According to biographer Marc Elliott in To the Limit: The Untold Story of the Eagles, it was Asylum’s next boss, Joe Smith, who pushed for the release of the “greatest album.” The band itself (responsible for more than 50% of the label’s income in the mid-’70s) was trying to raise money while delaying production on their fifth album to renegotiate their royalty contract.
Drummer and vocalist Don Henley called the record a “forced, disgusting marriage of art and commerce,” and told Elliott that Asylum “didn’t care if the greatest hits album was any good. They just wanted the product.” Henry, who had envisioned the Eagles’ second LP, Desperado, as a concept album, was particularly opposed to including songs that removed thematic context.
Instant smash
The concept of They Greatest Hits 1971-1975 is completely straightforward: it includes all nine of the band’s previous singles, as well as the title track from Desperado. The record was an instant hit, spending five weeks at the top of the Billboard 200 album chart, and ending the year as the fourth most popular record in America, behind Peter Frampton’s Frampton Comes Alive, Fleetwood Mac’s tenth self-titled album, and Wings’ Wings at the Speed ​​of Sound. It continued to sell well and stayed on the Billboard 200 for over two years.
Starting in the 1980s, it began competing with Michael Jackson’s Thriller for the title of best-selling album in the United States, finally establishing a clear lead in controversial circumstances in 2018. Asylum’s parent company, Warner Music Group, conducted an audit Collect old sales and royalty reports to create evidence of previously uncounted purchases to the satisfaction of the RIAA. Overnight, sales of their Greatest Hits 1971-1975 increased by 9 million copies. Sony and Michael Jackson’s estate expressed concerns at the time.
Getty ImagesSource: BBC Culture – www.bbc.com
