Glenn Frey was born today in Detroit in 1948. He started playing piano in kindergarten and was inspired by the Beatles to learn guitar. He played in local bands but the highlight of his Detroit years was singing backup on a Bob Seger track. It wasn’t until he moved to Los Angeles that his career would take flight and he would come to represent the best and worst of the 1970s and 80s.
Frey and John David Souther formed a duo called Longbranch Pennywhistle. They were terrible but managed to get signed separately by David Geffen. The other positive to come out of this arrangement was that Frey and J.D. rented a room that happened to be below Jackson Browne. They started hanging out and Frey was introduced to Linda Rondstadt and became part of her backing band.
Frey and the backing band eventually split from Rondstadt and named themselves the Eagles. They released their first album in 1972 and were immediately successful. Frey sang lead on two of the top 40 singles on the album, “Take it Easy” and “Peaceful Easy Feeling”. In 1976 the band added Ohio guitarist Joe Walsh and released their masterpiece, “Hotel California”. The record sold over 16 million copies and became one of the iconic albums of the decade. It was not, however, the best album of the year as it had the misfortune of being released at the same time as Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours”.
Frey and the band continued releasing albums together through 1979 before they split up. When they disbanded the Eagles were arguably the biggest American band of the decade. Frey continued on as a solo artist and changed his style to adapt to the changing musical landscape. If Frey had any standing as a genuine rocker at the start of the 1980s it would evaporate very quickly. He made his bones as a solo artist by cranking out soundtrack-worthy material for some of the decade’s biggest movies and television shows. Frey had two singles reach #2 on the charts, “The Heat Is On” from the movie Beverly Hills Cop, and “You Belong to the City” from the Miami Vice television show soundtrack.
It was another one of his songs, “Smuggler’s Blues”, that originally attracted the attention of Miami Vice producers. They gave Frey a role on the show and this launched his acting career. He specialized in playing mediocre bad guys and was so good at it he got to reprise essentially the same character on different shows throughout the years. The video for “Smuggler’s Blues” is a perfect time capsule capturing the essence of Frey at the time, demonstrating both his average acting ability and milquetoast music, all soaked in the sweaty, oily sheen of South Beach in the 1980s.
The Eagles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998 after winning six Grammys and selling over 100 million albums. Frey and the Eagles reunited in 2004 and released the highly anticipated “Hell Freezes Over” album. The album debuted at #1 and featured four new songs along with new recordings of Eagles classics. They followed with another album in 2007 which also went to #1 and sold three million copies, but the fire was gone. The band was set to be honored at the Kennedy Center in December of 2015 but Frey is battling another attack of intestinal issues and the band decided to postpone rather than be honored without Frey.
“Take It Easy” live in 1977 with Joe Walsh:
Frey getting it done 80s style:
