''The Very Best Of'' (released as ''The Complete Greatest Hits'' in the UK,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, and

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

) is a two-disc compilation 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

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

. This album combines all tracks that appeared on the two previously released Eagles greatest hits albums ''(

Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975) ''Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975)'' is the first compilation album by the American rock band the Eagles, released by Asylum Records on February 17, 1976. It contains a selection of songs from the band's first four albums, which were released fro ...

'' and ''

Eagles Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 ''Eagles Greatest Hits Volume 2'' is the second compilation album by the Eagles. It features many of their biggest hits not on ''Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975)'', including "Hotel California", their signature song. The album was released in ...

)'', along with other singles not included on the first two compilations, album tracks, and the new track "Hole in the World". The accompanying booklet to ''The Very Best Of'' features commentaries on all of the songs from

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 ...

and

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 ...

, as compiled by

Cameron Crowe Cameron Bruce Crowe (born July 13, 1957) is an American journalist, author, writer, producer, director, actor, lyricist, and playwright. Before moving into the film industry, Crowe was a contributing editor at ''Rolling Stone'' magazine, for wh ...

. ''The Very Best Of'' was also released as a limited-edition three-disc set with the third disc being a bonus DVD containing the video for the new song " Hole in the World", as well as a making of the video featurette and "Backstage Pass to Farewell 1."

Artwork

The artwork for the cover, a horse skull with feathers, is by

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 ...

. Elder also produced the skull artwork for the Eagles' 1975 album ''

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 their compilation album ''

''.

Commercial performance

The album debuted on the ''Billboard'' 200 on November 8, 2003 at number 3, with 162,000 copies sold. It spent 62 weeks on the chart. The album was certified and awarded gold, platinum, and double platinum records by 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 ...

on December 17, 2003, and on December 13, 2004, it achieved triple platinum status. The album has sold over 5 million units in the United States. As of December 2007, it has spent over 325 weeks in the

Irish Album Charts The Irish Albums Chart is the Republic of Ireland, Irish music industry standard albums popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA). The charts were previously compiled on behalf of IRMA by Chart-Track, and have ...

, effectively not having left the chart since its release. In the UK the album (as ''The Complete Greatest Hits'') entered the charts on November 1, 2003 at its initial number 27 peak position, the album did however re-enter the charts in June 2006 when it peaked at number 9 on the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...

Track listing

:*Tracks 1–3 from ''

'' (1972) :*Tracks 4–6 from ''

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 ...

'' (1973) :*Tracks 7–12 from ''

On the Border ''On the Border'' is the third studio album by American rock group the Eagles, released in 1974. Apart from two songs produced by Glyn Johns, it was produced by Bill Szymczyk because the group wanted a more rock‑oriented sound instead of the c ...

'' (1974) :*Tracks 13–16 from ''

'' (1975) :*Track 17 from ''

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 ...

'' (1976) :*Tracks 1–5 from ''Hotel California'' (1976) :*Track 6 was a non-album single (1978) :*Tracks 7–12 from '' The Long Run'' (1979) :*Track 13 from ''

Eagles Live ''Eagles Live'' is the first live album by the American rock band Eagles, a two-LP set released on November 7, 1980. Although the Eagles were already in the process of breaking up, the band owed Elektra/Asylum Records one more album and fulfille ...

'' (1980) :*Tracks 14 and 15 from ''

Hell Freezes Over ''Hell Freezes Over'' is the second live album by the Eagles, 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: Gle ...

'' (1994) :*Track 16 is a new track (2003)

Personnel

–

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

keyboard Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

vocal The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound production i ...

s *

–

drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a she ...

s, percussion, guitars, vocals *

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 The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

, guitars, guitarrone, vocals (disc one and songs 1–5 on disc two) *

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,

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...

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 ...

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 ...

, vocals (songs 1–16 on disc one) *

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, keyboards,

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

s, vocals (songs 7, 13–17 on disc one and songs 1–15 on disc two) *

Joe Walsh Joseph Fidler Walsh (born November 20, 1947) is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. In a career spanning over five decades, he has been a member of three successful rock bands: the James Gang, Eagles, and Ringo Starr & His All-Starr B ...

– guitars, keyboards, organ, synthesizer, vocals (song 17 on disc one and all of disc two) *

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 ...

– bass guitar, vocals (songs 6–16 on disc two), lead vocals (songs 9 and 14 on disc two) ;Additional personnel *

Steuart Smith Steuart Smith (born 24 June 1952) is an American guitarist and multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, writer and producer from Arlington, Virginia, United States. He is a touring member of the American rock band Eagles, where he has performed as one of ...

– guitars (song 16 on disc two) *

Scott Crago Scott Francis Crago (born July 26, 1963) is an American session drummer, songwriter, and producer. He has worked with the Eagles as their backup and touring drummer since 1994. Other artists he has played with include Venice, Sheryl Crow, Bo ...

– drums, percussion (songs 14–16 on disc two) *Will Hollis – piano (songs 14–16 on disc two) *

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 ...

– piano, string arrangements (songs 4, 13, 15 on disc one and songs 2, 4 on disc two) *

David Sanborn David William Sanborn (born July 30, 1945) is an American alto saxophonist. Though Sanborn has worked in many genres, his solo recordings typically blend jazz with instrumental pop and R&B. He released his first solo album ''Taking Off'' in 1 ...

–

alto saxophone The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones were invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in the 1840s and patented in 1846. The alto saxophone is pitched in E, smaller than the B tenor ...

(song 8 on disc two) *

Al Perkins Al Perkins (born January 18, 1944) is an American guitarist known primarily for his steel guitar work. The Gibson guitar company called Perkins "the world's most influential dobro player" and began producing an "Al Perkins Signature" Dobro in ...

– pedal steel guitar (song 10 on disc one)

Production

*Producers: Glyn Johns, Bill Szymczyk, Eagles, Elliot Scheiner and Rob Jacobs *Engineers: Allan Blazek, Michael Braunstein, Glyn Johns, Ed Mashal, Bill Szymczyk, Michael Verdick, Ken Villeneuve, and Don Wood *Assistant engineers: Allan Blazek, Howard Kilgour, Tom Trafalski, *Remastering:

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 ...

*String arrangements:

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Very Best Of Eagles Eagles (band) compilation albums 2003 greatest hits albums Albums produced by Glyn Johns Albums produced by Bill Szymczyk Warner Music Group compilation albums