After a number of tries, well, this is F&%#@ing hard! I ended picking songs that I could relate to. These are songs that have meaning for me. They are not the necessarily the best musicians or best lyrics or any of that. Just good classic rock songs that I like.

So here’s my top 10 best classic rock songs:

1. Stairway to Heaven (Led Zeppelin)
2. Freebird (Lynyrd Skynyrd)
3. Wish You Were Here (Pink Floyd)
4. Purple Haze (Jimi Hendrix)
5. Stranglehold (Ted Nugent)
6. Back in Black (AC/DC)
7. Dream On (Aerosmith)
8. Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen)
9. Baba O’Riley (The Who)
10. Hotel California (The Eagles)

Here are some different versions of these songs that you may have never heard, some great, some just funny. Listen and see what you think!

So obviously your top ten best classic rock songs will be different than mine, right? So tell me! Leave your Top Ten list in the comment form below…

You all know the albums and the songs….the self titled first album, then
Desperado, On The Border, One of These Nights, Hotel California, and The Long Run….the hits Take It Easy, Tequila Sunrise, Already Gone, Best of My Love, Life In The Fast Lane, Heartache Tonight, and a dozen more. The breakup, the solo years, then “hell froze over” after 14 years and they got back together.

Old Eagles never die…they just go on making great music.

It all began in 1971 when Glenn Fry and Don Henley were members of Linda Ronstadt’s backing band. Former Poco bassist Randy Meisner and ex-Flying Burrito Brother Bernie Leadon joined Ronstadt’s band. They decided to form their own band, and signed on with ASSYLUM records. The Eagles (1972), their first album, was a success, as was their second, Desperado(1973), though not quite as much a seller as the first album. Don Felder became the fifth Eagle for On The Border (1974). One of These Nights (1975) was their biggest record yet, their first #1, a disc that went on to sell 4X Platinum. A disenchanted Leadon left, and was replaced by ex-James Gang and solo star Joe Walsh. This lineup recorded the classic Hotel California (1976). At that point, Meisner left, and was replaced by the man who replaced him in Poco, Timothy B. Schmit. The Eagles released The Long Run in 1979, and a live album the following year….and then took, as they said, a “14 year vacation”.

In 1994, the wounded egos were healed, and Henley, Frey, Walsh, Schmit, and Felder got back together for a live album (with four new songs songs), Hell Freezes Over. The quintet toured, and continued to do so throughout the remainder of the 1990’s and into the new millennium. In 2001, after a dispute, Don Felder was fired from the band. He has been replaced by guitarist Steuart Smith, although Smith is not considered to be an official member of the group.

I saw them in Wembley Stadium in London, September 1974, It was the Henley-Frey-Felder-Leadon-Meisner lineup…and the group playing before their set was The Joe Walsh Band. Little did we know then………

Below, Henley, Frey, Walsh and Timothy B. Schmit with a song first recorded on Hell Freezes Over….Love Will Keep Us Alive.

And I almost forgot…in 2007 The Eagles released Long Road Out Of Eden, their first collection of entirely new material since 1979. Here’s hoping it doesn’t take them so long for the next disc.