For their next album, On The Border (1974), Henley and Frey (who were writing the most of songs) wanted the band to break away from the country music style they were known for, moving more towards hard rock.įollowing album, One of These Nights (1975), also had an aggressive rock stance. Such instruments as banjo and mandolin are featured in the album. The Eagles' second album Desperado (1973) was themed on Old West outlaws (exactly on the story of the notorious Wild West Doolin-Dalton gang) and introduced the group's penchant for conceptual songwriting. The disk was a big success, and magazines praised it for a 'natural, sometimes innocent country rock'. In 1972, their first album The Eagles was released. The new group chose the name The Eagles as a nod to The Byrds. Firstly he, Glenn Frey, Randy Meisner and Don Henley gathered to back singer Linda Ronstadt, and then they decided to become a band. The members of The Eagles were not the newbies in the music industry – for example, the band's ex-guitarist Bernie Leadon played with former The Byrds musicians in Dillard & Clark and The Flying Burrito Brothers groups. One of the most successful bands of the 1970s was formed in 1971.