One of These Nights

Background

The Eagles began working on their fourth album in late 1974. Glenn Frey and Don Henley wrote four of the nine songs by themselves, and they also collaborated with other members of the band on three other songs. Many of the songs were written while Frey and Henley were sharing a house in Beverly Hills, including "One of These Nights", "Lyin' Eyes", "Take It To The Limit" and "After The Thrill Is Gone". Henley joked in an interview with Cameron Crowe that it was their "satanic country-rock period" because "it was a dark time, both politically and musically" in America, referring to the turmoil in Washington and disco music starting to take off. He added: "We thought, "Well, how can we write something with that flavor, with that kind of beat, and still have the dangerous guitars?” We wanted to capture the spirit of the times."

Frey said that "One Of These Nights was the most fluid and 'painless' album [they] ever made", and thought that the quality of the songs he wrote with Henley had improved dramatically. However, Leadon was becoming increasingly unhappy during the making of the album. He wrote three of the nine songs, none of which was released as a single. He was unhappy with the more rock direction of the band that Frey preferred, at one time walking out of a meeting to discuss which take to use after the recording of a rock track. Leadon would leave the band in late 1975, after the album was released.

Frey also began to sing less as a lead singer starting with this album, singing solo lead on only one song ("Lyin' Eyes") and sharing lead vocals with Henley on another ("After the Thrill Is Gone"). Henley later said: "[Glenn] was generous in that respect ... If I began to do more than he did, it was because if someone had a strong suit he would play that card. 'You sing this, you sing it better,' that kind of thing." Randy Meisner sings lead on two songs, one of which, "Take it to the Limit", a composition he co-wrote with Frey and Henley, was released as the third single from the album. It is the only Eagles single on which Meisner sings lead.

Artwork

The cover for the album is an image of an artwork by Boyd Elder, also known as "El Chingadero". Elder created artwork of painted skulls in the early 1970s, and pieces of his work, titled "American Fetish", were exhibited in an art gallery in Venice, California in 1972. Among those who attended the opening were members of the Eagles who performed "Witchy Woman" at the show, an early appearance by the band as the Eagles. Elder was also a friend of the album cover designer Gary Burden, who had been responsible for the Eagles' three previous albums and who was interested in using one of Elder's pieces for this cover. Elder presented two of his works to the Eagles in Dallas in late 1974, one of which was then chosen for the cover of One of These Nights. Later another work of Elder, an image of an eagle's skull, would be used for the cover of Their Greatest Hits album. The painted animal skull motif was also used in the cover for their compilation album The Very Best of, and the skull of One of These Nights was used for the cover of the documentary History of the Eagles.

The album cover for One of These Nights is the last Eagles album design on which Burden was involved. He made the skull stand up off the page by debossing large areas together with detailed and elaborate embossing in the wings and feathers. According to Burden, the cover image represents where the band was coming from and where they were going – "The cow skull is pure cowboy, folk, the decorations are American Indian inspired and the future is represented by the more polished reflective glass beaded surfaces covering the skull. All set against the dark eagle feather wings that speak of mysterious powers." The album artwork received a Grammy nomination for Best Album Package.

Critical

Stephen Holden of Rolling Stone, in an early review of the album, expressed a liking for the album but did not consider it a great album. He thought the band's ensemble playing "unprecedentedly excellent" but they "lack an outstanding singer", and that while "many of their tunes are pretty, none are eloquent." He added: "And for all their worldly perceptiveness, the Eagles' lyrics never transcend Hollywood slickness. Their hard rock has always seemed a bit forced, constructed more from commercial considerations than from any urgent impulse to boogie. And when the Eagles attempt to communicate wild sexuality, they sound only boyishly enthused. These limitations, however, seem built-in to the latter-day concept of Southern California rock, of which the Eagles remain the unrivaled exponents." The Rolling Stone Album Guide judged the album to be the band's "most musically adventurous outing yet, flirting with disco on the title song, a waltz on "Take It to the Limit", and bluegrass psychedelia on Leadon's "Journey of the Sorcerer".

William Ruhlmann of AllMusic in a retrospective review was more favorable; he thought that it had more original material and that the material was more polished. He wrote: "One of These Nights was the culmination of the blend of rock, country, and folk styles the Eagles had been making since their start; there wasn't much that was new, just the same sorts of things done better than they had been before. In particular, a lyrical stance—knowing and disillusioned, but desperately hopeful—had evolved, and the musical arrangements were tighter and more purposeful. The result was the Eagles' best-realized and most popular album so far."

