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Encyclopedia > The Last Resort (song)
Hotel California
Hotel California cover
Studio album by Eagles
Released December 8, 1976
Recorded March-October 1976 at Criteria Studios, Miami, FL and Record Plant Studios, Los Angeles, CA
Genre Rock
Length 43:30
Label Asylum Records
Producer(s) Bill Szymczyk
Professional reviews
Eagles chronology
Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975)
(1976)
Hotel California
(1976)
The Long Run
(1979)
This article is about the album. For its title track, see Hotel California (song).

Hotel California is an album released by American rock band Eagles in late 1976 (see 1976 in music). It is the first Eagles album without founding member Bernie Leadon, and the first album with Joe Walsh. The Eagles Hotel California album cover. ... A Studio Album is an album of regular studio recordings. ... The Eagles redirects here. ... December 8 is the 342nd day (343rd in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1976 (MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday. ... This article is about the city in Florida. ... Record Plant Studios (also known as just The Record Plant) is a famous recording studio, first opening in New York City at 321 West 44th Street map, in 1968. ... This article is about the largest city in California. ... A music genre is a category (or genre) of pieces of music that share a certain style or basic musical language (van der Merwe 1989, p. ... Rock is a form of popular music, usually featuring vocals (often with vocal harmony), electric guitars, and a strong back beat; other instruments, such as the saxophone, are common in some styles, however saxophones have been omitted from newer subgenres of rock music since the 90s. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... original logo current logo Asylum Records is a record label which was started in 1971 by David Geffen. ... In the music industry, a record producer (or music producer) has many roles, among them controlling the recording sessions, coaching and guiding the performers, and supervising the recording, mixing and mastering processes . ... Bill Szymczyk (pronounced Sim-zik) born in Muskegon, Michigan became a musical producer and technical engineer of rock working with, among others, The Eagles in the 1970s. ... The All Music Guide (AMG) is a metadata database about music, owned by All Media Guide. ... Image File history File links 5_stars. ... Robert Christgau (sometimes abbreviated in print to Xgau), born April 18, 1942, is an American essayist, music journalist, and rock critic. ... Rolling Stone is an American magazine devoted to music, politics and popular culture. ... Image File history File links 4_stars. ... The Eagles redirects here. ... Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975) is the first greatest hits compilation by the American band Eagles, released in 1976. ... The Long Run is the sixth studio album by The Eagles, released in 1979 (see 1979 in music). ... Hotel California was the title song from Eagles album of the same name, and was released as a single at the end of 1976. ... Rock is a form of popular music from the mid 20th century which typically features a vocal melody (often with vocal harmony) that is supported by accompaniment of electric guitars, a bass guitar, and drums, often with a strong back beat. ... The Eagles redirects here. ... See also: 1975 in music, other events of 1976, 1977 in music, 1970s in music and the list of years in music // January 6 - Peter Frampton releases Frampton Comes Alive! January 7 - Kenneth Moss, a former record company executive, is sentenced to 120 days in the Los Angeles County Jail... Bernie Leadon (born July 19, 1947 in Minneapolis, Minnesota) is an American musician, best known as a founding member of the country rock band The Eagles. ... ‹ The template below has been proposed for deletion. ...

Contents

History

Hotel California was the Eagles' fifth album of original material and became a major commercial hit; since its release in late 1976, it has sold over 16 million copies in the U.S. alone, and is their best-selling album of original material. The album was at #1 for eight weeks between late 1976 and early 1977 (non-consecutively), and included two tracks which became #1 hits as singles on the Billboard Hot 100: "New Kid in Town", on February 26, 1977, and "Hotel California" on May 7, 1977. The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. ... February 26 is the 57th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... For the album by Ash, see 1977 (album). ... May 7 is the 127th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (128th in leap years). ... For the album by Ash, see 1977 (album). ...


