"I Can't Tell You Why" is a song by the American rock band

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, jus ...

that appeared on their 1979 album '' The Long Run''. It was written by band members Timothy B. Schmit,

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 H ...

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", "Des ...

. Recorded in March 1978, it was the first song finished for the album and the first Eagles song to feature Schmit on lead vocals. Released as a single in February 1980, it became a ''Billboard'' top 10 hit in April, reaching number eight on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and number three on the

Adult Contemporary chart The Adult Contemporary chart is published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine and lists the most popular songs on adult contemporary radio stations in the United States. The chart is compiled based on airplay data submitted to ''Billboard'' by stat ...

. It was the group's last top ten hit on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100.

Background

Timothy B. Schmit provided the song title and composed the nucleus of "I Can't Tell You Why," which he then presented to Glenn Frey and Don Henley and they completed the song together. Henley described the finished song as "straight

Al Green Albert Leornes Greene (born April 13, 1946), better known as Al Green, is an American singer, songwriter, pastor and record producer best known for recording a series of soul hit singles in the early 1970s, including " Take Me to the River", ...

" and said that Frey, an R&B fan from Detroit, was responsible for the R&B feel of the song. Frey said to Schmit: "You could sing like

Smokey Robinson William "Smokey" Robinson Jr. (born February 19, 1940) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and former record executive director. He was the founder and front man of the Motown vocal group the Miracles, for which he was also chief ...

. Let's not do a

Richie Furay Paul Richard Furay (born May 9, 1944) is an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame member (with Buffalo Springfield). He is best known for forming the bands Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Neil Young, Bru ...

Poco Poco was an American country rock band originally formed in 1968 after the demise of Buffalo Springfield. Guitarists Richie Furay and Jim Messina, former members of Buffalo Springfield, were joined by multi-instrumentalist Rusty Young, bassis ...

-sounding song. Let's do an R&B song." Schmit describes the song as "loosely based on my own experiences." Schmit said: "I had some writing sessions with Don and Glenn and I threw out a bunch of my ideas and that one or "I Can't Tell You Why"stuck. I had omposeda pretty good part of it, not a huge part but enough for them to think 'That could be good' and go with it. So Don, Glenn and I finished it over a few all night sessions." He also said, "When it was being developed in the studio...I knew it was a great song. I hought'Yes! This is an amazing debut for me.' When we finally mixed it, we had a little listening party at the studio. As people were hearing it, Don turned to me and said, 'There's your first hit.'" Schmit sang the lead vocals, with Frey and Henley singing

counterpoint In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more musical lines (or voices) which are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. It has been most commonly identified in the European classical tra ...

. Schmit also played the bass on the track, which has a distinctive riff believed by Schmit to have been devised by Frey. According to Henley, Frey wrote the counterpoint part. In 1980, the band promoted the song with a music video featuring Schmit on bass guitar accompanied by Frey on the

electric piano An electric piano is a musical instrument which produces sounds when a performer presses the keys of a piano-style musical keyboard. Pressing keys causes mechanical hammers to strike metal strings, metal reeds or wire tines, leading to vibrations ...

, although Frey recorded the guitar solos on the recording, with Henley on drums,

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 ...

on electric guitar, Joe Walsh on

organ Organ may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a part of an organism Musical instruments * Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone ** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument ** Hammond ...

and Walsh's touring sideman Joe Vitale on ARP string synthesizer. Live versions of the song were released on the 1980 album ''

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 ...

'' and 1994's ''

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: Glen ...

''. Schmit also performed "I Can't Tell You Why" while on tour as a member of

Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band is a live rock supergroup founded in 1989 with shifting personnel, led by former Beatles drummer and vocalist Ringo Starr. History and description Since 1989, Starr has toured with fourteen variations of the b ...

in 1992. Their performance of the song was included on the 1993 live album '' Ringo Starr and His All Starr Band Volume 2: Live from Montreux''.

Reception

Cash Box ''Cashbox'', also known as ''Cash Box'', was an American music industry trade magazine, originally published weekly from July 1942 to November 1996. Ten years after its dissolution, it was revived and continues as ''Cashbox Magazine'', an onli ...