Commercial

The album first entered the Billboard 200 chart at No. 25 the week of its release, and climbed to No. 1 in its fourth week on the chart, where it then stayed the next four weeks. It is the first of the four consecutive No. 1 albums by the Eagles. The album was certified Gold three weeks after its release on June 30, 1975, and it received its 4× Platinum certification on March 20, 2001, signifying shipment of over 4 million copies in the United States.

Side one

1. "One of These Nights" (Don Henley, Glenn Frey) – 4:51
2. Lead vocals by Don Henley, guitar solo by Don Felder, piano by Glenn Frey
3. "Too Many Hands" (Randy Meisner, Don Felder) – 4:43
4. Lead vocal by Randy Meisner, lead guitar by Don Felder, ending dual guitar solos by Don Felder and Glenn Frey, tablas by Don Henley
5. "Hollywood Waltz" (Bernie Leadon, Tom Leadon, Henley, Frey) – 4:04
6. Lead vocal by Don Henley, mandolin and pedal steel guitar by Bernie Leadon, harmonium by Glenn Frey, synthesizer by Albhy Galuten
7. "Journey of the Sorcerer" (B. Leadon) – 6:40
8. Instrumental; banjo by Bernie Leadon, fiddles by David Bromberg, strings by the Royal Martian Orchestra, recorded "in root"

Side two

1. "Lyin' Eyes" (Henley, Frey) – 6:22
2. Lead vocal and acoustic guitar by Glenn Frey, lead guitar by Bernie Leadon, piano by Jim Ed Norman
3. "Take It to the Limit" (Meisner, Henley, Frey) – 4:49
4. Lead vocal by Randy Meisner, lead guitar by Don Felder, piano by Jim Ed Norman
5. "Visions" (Felder, Henley) – 3:58
6. Lead vocal by Don Felder and lead guitar by Don Felder
7. "After the Thrill Is Gone" (Henley, Frey) – 3:56
8. Lead vocals by Glenn Frey and Don Henley, lead guitar by Don Felder, pedal steel guitar by Bernie Leadon
9. "I Wish You Peace" (Patti Davis, B. Leadon) – 3:45
10. Lead vocal and lead guitar by Bernie Leadon

"Journey of the Sorcerer"

"Journey of the Sorcerer" was used as the theme music for Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio series produced by the BBC in 1978 and 1979. Adams said he had wanted something that sounded "sci-fi" while at the same time suggestive of a traveller, so this banjo-based instrumental struck him as ideal. "Journey of the Sorcerer" was used subsequently for the television series in 1981 (albeit re-recorded), the sequel radio series produced by Above the Title Productions for the BBC in 2003 and 2004, and (re-recorded once again) for the film produced by Disney/Touchstone in 2005. The original version from One of These Nights was used for all original transmissions of all five radio series. The TV adaptation of the series, and also an additional version released on LP record, used an arrangement by Tim Souster. The CD releases of radio series transmitted in 2004 and 2005 used another version arranged by Philip Pope, and recorded by a tribute band The Illegal Eagles, and the 2005 film used a version by Joby Talbot.

"I Wish You Peace"

“I Wish You Peace” was written by Bernie Leadon and his then-girlfriend Patti Davis, daughter of Republican then-Governor of California Ronald Reagan. Nancy Reagan had already disowned Patti during this period, ostensibly because of her choice to live together with Leadon as an "unmarried couple". Don Henley would years later disparage this song as an Eagles release, describing it as “smarmy cocktail music and certainly not something the Eagles are proud of”. Henley was also annoyed that Davis was given cowriting credit, and told a reporter: "Nobody else wanted [the song]. We didn't feel it was up to the band's standards, but we put it on anyway as a gesture to keep the band together."

"After the Thrill is Gone"

According to Henley, he and Frey were aware of B.B. King's song "The Thrill Is Gone", and wrote the song to explore the aftermath: "We know that the thrill is gone – so, now what?"

Album pressing

Original vinyl record pressings of One of These Nights (Elektra/Asylum catalog no. 7E-1039) had the following text engraved in the run-out grooves of each album side:

1. Side one: "Don't worry --"
2. Side two: "-- Nothing will be O.K.!"

The Eagles and their producer Bill Szymczyk would continue the trend of including such "hidden messages" in the run-out grooves on several subsequent albums.

This is the second album by the Eagles to have a Quadraphonic surround sound pressing. It was released on Quadraphonic 8-track tape and CD-4 LP.

Personnel