In 2001 the TV network VH1 named Hotel California the 38th greatest album of all time. Hotel California was ranked 95th in a 2005 survey held by British television's Channel 4 to determine the 100 greatest albums of all time. In 2003, the album was ranked number 37 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. A television network is a distribution network for television content whereby a central operation provides programming for many television stations. ... VH1 (spelled VH-1 (Video Hits One) until 1994) is an American cable television channel that was created in January 1985 by Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment (at the time a division of Warner Communications and owners of MTV, which originally came up with the idea of the channel). ... Channel 4 is a public-service television broadcaster in the United Kingdom (see British television). ... Rolling Stone is an American magazine devoted to music, politics and popular culture. ... The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time was the cover story of a special issue of Rolling Stone magazine published in November 2003. ...


Themes

Hotel California touched on many themes, including innocence (and the loss thereof), addiction to drugs, death, the dangers, temptations, and transient nature of fame, shallow relationships, divorce and loss of love, the end results of manifest destiny, and the "American Dream". Divorce or dissolution of marriage is the ending of a marriage before the death of either spouse, which can be contrasted with an annulment, which is a declaration that a marriage is void, though the effects of marriage may be recognized in such unions, such as spousal support, child custody... This painting (circa 1872) by John Gast called American Progress is an allegorical representation of Manifest Destiny. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...


Members of Eagles have described the album as a metaphor for the perceived decline of America into materialism and decadence. In an interview with Dutch magazine ZigZag shortly before the album's release, Don Henley said: ZigZag was the name of a cutting-edge UK rock music magazine. ... Don Henley Donald Hugh Henley (born July 22, 1947 in Gilmer, Texas) is an American rock musician who is the drummer and one of the lead singers and songwriters of the band Eagles. ...

   
Hotel California
This is a concept album, there's no way to hide it, but it's not set in the old West, the cowboy thing, you know. It's more urban this time (. . . ) It's our bicentennial year, you know, the country is 200 years old, so we figured since we are the Eagles and the Eagle is our national symbol, that we were obliged to make some kind of a little bicentennial statement using California as a microcosm of the whole United States, or the whole world, if you will, and to try to wake people up and say 'We've been okay so far, for 200 years, but we're gonna have to change if we're gonna continue to be around.'
   
Hotel California

The album's final track, the epic "The Last Resort", was about the demise of society. Glenn Frey on the Hotel California episode of In the Studio with Redbeard explained about the track: Image File history File links Cquote1. ... Image File history File links Cquote2. ... Glenn Frey (born November 6, 1948 in Detroit, Michigan) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and actor, best known as one of the founding members of rock and roll band, The Eagles. ... In the Studio with Redbeard is a North American radio program hosted by Dallas, Texas rock and roll disc jockey Redbeard. ...

   
Hotel California
It was the first time that Don took it upon himself to write an epic story and we were already starting to worry about the environment...we're constantly screwing up paradise and that was the point of the song and that at somepoint there is going to be no more new frontiers. I mean we're putting junk, er, garbage into space now.
   
Hotel California

Image File history File links Cquote1. ... Image File history File links Cquote2. ...

Album cover

The cover image is of the Beverly Hills Hotel. However, claims have been made by various hotels around the world to be the actual inspiration for the song, most notably the Hotel California in Todos Santos, Baja California Sur, Mexico. However Don Henley has refuted this claim. The Beverly Hills Hotel is a hotel on Sunset Blvd in Beverly Hills, CA. It was opened on May 12, 1912 and started by Margaret J. Anderson and her son, Stanley S. Anderson. ... Todos Santos is a small coastal town at the foothills of the Sierra de la Laguna Mountains, on the Pacific coast side of the Baja California Peninsula, about an hours drive north of Cabo San Lucas on Highway 19 and an hours drive south from La Paz. ... Don Henley Donald Hugh Henley (born July 22, 1947 in Gilmer, Texas) is an American rock musician who is the drummer and one of the lead singers and songwriters of the band Eagles. ...


