B-side "Too Many Hands" Format 7" | Released September 7, 1975 | |
Recorded January 1975
Hollywood, California Genre Country rock, soft rock Length 4:14 (Single edit)
6:22 (Album version) | ||
"Lyin' Eyes" is a song written by Don Henley and Glenn Frey and recorded in 1975 by the American rock band the Eagles, with Frey singing lead vocals. It was the second single from their One of These Nights album, reaching No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and No. 8 on the US Country chart. It remained their only top 40 country hit until "How Long" in 2007–2008.
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The record also received a Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Group, and was also nominated for Record of the Year.
Background
The title and idea for the song came when Glenn Frey and Don Henley were in their favorite LA restaurant/bar Dan Tana's where many beautiful women frequented, and they started talking about beautiful women who were cheating on their husbands. They saw a beautiful young woman with a fat and much older wealthy man, and Frey said: "She can't even hide those lyin' eyes." According to Henley, Frey was the main writer of the song, although he had some input with the verses and the music. The song was written when Frey and Henley were sharing a house in Trousdale, Beverly Hills. Frey said of the writing of the song: "...the story had always been there. I don’t want to say it wrote itself, but once we started working on it, there were no sticking points. Lyrics just kept coming out, and that’s not always the way songs get written." During the Eagles 2013 concert tour, Frey stated it was written in just two evenings.
The song was released as the second single from One of These Nights, and reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The song was kept off the top spot by Elton John's single "Island Girl." The single also crossed over to the Country chart where it reached No. 8, their first on that chart and a feat few rock bands could have achieved at that time.
The single version of the song is shortened considerably from the album version, removing the entire second verse, the second chorus and four lines in the middle of the third verse. Top 40 Radio stations in 1975 did not usually play songs longer in duration than 4 minutes, so the runtime on the 45-RPM label was listed as 3:58, but the actual playing time was 4:14.
Covers
Among the many covers of "Lyin' Eyes" are Lynn Anderson's 1976 recording and Kenny Rankin's 1980 version on his After The Roses album. Diamond Rio also covered the song on the 1993 compilation Common Thread: The Songs of the Eagles. Dolly Parton has long cited the song as a personal favorite; she performed it on her 1976 variety show Dolly!
"Lyin' Eyes" is included on the Urban Cowboy soundtrack. It plays in the background in the diner scene when Sissy (Debra Winger) gets angry at Bud (John Travolta) for saying "Hello" to Jerry Hall's character.
Musical style
Musically, "Lyin' Eyes" combines elements of country, pop, rock, and folk music styles.
The radio and single edit removes parts of the second and third verses.