Search - Eagles :: The Very Best of the Eagles

Fine Eagles Collection For Those With More Money, Less Room

Anthony G Pizza | FL | 08/11/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Hard imagining anyone but wealthy, space-strapped Eagles fans taking this one-disc, price-prohibitive collection over "Greatest Hits 1971-75" and "Greatest Hits Vol.2," among music's top sellers and essential 1970s collections. Choosing "The Very Best of The Eagles" over those shortchanges vintage classics as "Sad Cafe'," "Already Gone," "After The Thrill Is Gone," and others. But the sequencing here is refreshingly out of chronological order, dropping Tim Schmitt's honest, aching vocal on "I Can't Tell You Why" above "Lyin' Eyes" chrome polished country. Sprinkling less familiar songs ("Doolin' Dalton," "James Dean") among Eagle standards shows creativity those hits sets lacked. Praising a mythical gunfighter and the "just too cool for school" film star allowed lead songwriters Glenn Frey and Don Henley to tap the musician-as-renegade image rock and country stars (Paul McCartney's "Band On The Run," Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings "Outlaws" projects) cultivated throughout the decade.Other than that, the same California timepieces ("Life In The Fast Lane," "Hotel California," "Take It To The Limit") show up on both collections, here providing a more concentrated shot of what made this country-turned-rock band one of music's richest, most enduring supergroups: lyrics charting personal and political cynicism that defined the 1970s, set to melodies consistently straddling reflective country ("Best of My Love," "Peaceful Easy Feeling") and wailing, immaculately crafted hard rock ("Life In The Fast Lane"). If you need the room and have the money, "The Very Best of The Eagles" covers the hits nicely, but the two hits collections covers more ground for about the same price."

Good collection but wait for new "Best Of"

Anthony G Pizza | 09/13/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"As only a casual fan of some of the Eagles music, this import collection was enough to satisfy me. Except for one glaring omission ("Already Gone", one of my personal favorites) and two duds ("Doolin Dalton" and "James Dean"), this has all of the essential Eagles songs you'd want on a hits compilation. However, now there's going to be a 2 disc "Best Of" that is coming out this fall that I will probably update my collection and replace this with. So any of you considering this collection instead might want to wait for that one instead because it has all the hits represented here plus the aforementioned "Already Gone" and some album tracks that are often played on classic rock radio like "In the City", "Victim of Love", etc."