B-side "The Disco Strangler" Format 7" vinyl Length 3:42 | Released November 27, 1979 Genre Pop rock, soft rock Label Asylum | |
"The Long Run" is a song written by Don Henley and Glenn Frey and recorded by the Eagles. The sound of the song is viewed as a tribute to the Stax / Memphis rhythm and blues sound. It was the title track of their album The Long Run and was released as a single in November 1979. It reached No. 8 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in early 1980. It was the second of three singles released from The Long Run album, preceded by "Heartache Tonight," which reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in November 1979, and followed by "I Can't Tell You Why," which also reached No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100, in the spring of 1980.
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The song was featured on the TV show WKRP in Cincinnati on the episode "The Doctor's Daughter". Specifically, Dr. Johnny Fever decides to air the recording and his programming director, Andy Travis is hysterical with delight that his popular DJ is playing a hit record for once.
In his book The Heart of Rock & Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made the "The Long Run", music critic Dave Marsh calls the song a complete ripoff of the 1972 R&B record "Tryin' to Live My Life Without You".