When I was kid, my younger brother and I would be singing in the back seat of the car to whatever song was on the radio which usually consisted of Chicago, Queen, Styx, or the Eagles.  My brother and I were partial to the Eagles, more specifically the song “Heartache Tonight,” but we changed the words to “a party tonight.”  I remember my mother trying to correct us and you guessed it, we continued to ignore her and proceeded to sing the lyrics wrong.  Eagles, I sincerely apologize for our lack of consideration to your songwriting skills, but we felt we had a better version.  We were wrong.

Heartache Tonight was written by Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Bob Seger, and J.D. Souther.  The track is included on the Eagles’s album “The Long Run” and released as a single in 1979.  It reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in November of that same year and the single sold one million copies.  In 1980, the band received a Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group Vocal for the song that gave us the lyrics “Everybody wants to take a little chance, Make it come out right.”  Heartache Tonight will hold a special place in my life as it was a song that helped bond my younger brother and I as two goofy kids in the car who instead of fighting for once, we actually agreed on something.

As I got older, I developed a deeper appreciation for songs like “Life In The Fast Lane” more specifically the guitar riff that made that song.  To this day, I will sing that infamous guitar riff like it is apart of the words anytime it is playing (Thank you Joe Walsh).  Finally, I became partially to the song “Get Over It.”  No it is not because it was the first new song that was released when the Eagles got back together in 1994, but because my dad is obsessed with it and loved to play it anytime we were whining about something as a kid.  When I was younger, him playing that song was more annoying then anything else, but as I got older I realized it was hilarious.  Don Henley and Glenn Frey whoever put together the line:

“Complain about the present and blame it on the past
I’d like to find your inner child and kick its little ass”

I pretty much want to recite this line to everyone I encounter in the general population.  So, Mr. Henley, know that you are not the only person who is frustrated about people blaming their circumstances and problems on everyone else instead of looking in the mirror.

The Eagles were the band that began my music obsession as I pretty much stole all the Eagles CDs (among others) my parents had and kept them in my room.  There, I proceeded to keep them in my stereo once in high school, and ultimately copied them to my hard drive and iTunes library so I could play songs like “Life In The Fast Line,” “Get Over It,” and “Hotel California” during my daily workouts.  Hearing about Glenn Frey’s passing was devastating as I felt a music superman had left this crazy world a little quieter without his guitar strumming, music writing, and passion.  The world is a little darker without you, but thank you for the memories.