A multitude of rumors of a Satanic aspect to the album appeared during the height of paranoia about rock and heavy metal music being a tool of evil. The hotel of the title was linked to either a mental hospital, or the headquarters of Anton LaVey's Church of Satan. A shadowy figure on a balcony in an inner cover photograph was identified as LaVey or Satan (it was actually a woman), another figure in the same photograph was supposedly a propped up corpse, and the "Beast" mentioned in the lyrics of the title song was identified with Satan or Aleister Crowley. None of these rumors had any substance [1]. Satanism Associated Organizations Church of Satan First Satanic Church Prominent Figures Anton LaVey | Blanche Barton | Peter H. Gilmore | Peggy Nadramia | Karla LaVey Associated Concepts Left-Hand Path | Moral Majority | Pentagonal Revisionism | Suitheism | Survival of the fittest | Objectivism | Might is Right Books and Publications The Satanic Bible | The Satanic Rituals | The... Anton Szandor LaVey Anton Szandor LaVey (11 April 1930 – 29 October 1997) was the founder and High Priest of the Church of Satan, and author of The Satanic Bible. ... Satanism Associated Organizations Church of Satan First Satanic Church Prominent Figures Anton LaVey | Blanche Barton | Peter H. Gilmore | Peggy Nadramia | Karla LaVey Associated Concepts Left-Hand Path | Moral Majority | Pentagonal Revisionism | Suitheism | Survival of the fittest | Objectivism | Might is Right Books and Publications The Satanic Bible | The Satanic Rituals | The... Aleister Crowley, born Edward Alexander Crowley, (12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947; the surname is pronounced with the first syllable sounding like the bird) was an English occultist, prolific writer, mystic, hedonist, and sexual revolutionary. ...


Track listing

  1. "Hotel California" (Felder, Henley, Frey) – 6:30
    • Lead vocal by Don Henley
  2. "New Kid in Town" (J.D. Souther, Henley, Frey) – 5:04
    • Lead vocal by Glenn Frey
  3. "Life in the Fast Lane" (Walsh, Henley, Frey) – 4:46
    • Lead vocal by Don Henley
  4. "Wasted Time" (Henley, Frey) – 4:55
    • Lead vocal by Don Henley
  5. "Wasted Time (Reprise)" (instrumental) (Henley, Frey, Jim Ed Norman) – 1:22
  6. "Victim of Love" (Felder, Souther, Henley, Frey) – 4:11
    • Lead vocal by Don Henley
  7. "Pretty Maids All in a Row" (Walsh, Joe Vitale) – 4:05
    • Lead vocal by Joe Walsh
  8. "Try and Love Again" (Meisner) – 5:10
    • Lead vocal by Randy Meisner
  9. "The Last Resort" (Henley, Frey) – 7:25
    • Lead vocal by Don Henley

Hotel California was the title song from Eagles album of the same name, and was released as a single at the end of 1976. ... New Kid in Town is episode 22a of the third season of the popular Nicktoons show, Rugrats. ... J.D. Souther, born John David Souther on November 3, 1945 in Detroit, Michigan and raised in Amarillo, Texas, is a singer-songwriter country rock singer and actor. ...

Album pressing

The vinyl record pressings had custom picture labels of a blue Hotel California logo with a yellow background. They also had text engraved in the carry-out groove on each side: A gramophone record, (also phonograph record - often simply record) is an analog sound recording medium: a flat disc rotating at a constant angular velocity, with inscribed spiral grooves in which a stylus or needle rides. ...

  1. "Is It 6 OClock Yet?"
  2. "V.O.L. Is Five-Piece Live" (i.e. "Victim of Love" was recorded live in the studio without overdubs)

