Eagles - Their Greatest Hits Volumes 1 & 2 (2LP)

The Eagles’ two greatest hits sets feel less like compilations and more like a documentary of a band growing up in public. You can hear the dusty glow of Laurel Canyon give way to a sleeker, late 70s swagger, and it still plays like an unskippable radio station. The story starts with Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975), released in 1976, then jumps to 1982’s Greatest Hits, Vol. 2. Taken together, Their Greatest Hits Volumes 1 & 2 is the backbone of classic rock shelves everywhere and an easy recommendation for anyone searching for Eagles vinyl that delivers song after song without filler.

Volume 1 captures the group when harmonies, acoustic guitars, and Glyn Johns’ crisp production framed the songs like afternoon light. “Take It Easy” still rolls down the highway with that Jackson Browne co-write ease, Bernie Leadon’s picking tucked under Glenn Frey’s breezy vocal. “Witchy Woman” slides in on a darker minor-key sway. Then come the heart-tuggers. “Desperado,” never a single, became a standard through radio play and covers, not least Linda Ronstadt’s early version. Randy Meisner’s voice lifts “Take It to the Limit” into the rafters, the kind of chorus that stops a room. As the years tick forward, you can feel Bill Szymczyk take the production reins and add punch. “One of These Nights” brings a velvet pulse and immaculate falsetto. “Lyin’ Eyes” strolls with novelistic detail, and it even won the band a Grammy in 1976 for Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group. It is a master class in sequencing, too. These nine tracks breathe like a set list from a band that knew pacing.

Volume 2 picks up where the band turns sharper and louder. Joe Walsh’s arrival brings a jolt, and “Life in the Fast Lane” hits with chrome-plated confidence. “Hotel California” remains the showstopper so many of us learned by osmosis. Don Henley’s cool vocal tells the story, while Don Felder and Walsh trade lines in that long coda that every cover band dreams of nailing. “New Kid in Town” adds tenderness and won a Grammy of its own. “Heartache Tonight” punches from the diaphragm, fueled by handclaps and barroom energy. Then there is “I Can’t Tell You Why,” Timothy B. Schmit stepping to the mic with a satin-sheen ballad that shows how effortlessly the band could pivot from desert sunrise to late-night city lights. The Long Run era tracks feel lived-in, and this set makes that case with no fat to trim.

The numbers around these records turned into music-business legend. Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975) was the first album certified Platinum by the RIAA, and as of 2018 it was certified 38 times Platinum in the United States. That stat floats around because it speaks to how these songs seeped into everyday life. You could grow up never owning an Eagles LP and still know “Best of My Love,” “Tequila Sunrise,” and “Already Gone” like family. Then you get the second volume, issued two years after the band split in 1980, and it feels like a farewell parade. Not a bad way to wrap an era.

On vinyl, these tracks still shine. The acoustic guitars have wood and air, bass lines sit warm and round, and those stacked harmonies bloom in a way streaming often flattens. If you find clean early Asylum pressings, grab them. If you need a quick fix, many shops bundle the two volumes as a handy set, and you will not feel shortchanged. Their Greatest Hits vinyl remains one of the least risky blind buys in a crate. It is also a smart gateway if you want to buy Eagles records online without diving straight into the studio albums. Once these two spin a few times, you will likely go hunting for On the Border and Hotel California anyway.

A last nod to the cultural imprint. “Hotel California” won Record of the Year at the 1978 Grammys, which tells you how deeply that single landed. But I keep returning to the quieter triumphs that make these sets feel human. The way Henley and Frey trade lines like old friends. The way Meisner’s high notes ache without grandstanding. The way Walsh’s guitar tone roughens the edges just when the storytelling needs grit. That is the charm of Eagles albums on vinyl. You hear players in a room solving songs together.

If you stumble on Their Greatest Hits Volumes 1 & 2 vinyl in a Melbourne record store, do not overthink it. These are the records you keep near the turntable for company, for Sunday mornings, for late-night singalongs. And if you live far from a good shop, there are plenty of places to buy Eagles records online that will ship quickly, even for those browsing vinyl records Australia wide. Some music just earns its place on the shelf by being there for you, and across these two platters, the Eagles make that case with ease.