Eagles

Four musicians who had all backed Linda Ronstadt, put together as a band by David Geffen in 1971, and sold more records than almost anyone who has ever tried. The Eagles took the country rock that Los Angeles had been making for a decade, tightened the harmonies until nothing was loose, and then spent the middle of the seventies methodically leaving it behind. Desperado made the mythology explicit; One of These Nights put an R&B bassline under it and went to No. 1; Hotel California turned the whole California proposition into something considerably less comfortable and sold thirty-two million copies.

They broke up in July 1980, reunited in 1994, and have been touring on and off since. Five American No. 1 singles, six No. 1 albums, six Grammy Awards, and more than 150 million records sold — including Their Greatest Hits 1971–1975, which the RIAA named the best-selling album of the twentieth century. They entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, and every surviving member who had ever been in the band played that night. Glenn Frey died in 2016 and Randy Meisner in 2023; Don Henley, Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmit still take the band out, with Vince Gill and Frey's son Deacon alongside them.