“Heartache Tonight” by The Eagles

"Heartache Tonight" is the Eagles cutting loose on The Long Run in 1979, a rowdy one with Glenn Frey out front on lead vocals. It was born in a jam at Frey's house in Los Angeles, where J.D. Souther dropped by whenever he was in town; the two knocked out a first verse with Sam Cooke records playing, then Frey rang Bob Seger and sang it down the line, and Seger fired back the chorus on the spot. Frey, Souther and Don Henley finished it off.

Frey himself called it a romp, and that's the whole point: no heavy message, just Joe Walsh's slide guitar, Frey and Don Felder's guitars, Timothy B. Schmit's bass and Seger among the backing voices. Bill Szymczyk produced and mixed. It hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in November 1979, the band's last song to get there, and went Platinum.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.