The Moment a Secret Eagles Album Became Their Biggest Success

Like many groups, Eagles found themselves up against the wall creatively due to their growing success in the first half of the ’70s. An unexpected series of events in early 1976 put them in an interesting position as they prepared to release their next album later that same year.

The band found itself on a rollercoaster ride between 1972 and 1975 that showed no signs of slowing down. They’d notched eight Top 40 singles, including two No. 1 entries back to back with “Best of My Love” and “One of These Nights.”

In fact, 1975’s One of These Nights gave the group its first No. 1 album. As was often the case, the touring grind that comes with that kind of success left the Eagles members feeling spent and overwhelmed.

Watch Eagles Perform ‘One of These Nights’

“We always had trouble writing songs on the road,” Don Henley told CBS Sunday Morning in early 2026. “You know, we did better when we were at home and we didn’t have to worry about going on stage and preparing for that. But the Beatles had set the standard of putting out all these albums in succession and record companies came to expect that of everybody.”

The Record Company Had a Solution

As the drummer and vocalist remembers, Asylum Records, their label, got “antsy.” With the chart-topping success of the One of These Nights album, which had been released in June of 1975, they wanted to strike quickly and capitalize on the momentum. Their solution: a greatest hits album, which would allow them to have new product on the shelves by early 1976.

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“We were pretty much blindsided by that,” Henley remembers today. “But the record company telling us they were going to do that, which they contractually had the right to do, we didn’t have any way to stop them except just to complain.”

Their Producer Secretly Worked on the Project

Bill Szymczyk, who’d been working with the band since 1974’s On the Border, was tapped to assemble the collection. Though he’d become — and remained, a trusted associate, Henley says that they were unaware of his involvement at the time.

“Wefound out later that he was doing it. We were recording in Florida,, working on the Hotel California album down there at Criteria Studios,” he recalled. “Inthe morning, he was working on the greatest hits album, doing the sequencing and the mastering. And then we would show up at three or four o’clock in the afternoon.”

READ MORE: Eagles Album Art: The Wild Stories Behind Their Famous LP Covers

“He would come in [at that time] and and record Hotel California songs with us,” Henley continued. “So I don’t think I was even aware that he was doing that double duty at that time,But, I think he did the sequencing, which is important. It’s important to sequence songs on an album. You have to take tempo and key and subject matter into consideration when you’re sequencing an album, to try to make it flow. So he did that.”

“That’s about all we had to do with it except writing the songs,” the drummer concluded.

Listen to Eagles’ ‘Take it Easy’

The Secret Project Was a Huge Success

Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975) was released on Feb. 17, 1976. It spent five weeks at No. 1 and to date, has now sold more than 40 million copies. It remains the best-selling album of all time in the United States.

Hotel California, which came out in December of that same year is the third best-selling album of all time. Henley says the band has “amazement and gratitude” for the continued success of Their Greatest Hits, but he points out that they weren’t just opposed to the idea of a compilation. There is also a bit of nitpicking that can be added in for good measure.

The Problem With ‘Their Greatest Hits’

One issue he had with the release was the timing. “We hadn’t reached our creative peak yet. Hotel California is not part of the greatest hits album,” he explained. “And it didn’t come out until December of 1976.”

But it goes deeper than that. “‘Greatest Hits’ is kind of a misnomer,” he adds. “Itshould just be called ‘Their Best Songs,’ because every song on that album was not a greatest hit. You know, there are a couple of songs on that album that didn’t break the Top 30, but they’re good songs.”

Still, he’s ultimately at peace with it all.”[The songwriting] was painstaking work, and that work seems to have paid off somehow, because these songs have endured.”

Listen to Eagles’ ‘Best of My Love’