Eagles - Eagles The Very Best Of 2CD (33 tracks) +Album Reviews

A definitive collection at last

Peter Durward Harris | Leicester England | 10/22/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"There have been Eagles compilations before but this by far the best. It contains all the songs that could be found on earlier British and American compilations, plus a few songs never before included on any of them. And everything has been digitally re-mastered, sounding better than ever. All the famous songs are here including Desperado, Take it to the limit, Lying eyes, Hotel California, Tequila sunrise, New kid in town and Best of my love to name just a few.Aside from the obvious songs, you also get Please come home for Christmas (a song that has since become a standard), two songs from their Hell freezes over album (Love will keep us alive and Get over it), their recently recorded Hole in the world and several great album tracks, of which I particularly like Midnight flyer and Victim of love. A nice booklet with extensive liner notes is also included. If you only buy one Eagles collection, make it this one. It has everything that most people will ever need, although there are still plenty of interesting songs on the original albums that couldn't be included."

A "Very Best of" that actually is

Gavin Mack | Carlsbad, NM | 06/04/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"After years of putting out "Greatest Hits" and "Best of..." packages, the record companies are now having to resort to greater hyperbole to sell the collections. The current trend of "The Very Best of..." sets is, in most cases, just another issue of the same old stuff that has, at least usually, been remastered. That is not the case with this set.

The Eagles are as much of an emblem of the American '70's as the Beatles were of the '60's. Each album that was released showed a band that was changing and maturing, both as musicians and as songwriters. By the time they got to the end of their run with "The Long Run" (no pun intended), they moved as far from their roots as the Beatles had in 1969. And like the Beatles, it was all good.

This collection manages to showcase this transformation in elegant style, taking the best from every album. There are at least 3 songs from each of their studio albums with "On the Border", "Hotel California", and "The Long Run" each contributing 6. The lone selection from their 1980 live album is also the only reason to own it, "Seven Bridges Road". Also included are the two best new songs from "Hell Freezes Over" and their post 9-11 tune, "Hole In The World".

Greatest Hits collections are seldom satisfying to the more than casual fan, leaving those of us who delve deep into back catalogs the desire to go and get more. The remarkable thing about this set is that over the course of two discs, a great band's career is effectively and satisfyingly summarized, leaving very little for further investigation that is truly of note. Which is not to say that this is all that the Eagles were. It is to say, however, that for everyone from the curious to the hardcore fan, this is a collection worth having."

Finally, a Complete Eagles' Greatest Hits

Tim Brough | Springfield, PA United States | 10/27/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It's been a long time coming, but we finally got an Eagles package that includes all the hits and the choice AOR songs from the seventies. The question would be "what took them so darn long?!?" Part was contract disputes (there was supposed to be a complete hits collection in the 90's, but squabbles derailed that) and the question of the original albums being poorly mastered to CD. So I figure that, once Bill Szymczyk did the massive overview of each Eagles album in 2001, the band was willing to get behind a well made hits collection that combined their first Hits Disc with the much lamer Vol. 2. It was well worth the wait. The sound quality is uniformly excellent throughout. You get all the great songs and no trumped up "bonus material" (crappie demos, alternate versions, hip-hop mixes, etc.) to distract you as the hits keep piling on. It's hard to imagine that these sounds were revolutionary in the early seventies, but they darn near soundtracked the period. There's the biker band rock of "James Dean," the country bluegrass feel of "Midnight Flyer," the decade defining "Hotel California" and "Life In The Fast Lane," and one of the all time great romantic ballads in "Take It To The Limit." It also helps that Henley and Frey were such great, visual songwriters - how can you not hear "Desperado" without a widescreen image of the west as defined by Los Angeles 1974 unraveling in your mind? Add the exemplary liner notes from Don Henely and Glenn Frey as they discuss the origins of each song, and you have a five star collection to reminisce over and enjoy. All meat, no filler, flawless."

The Complete Works Of Hits By The Eagles!

Barron Laycock | Temple, New Hampshire United States | 01/17/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This superb double disc work is surely the event of the year, given the fact that we finally hjave in one place all of the terrific folk-rock of one of the 1970s and early 1980s super groups. Well, all things are possible to those who wait, and our wait has been rewarded with a richly textured and memorable effort that covers many of their best previous songs as well as several new ones. Thus we trip from "Tequila Sunrise" to "Hotel California", from "New York Minute" to "Desperado", and from "Take It Easy" to "Life In The Fast Lane". The simple fact that they are out there creating and working together gives one hope for future works, and given other recent efforts like "A Hole In The World, included here, it appears they are again gathering and recording. Hope we don't have to wait for Hell to freeze over again. Enjoy!"

Great collection

Docendo Discimus | Vita scholae | 11/11/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Awful cover. I really hate that cover.
Anyway, this is a really great compilation, bringing together 33 Eagles songs, and there is little reason to complain about the compilers' choices. (They should have included the beautiful "Doolin-Dalton/Desperado Reprise", though, and chucked "Those Shoes".)All the Eagles' best-known songs are here, including all but one of their singles ("Outlaw Man" has been omitted), and several of the lesser-known album tracks are almost as good as platinum-selling hits like "Hotel California" and "New Kid In Town". "Doolin-Dalton" is a great western-style ballad with Don Henley and Glenn Frey trading off lines, "Victim Of Love" is a tough rocker, and "Already Gone" sees Glenn Frey and Bernie Leadon doing the Allman Brothers thing with the twin lead guitars.I'm not convinced that this album is better than the original "Greatest Hits" and "Greatest Hits II" CDs, though, especially not if you're a casual fan and just want the best of the best. But if you're looking for a little more, "The Very Best Of The Eagles" is a fine choice, and the Eagles don't try to lure people who already own all of their original albums into buying this one as well by adding a couple of new tracks. Kudos for that."

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