“Ol' 55” by The Eagles

The Eagles put their version of "Ol' 55" on On the Border in 1974, borrowing it from Tom Waits, who had written it and opened his own debut, Closing Time, with it a year earlier. Waits wrote it about his car, a 1955 Buick Roadmaster, the first real luxury machine he ever owned.

The Eagles turn it into a slow, harmony-soaked Sunday drive. Glenn Frey and Don Henley share the lead vocal, Bernie Leadon and Randy Meisner stack up the voices behind them, Frey sits at the piano, Henley keeps time, and Al Perkins lays pedal steel across the top. Bill Szymczyk produced and engineered it.

Waits wasn't charmed, grumbling in 1975 that their take was a little antiseptic. Frey later told the crowd at a 1999 millennium show that Waits warmed up once the royalty check landed, and the two became close.

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