One of These Nights arrived in a crossroads moment for the Eagles.
The preceding album, 1974’s On the Border, produced their first-ever No. 1 single “Best of My Love.” Would the Eagles build on that embryonic success? Or recede back to the respectable but hardly attention-turning sales of their first two albums?
“We’ve all said, ‘One of these nights I’m gonna do something – get that girl, make that money, find that house,” Eagles co-founder Glenn Frey mused back then. “We all have our dreams, a vision we hope will come true someday. When that ‘someday’ will come is up to each of us.”
The Eagles’ First Chart-Topping Album
At the same time, their sound was evolving away from the easy-going country rock that had once defined this band. Edgier guitarist Don Felder had officially joined after appearing on two songs from On the Border. Bernie Leadon, the Eagles’ rootsy multi-instrumentalist, would soon exit.
In many ways, this era was defined by the title track from One of These Nights, a Don Henley-sung ballad with this sly toughness. Released as the album’s lead single, “One of These Nights” soon became the Eagles’ second consecutive chart-topping song.
READ MORE: How the Eagles Became the First Band to Go Platinum
“We like to be a nice little country-rock band from Los Angeles – about half the time,” Henley told Rolling Stone in 1975. “We wanted to get away from the ballad syndrome with ‘One of These Nights.’ With Don Felder in the band now, we can really rock. He’s made us nastier and did a great guitar solo on the single.”
Felder also assumed lead-vocal duties on the single’s deep-cut B-side, “Visions.” “Lyin’ Eyes” and then “Take It to the Limit” soared into the Top 5 as One of These Nights became the Eagles’ first chart-topping album. They sold more than four million copies.
Glenn Frey, Don Henley and Bernie Leadon during a mid-’70s Eagles concert. (Don Aters/Icon and Image, Getty Images)
Eagles’ ‘Satanic Country-Rock Period’ Begins
As sessions for One of These Nights continued, the Eagles also found themselves diving into more serious subject matter. “We like to call it our ‘satanic country-rock period,'” Henley said in the liner notes to Eagles: The Very Best Of. “Because it was a dark time, both politically and musically, in America. … We wanted to capture the spirit of the times.”
Leadon took a plucky instrumental turn on “Journey of the Sorcerer” and earned songwriting co-credits for “Hollywood Waltz” and the album-closing “I Wish You Peace.” Still, his time with the group was clearly drawing to a close. Joe Walsh would soon replace Leadon.
“He’d never really messed with rock ‘n’ roll guitar, and he never really understood how to get that dirty rock and roll sound,” Henley told Melody Maker in 1975. “Also, Felder can play the banjo and a mean mandolin, so we didn’t lose anything in that area when Bernie left.”
READ MORE: Ranking All 11 Bernie Leadon Eagles Songs
The next Eagles era was already underway. Just one album later, they reached a career pinnacle with the 28-times-platinum Hotel California.
“All our records have the same theme, and that is the search,” Henley later said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s romance, money or security – it’s the act of looking for it. Your whole life is one long journey, and getting there is more important than the journey’s end.”
Here’s a song-by-song look back at a key moment in that search, the era-turning One of These Nights.
No. 9. “I Wish You Peace”
From: One of These Nights (1975)
Away from Eagles, Leadon has been a member of the Flying Burrito Brothers and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. So you might have expected one of his last moments with Eagles to be representative of that rootsy history. Instead, Leadon shared writing duties on this slow-death elegy with live-in girlfriend Patti Davis – daughter of future President Ronald Reagan, who had all but disowned her for cohabitating with the Eagles cofounder. Henley, and he was being kind, dismissed the results as “smarmy cocktail music.”
No. 8. “Visions”
From: One of These Nights (1975)
Written by Don Felder with an assist from Don Henley, this riffy, Southern rock-informed track is the only Eagles song to feature Felder on lead vocals. He’ll never be confused with the group’s better-known singers, but thankfully Felder’s scorching runs on his main instrument provide plenty of gritty distractions.
No. 7. “Journey of the Sorcerer”
From: One of These Nights (1975)
This Leadon instrumental begins as a delicately conveyed aside before taking on epic proportions with the arrival of a surging orchestra and featured violinist David Bromberg.
No. 6. “Too Many Hands”
From: One of These Nights (1975)
Randy Meisner co-wrote this smart twist on an old religious trope with Felder, who’d just become an official member. In keeping with Felder’s arrival, “Too Many Hands” also takes one of the final long strides away from the pastoral sounds of their earlier albums. Felder tangles with Frey on a dueling guitar-dominated outro, while Henley happily bangs away on the tabla.
No. 5. “Hollywood Waltz”
From: One of These Nights (1975)
The Eagles were steaming toward a new rock-focused approach, but this Bernie Leadon co-write showed they hadn’t yet completely discarded the band’s dusty-booted original sound — and to great effect. Leadon’s everywhere on this track, plucking away on the mandolin when he’s not adding a ruminative pedal-steel whine.
No. 4. “After the Thrill Is Gone”
From: One of These Nights (1975)
Taking a rueful look back at the wreckage a lost relationship was already becoming old hat for Frey and Henley, even this early on, and that’s likely why “After the Thrill Is Gone” hasn’t gained wider attention. This tucked-away gem is made complete by Felder’s solo, which adds a touch of simmering anger.
No. 3. “Lyin’ Eyes”
From: One of These Nights (1975)
This crossover hit was written in a rush of inspiration over just two days. Yet, every element of this wry narrative about a gold digger’s empty life unfolds with a writerly knack for detail. Glenn Frey shifts points of view, never wasting a word, as he fills in the blanks around a real-life encounter he had while with Don Henley at their favorite ’70s-era watering hole, Dan Tana’s. They rushed back home, working to get every word just right before heading directly into the studio, where the Eagles displayed a similar meticulousness: The song’s deeply resonant opening line – “City girls just seem to find out early” – actually represents six different tries.
No. 2. “Take It to the Limit”
From: One of These Nights (1975)
As this became Eagles’ highest charting single yet, Meisner found himself under crushing pressure to hit the song’s heart-rending high note onstage night after night. Panic apparently began to creep in, and he asked that the song – despite its massive popularity – be removed from the band’s sets. When the rest of the Eagles refused, Meisner quit. The vocal was first taken over by Frey, then, after Frey’s death, by Vince Gill.
No. 1. “One of These Nights”
From: One of These Nights (1975)
The goal was to break the ballad template, stirring in contemporary R&B sounds and a sneaky lyric that pulls no punches. Everything was coming together for Frey and Henley, who were quickly emerging as the group’s undisputed co-leaders. Still, newcomer Don Felder played a huge role in helping the Eagles shed their country-rock pretensions. He arranged the unforgettable bass and guitar signature for “One of These Nights,” and his searing solo then neatly underscores this chart-topping song’s bitter sense of missed opportunities.
Listen to Don Felder on the ‘UCR Podcast’
Eagles Albums Ranked
The Eagles have been rightly praised for their canny combining of Glenn Frey’s city-slicker R&B with Don Henley’s country-fried rockabilly. But which LP goes this distance?
Gallery Credit: Nick DeRiso
