Hotel California

This article is about the Eagles song. For the Eagles album, see Hotel California (album). For other uses, see Hotel California (disambiguation).

"Hotel California"
Side A of the US single
Single by Eagles
from the album Hotel California
B-side"Pretty Maids All in a Row"
ReleasedFebruary 22, 1977[1]
Recorded1976
Studio
GenreRock[4][5]
Length
  • 6:30 (album version)
  • 6:08 (single version)
LabelAsylum
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)Bill Szymczyk
Eagles singles chronology
"New Kid in Town"
(1976) 		"Hotel California"
(1977) 		"Life in the Fast Lane"
(1977)
Audio sample
Eagles – "Hotel California"
Audio
"Hotel California" on YouTube

"Hotel California" is a song by American rock band Eagles, released as the second single of their album of the same name on February 22, 1977.[6] The song was written by Don Felder (music), Don Henley, and Glenn Frey (lyrics), featuring Henley on lead vocals and concluding with an iconic 2 minute and 12 seconds long electric guitar solo performed by Felder with a Gibson Les Paul Gibson EDS-1275 double neck and Joe Walsh with a Fender Telecaster, in which they take turns playing the lead before harmonizing and playing arpeggios together towards the fade-out.[7]

The song is one of the best-known recordings by the band, and in 1998 its long guitar coda was voted the best guitar solo of all time by readers of Guitarist.[2][8] The song was awarded the Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 1978.[9] The meaning of the lyrics of the song has been discussed by fans and critics ever since its release, the Eagles themselves described the song as their "interpretation of the high life in Los Angeles".[10] In the 2013 documentary History of the Eagles, Henley said that the song was about "a journey from innocence to experience ... that's all."[11]

Since its release, "Hotel California" has been widely regarded as one of the greatest rock songs of all time, and has been covered by many artists. Julia Phillips proposed adapting the song into a film, but the members of the Eagles disliked the idea and it never came to fruition. Commercially, "Hotel California" reached the number one position on the Billboard Hot 100 and reached the top ten of several international charts. The Eagles have performed "Hotel California" well over 1,000 times live, and is the third most performed of all their songs, after "Desperado" and "Take It Easy".[12]

  1. ^ Fong, Kevin. "Discography of Eagles". superseventies.com.
  2. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference bbc was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference sound on sound was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Aspden, Peter (April 3, 2017). "Why Hotel California marked a watershed for rock". Financial Times. Archived from the original on December 10, 2022.
  5. ^ "Hotel California". BBC.
  6. ^ Dodd, Philip; Du Noyer, Paul (1999). The Encyclopedia of Singles. Paragon. p. 89. ISBN 0752533371.
  7. ^ Felder, Don (December 28, 2016). "Don Felder Reveals the Roots of "Hotel California" and Shows You How to Play It". www.guitarworld.com. Retrieved June 10, 2023.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference guitarist was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference billboard 2014 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ "500 Greatest Songs of All Time". Rolling Stone. December 11, 2003.
  11. ^ History of the Eagles. 2013. Event occurs at 1:27:50–1:28:10.
  12. ^ "Listen to Timothy B. Schmit's New Single, 'Cross That Line'". September 10, 2020.