Personnel

Additional personnel Don Felder (born Donald Felder, on September 21, 1947 in Gainesville, Florida) is an American rock musician, best known as guitarist for The Eagles from 1974-2001. ... A classical guitar, also called a Spanish guitar, is a musical instrument from the guitar family. ... Example of a bottleneck, with fingerpicks and resonator guitar. ... Left: Rosa Hurricane, a heavy metal-style solid body guitar. ... Pedal steel guitar (also called Steel Guitar) is a type of guitar, and a method of playing the instrument. ... A Dobro style resonator guitar Steel guitar, strictly speaking, refers to a method of playing using a metal slide (or steel) on a guitar played horizontally, with the strings uppermost. ... In music a singer or vocalist is a type of musician who sings, i. ... Glenn Frey (born November 6, 1948 in Detroit, Michigan) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and actor, best known as one of the founding members of rock and roll band, The Eagles. ... A synthesizer (or synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument designed to produce electronically generated sound, using techniques such as additive, subtractive, FM, physical modelling synthesis, or phase distortion. ... A grand piano, with the lid up. ... Piano, a well-known instance of keyboard instruments A keyboard instrument is any musical instrument played using a musical keyboard. ... A clavinet is a keyboard instrument, manufactured by the Hohner company. ... Don Henley Donald Hugh Henley (born July 22, 1947 in Gilmer, Texas) is an American rock musician who is the drummer and one of the lead singers and songwriters of the band Eagles. ... For other kinds of drums, see drum (disambiguation). ... A percussion instrument can be any object which produces a sound by being struck with an implement, shaken, rubbed, scraped, or by any other action which sets the object into vibration. ... Randall H. Meisner, normally known as Randy Meisner, (born 8 March 1946) is a bass guitarist and vocalist best known for his contribution as a founding member of the country-rock group The Eagles. ... Martin EB18 Bass Guitar in flight case. ... A classical guitar, also called a Spanish guitar, is a musical instrument from the guitar family. ... Modern acoustic bass guitars The acoustic bass guitar is a popular modern term to describe an acoustic musical instrument based on the configuration of basses pioneered by Leo Fenders electric Precision Bass. ... ‹ The template below has been proposed for deletion. ... Left: Rosa Hurricane, a heavy metal-style solid body guitar. ... Example of a bottleneck, with fingerpicks and resonator guitar. ... A classical guitar, also called a Spanish guitar, is a musical instrument from the guitar family. ... Chandler electric lap steel guitar, a modern solid body with the classic Weissenborn profile. ... An organ is the following: In anatomy, an organ is a group of tissues which perform some function. ...

  • Jim Ed Norman - conductor
  • Sid Sharp - concert master

Production

  • Producer: Bill Szymczyk
  • Engineers: Allan Blazek, Bruce Hensal, Ed Marshall, Bill Szymczyk
  • Mixing: Bill Szymczyk
  • String arrangements: Jim Ed Norman
  • Art direction: Don Henley, John Kosh
  • Design: John Kosh
  • Photography: David Alexander
  • Artwork: Kosh
  • Poster design: Norman Seeff
  • CD preparation: Kevin Gray
  • Mastering and Remastering: Ted Jensen

Singles

  • "New Kid in Town"/"Victim Of Love" - Asylum 45373; released December 7, 1976
  • "Hotel California"/"Pretty Maids All In A Row" - Asylum 45286; released February 22, 1977
  • "Life in the Fast Lane"/"The Last Resort" - Asylum 45403; released May 3, 1977

Charts

Album - Billboard (North America) Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry. ...

Year Chart Position
1977 Country Albums 10
1977 Pop Albums 1

Singles - Billboard (North America)

Year Single Chart Position
1977 "New Kid in Town" Adult Contemporary 2
1977 "New Kid In Town" Country Singles 43
1977 "New Kid In Town" Pop Singles 1
1977 "Hotel California" Pop Singles 1
1977 "Life In The Fast Lane" Pop Singles 11

Awards

Grammy Awards Grammy Award statuette The Grammy Awards, presented by the Recording Academy (an association of Americans professionally involved in the recorded music industry) for outstanding achievements in the recording industry, is one of four major music awards shows held annually in the United States (the Billboard Music Awards, the American Music...

Year Winner Category
1977 "Hotel California" Record Of The Year
1977 "New Kid in Town" Best Arrangement For Voices

Grammy Award nominations The Record of the Year is one of the two most prestigious Grammy Awards presented annually. ... The Grammy Award for Best Vocal Arrangement for Two or More Voices was awarded from 1977 to 1986. ...

Year Nominee Category
1977 "Hotel California" Song of the Year
1977 Hotel California Album of the Year
1977 Bill Szymczyk Producer of the Year
Eagles
Glenn Frey | Don Henley | Joe Walsh | Timothy B. Schmit
Randy Meisner | Bernie Leadon | Don Felder
Discography
Studio albums: Eagles | Desperado | On the Border | One of These Nights | Hotel California | The Long Run | Hole in the World | The Long Road To Eden
Live: Eagles Live | Hell Freezes Over | Farewell 1 Tour-Live from Melbourne
Compilations: Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975) | Eagles Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 | The Very Best of the Eagles

 

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