted ...
– digital remastering
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications
See also
*List of best-selling albums
This is a list of the world's best-selling albums of recorded music. To appear on the list, the figure must have been published by a reliable source and the album must have sold at least 20 million copies. This list can contain any types of al ...
*List of best-selling albums in the United States
This is a list of the best-selling albums in the United States based on RIAA certification and Nielsen SoundScan sales tracking. The criteria are that the album must have been published (including self-publishing by the artist), and the album mus ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975)
1976 greatest hits albums
Eagles (band) compilation albums
Albums produced by Glyn Johns
Albums produced by Bill Szymczyk
Asylum Records compilation albums
Elektra Records compilation albums
United States National Recording Registry recordings
Albums recorded at Olympic Sound Studios
United States National Recording Registry albums