I loved "Already Gone" and "Witchy Woman", but this song made me take notice of the band. Yeah, I know, unlikely song for that, but I heard if every day on the school bus home, and it was instantly catchy. Along with Linda Ronstadt and Olivia Newton-John, it also helped me warm up to soft countryish songs. In 1975, it still wasn't enough to make me run out and buy any of their music, through. An upcoming blockbuster in 1977 did that. But, "On The Border" is a solid album, and I think the change to Bill Szymczyk in the middle of recording it helped. Now, I don't know how they came up with the title of that album or song, but it seems fitting because of the producer change.
In a way, though I am getting a bit ahead here, this was one of two different songs with the same title that topped these charts, where key people involved in their creation died within a few weeks of each other some two years ago. For some reason, I always preferred this short 45 edit. That this has no producer's credit on the label, coupled with the obvious C&W leanings in the arrangement, seems to be a sign that this was from one of the Glyn Johns sessions before they split with him and went with Mr. Szymczyk.
Best Of My Love is a nice song. The Eagles would have a couple of top 25 UK hits in 1975, but they’d be from the album after the one BOML is from. It must have had airplay here as I knew the song well enough when I bought the Their Greatest Hits 1971-75 comp in 1985. One of my very first CDs.
Joe Walsh? It was Don Felder that was brought in on lead guitar half way through OTB described on the sleeve as 'late arrival'. Walsh later replaced Meisner. OTB was the first Eagles album I bought. Quickly got the self titled as OTB was so good.
I'm an Eagles fan, but have always felt Best Of My Love was a throwaway tune that got lucky. While BOML has great harmonies and cleverly twisted lyrics, there are much better songs on that album. I think Henley is a much better songwriter than Frey, but Frey is the superior vocalist.
I love the Eagles, but "Best of My Love" is among my least favorite of their songs. Boring and banal, and they did a much better job elsewhere with the exact same subject (notably with the other Glyn Johns-produced song that made it onto OTB, "You Never Cry Like a Lover".
And then Linda was replaced at the top by 3 members of her 1971 touring band - Frey, Henley and Meisner. She was also the one who suggested the fourth original Eagle: Bernie Leadon. "Best Of My Love" became a favorite after I realized what a great cry in your beer tune it is (and yes, there's a breakup story attached). The bridge is what really makes the song pop for me. That transition into "I'm goin' back in time" is killer. I was trying to remember if they performed it the one time I saw them (first night at the Forum in March '80), looked up the setlist and found it was the only night of their L.A. stand that they did not. Shucks.
Given the news that their first greatest-hits album has now been certified as the best-selling album ever, it's sort of apropos we're now on this first chart-topper of the Eagles'.
When I was in college, the local classic rock station would play ads where a narrator would intone, in sarcastic slow motion deep voice, that 'we.. won't... play... Journey...' I still remember how derisively they said 'Journey'. Nowadays, Journey are a mainstay on those same stations.
I love this song but that edit at the 3:15 is terrible. The Eagles had tried to get Joe Walsh to lay down a slide solo on "Good Day In Hell" but he wasn't available so Don Felder (who had been a childhood friend of Bernie Leadon) was brought in. The initial plan was to bring him in to play on that one song only but things went so well that they asked him to join the band.
The stuff Glenn says about Felder in the History of The Eagles Documentary is downright criminal. First thing I thought of when he passed actually
I find that I have that single edit of "The Best Of My Love" on a TM Century Golddisc #113. Though the single lists the time as 3:25, the song is still fading at that point and is gone by 3:30 on this CD.
They toured with Walsh at the time and were taken by his Lp The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get which just so happened to be produced by Symsyck. Synchronicity.
In this thread now I'm mostly commenting on songs I like and those I really hate. I like Best of My Love, it's one of my Eagles favourites (along with Lyin' Eyes and maybe a couple others).
I don't like "Best of my love." I had to play it a lot and sing it when I was in a band at that time - you know, you HAD to play a slow song or two, so I got very sick of it - it's not fun to play or to sing. My main problem with it is I hear absolutely no emotion in it anywhere. It just lays there like a wet dog.