'' said that "Schmit’s aching, near-falsetto vocal here adds immeasurable depth to the haunting quality of this love song, with a tastefully sparse instrumental." In 2017, ''

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 adverti ...

'' ranked the song number six on its list of the 15 greatest Eagles songs, In 2019, ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...

'' ranked the song number 11 on its list of the 40 greatest Eagles songs. ''Ultimate Classic Rock'' critic Sterling Whitaker rated it as the Eagles 5th most underrated song, praising Schmit's "beautiful

falsetto ''Falsetto'' (, ; Italian diminutive of , "false") is the vocal register occupying the frequency range just above the modal voice register and overlapping with it by approximately one octave. It is produced by the vibration of the ligamentou ...

" and Frey's "melodic" guitar solo.

Track listing

*7" single (45-1965/AS 12.418/K 12418/E-46608) *7" promo (E-46608)

Covers

* In 1990, R&B singer

Howard Hewett Howard Hewett Jr. (born October 1, 1955) is an American singer–songwriter. Hewett rose to fame as the lead vocalist of the group Shalamar. In 1985, he left the group to pursue his solo career, but he later returned to the group in 2001. He sig ...

covered "I Can't Tell You Why" which is on his ''Very Best of Howard Hewett'' album. It peaked at number 24 on the ''Billboard'' Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks. * In 1993, "I Can't Tell You Why" was covered by American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

artist

Vince Gill Vincent Grant Gill (born April 12, 1957) is an American country music singer, songwriter and musician. He has achieved commercial success and fame both as frontman of the country rock band Pure Prairie League in the 1970s and as a solo artist ...

for the Eagles tribute album '' Common Thread: The Songs of the Eagles''. Schmit sang backing vocals on the recording. This version went to number 51 on the

Hot Country Songs Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data from Nielsen BDS along with digital sa ...

chart. * In 1995, R&B group

Brownstone Brownstone is a brown Triassic–Jurassic sandstone that was historically a popular building material. The term is also used in the United States and Canada to refer to a townhouse clad in this or any other aesthetically similar material. Type ...

covered the song on their debut album, ''

From the Bottom Up ''From the Bottom Up'' is the debut studio album by American girl group Brownstone. It was released by Epic Records and Michael Jackson's MJJ Music on January 10, 1995 in the United States. Brownstone worked with a wide range of producers and song ...

''. Their version reached number 54 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, number 22 on the

Hot R&B The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by ''Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 p ...

chart and number 27 in the

UK top 75 The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

. * Alternative rock band

Lazlo Bane Lazlo Bane is an alternative rock band from Santa Monica, California, United States. They are well known for collaborating with former Men at Work member Colin Hay, and providing the song "Superman" as the theme for the television show '' Scrubs ...

covered the song for their 2007

cover album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records c ...

'' Guilty Pleasures''. * In 2015, Canadian jazz pianist and singer

Diana Krall Diana Jean Krall (born November 16, 1964) is a Canadian jazz pianist and singer known for her contralto vocals. She has sold more than 15 million albums worldwide, including over six million in the US. On December 11, 2009, ''Billboard'' maga ...

covered the song on her album ''Wallflower''. Her version reached number 10 on the ''Billboard'' Smooth Jazz chart.

Personnel

* Timothy B. Schmit: lead vocals, bass guitar *

: drums, backing vocals *

: lead guitar *

: electric piano, backing vocals *

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 ...

Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated ...

, Fender Rhodes electric piano * Joe Vitale:

ARP String Synthesizer The Solina String Synthesizer, also erroneously known as the ARP Solina String Synthesizer or sometimes the ARP String Synthesizer, is a combination of a string synthesizer and synthesizer. It is a hybrid model which combined both the Solina S ...

Chart performance

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

{{authority control 1970s ballads 1978 songs 1980 singles 1993 singles 1995 singles Eagles (band) songs Vince Gill songs Brownstone (group) songs Songs written by Glenn Frey Songs written by Don Henley Asylum Records singles Song recordings produced by Bill Szymczyk Rock ballads Soul ballads