I've always liked Linda Ronstadt's hit single with the Stone Poneys, their version of Mike Nesmith's Different Drum. But I never really looked into anything else she did with that band. I do know that when she started to generate interest from major labels, most of them wanted her to bag the group and go solo, which of course she eventually did. So, I found a few clips online of the group performing in early 1968. Here they have a Jefferson Airplane vibe, although judging by these (live) clips, I can see where the labels were coming from. The band just doesn't seem to be in sync with Linda, sometimes disastrously so, at least in these performances (the live version of Different Drum is nigh unlistenable and quite different from the polished single version). Here's a good example, a song called One For One. I quite like this song; Linda seems to be heavily channeling Grace Slick. But to some degree, the ragged accompaniment only suggests what the superior Airplane could bring to a number like this; it's Ronstadt who brings the power to it, holding the mike far from her mouth to avoid blowing the sound system out when she lets loose. The band (especially the drummer) at times seems to get a little lost (as one YouTube commenter helpfully points out, the drummer really is traveling to the beat of a different drum!).
I had to post the live version of Different Drum. See what I mean? The tempo changes are really... unexpected I guess is one word for it! Although the single is great and I far prefer it, I do like this folky-flavored arrangement as a contrast to the stately chamber pop of the recorded version. But boy are there some cringey moments here!
...But Manilow waswapparently popular enough in the UK that aaLondo??---cordef " Not in America " live album came out then!!! BTW, Dr. Hook as well had a " UK Live " exclusive lp too, which came out belatedly as a $5.98 midline here after they left Capitol. Any others? ="Bobby Morrow, post: 19232307, member: 40802"]Nice song. Manilow was always great at this kind of thing. Not that it did him any good in the UK.. Mandy was his only hit for years. He did have a few more in the 80s, though.[/QUOTE]
...Though I never watched it, there was an American remake of the " MATH " landlords' livesp spin-off as well! "Bobby Morrow, post: 19233152, member: 40802"]It sounds very different to Man About The House where ‘Robin’ openly pursued ‘Chrissy’ (and many other girls) throughout the entire series only for her to marry his brother in the final episode. Of course, here the landlords, ‘George and Mildred’, got their own spin-off show which was arguably more popular than MATH.. But again, this isn’t really the thread for this.[/QUOTE]
Since a lot of folks aren't feeling the best of Eagles love, maybe the #1 R&B song will get you groovin'. I think it's one of the greatest things ever committed to wax.
Best of My Love was only 1 week at No. 1, which seems fitting. It didn't have that No. 1 single) aura over it. US Top 40 Singles Week Ending 1st March, 1975 TW LW TITLE –•– Artist (Label)-Weeks on Chart (Peak To Date) 1 2 BEST OF MY LOVE –•– Eagles (Asylum)-14 (1 week at #1) (1) 2 5 HAVE YOU NEVER BEEN MELLOW –•– Olivia Newton-John (MCA)-6 (2) 3 4 BLACK WATER –•– The Doobie Brothers (Warner Brothers)-11 (3) 4 7 MY EYES ADORED YOU –•– Frankie Valli (Private Stock)-15 (4) 5 3 SOME KIND OF WONDERFUL –•– Grand Funk (Capitol)-12 (3) 6 6 LONELY PEOPLE –•– America (Warner Brothers)-10 (6) 7 1 PICK UP THE PIECES –•– The Average White Band (AWB) (Atlantic)-13 (1) 8 17 LADY MARMALADE (Voulez-Vous Coucher Avec Moi) –•– LaBelle (Epic)-9 (8) 9 10 NIGHTINGALE –•– Carole King (Ode)-9 (9) 10 14 LADY –•– Styx (Wooden Nickel)-12 (10) 11 15 CAN’T GET IT OUT OF MY HEAD –•– Electric Light Orchestra (United Artists)-11 (11) 12 16 I’M A WOMAN –•– Maria Muldaur (Reprise)-10 (12) 13 9 #9 DREAM –•– John Lennon (Apple)-11 (9) 14 18 ROLL ON DOWN THE HIGHWAY –•– Bachman-Turner Overdrive (Mercury)-7 (14) 15 19 DON’T CALL US, WE’LL CALL YOU –•– Sugarloaf / Jerry Corbetta (Claridge)-13 (15) 16 20 EXPRESS –•– B.T. Express (Roadshow)-6 (16) 17 23 POETRY MAN –•– Phoebe Snow (Shelter)-9 (17) 18 8 YOU’RE NO GOOD –•– Linda Ronstadt (Capitol)-12 (1) 19 25 MOVIN’ ON –•– Bad Company (Swan Song)-7 (19) 20 24 UP IN A PUFF OF SMOKE –•– Polly Brown (GTO)-9 (20) 21 26 TO THE DOOR OF THE SUN (Alle Porte Del Sole) –•– Al Martino (Capitol)-11 (21) 22 30 LOVIN’ YOU –•– Minnie Riperton (Epic)-7 (22) 23 27 MY BOY –•– Elvis Presley (RCA)-6 (23) 24 28 YOU ARE SO BEAUTIFUL / IT’S A SIN WHEN YOU LOVE SOMEBODY –•– Joe Cocker (A&M)-8 (24) 25 31 SAD SWEET DREAMER –•– Sweet Sensation (Pye)-8 (25) 26 34 I AM LOVE (Parts 1 & 2) –•– Jackson 5 (Motown)-7 (26) 27 35 SHAME, SHAME, SHAME –•– Shirley (and Company) (Vibration)-8 (27) 28 12 FIRE –•– The Ohio Players (Mercury)-12 (1) 29 13 SWEET SURRENDER –•– John Denver (RCA)-10 (13) 30 32 NEVER LET HER GO –•– David Gates (Elektra)-7 (30) 31 40 NO NO SONG / SNOOKEROO –•– Ringo Starr (Apple)-4 (31) 32 11 LOOK IN MY EYES PRETTY WOMAN –•– Tony Orlando and Dawn (Bell)-11 (11) 33 21 DOCTOR’S ORDERS –•– Carol Douglas (Midland International)-14 (11) 34 42 I’VE BEEN THIS WAY BEFORE –•– Neil Diamond (Columbia)-5 (34) 35 22 BOOGIE ON REGGAE WOMAN –•– Stevie Wonder (Tamla)-16 (3) 36 44 (Hey Won’t You Play) ANOTHER SOMEBODY DONE SOMEBODY WRONG SONG –•– B.J. Thomas (ABC)-5 (36) 37 45 I GET LIFTED / I CAN’T LEAVE YOU ALONE –•– George McCrae (T.K.)-12 (37) 38 46 CHEVY VAN –•– Sammy Johns (GRC)-5 (38) 39 49 EMOTION –•– Helen Reddy (Capitol)-4 (39) 40 48 PART OF THE PLAN –•– Dan Fogelberg (Epic)-5 (40) THIS WEEK’S DROPS 43 37 DON’T TAKE YOUR LOVE –•– The Manhattans (Columbia)-9 (37) 44 38 PLEASE MR. POSTMAN –•– The Carpenters (A&M)-15 (1) 57 29 GET DANCIN’ (Part 1) –•– Disco Tex and the Sex-O-Lettes (Chelsea)-15 (10) 61 33 LAUGHTER IN THE RAIN –•– Neil Sedaka (Rocket)-20 (1) 64 39 SALLY G / JUNIOR’S FARM –•– Paul McCartney and Wings (Apple)-17 (3) 66 36 MANDY –•– Barry Manilow (Bell)-16 (1) POWER PLAYS 41 55 HARRY TRUMAN –•– Chicago (Columbia)-2 (41) 42 43 IF LOVING YOU IS WRONG I DON’T WANT TO BE RIGHT –•– Millie Jackson (Spring)-6 (42) 45 68 ONCE YOU GET STARTED –•– Rufus Featuring Chaka Khan (ABC)-3 (45) 46 57 SUPERNATURAL THING (Part 1) –•– Ben E. King (Atlantic)-4 (46) 47 64 EMMA –•– Hot Chocolate (Big Tree)-4 (47) 48 61 BEFORE THE NEXT TEARDROP FALLS –•– Freddy Fender (ABC / Dot)-5 (48) 49 58 WOLF CREEK PASS –•– C.W. McCall (MGM)-5 (49) 50 56 GOOD TIMES, ROCK AND ROLL –•– Flash Cadillac and the Continental Kids (Private Stock)-5 (50) DEBUTS THIS WEEK 69 — L-O-V-E (Love) –•– Al Green (Hi)-1 (69) 82 — IT’S A MIRACLE –•– Barry Manilow (Arista)-1 (82) 86 — LEONA –•– Wet Willie (Capricorn)-1 (86) 89 — WE’RE ALMOST THERE –•– Michael Jackson (Motown)-1 (89) 94 — SHOWDOWN / DON’T LEAVE ME IN THE MORNING –•– Odia Coates (United Artists)-1 (94) 95 — THE PILL –•– Loretta Lynn (MCA)-1 (95) 96 — AMIE –•– The Pure Prairie League (RCA)-1 (96) 98 — TOBY / THAT’S HOW LONG –•– The Chi-Lites (Brunswick)-1 (98) 99 — TURN TO STONE –•– Joe Walsh (Dunhill)-1 (99) 100 — ONLY ONE WOMAN –•– Nigel Olsson (Rocket)-1 (100)