"Hotel California" is the title track from the Eagles' album of the same name and was released as a single in February 1977. Writing credits for the song are shared by Don Felder (music), Don Henley, and Glenn Frey (lyrics). The Eagles' original recording of the song features Henley singing the lead vocals and concludes with an extended section of electric guitar interplay between Felder and Joe Walsh. The song is considered the most famous recording by the band, and in 1998 its long guitar coda was voted the best guitar solo of all time by readers of "Guitarist". The song was awarded the Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 1978.
Introduction
Hotel California
Hotel California | Introduction
It belongs to an album of the same name Band Band. Band Eagles
what does the song hotel california by the eagles mean
user
Eagles described it as their "interpretation of the high life in Los Angeles"
assistant
what is hotel california?
user
Title track from the Eagles' album
assistant
who is the singer of this song?
user
Don Henley
assistant
when did this song release?
user
February 1977
assistant
where was it recorded?
user
Record Plant, Los Angeles and Criteria Studios, Miami.
assistant
when was the first one established?
user
1968
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does it also have branches in other places?
user
Yes, Los Angeles branch and Sausalito, California, location
assistant
did they also have a fan club?
user
Yes, Jim Keltner Fan Club.
assistant
how did the song perform according to the chart?
user
Number one position on the "Billboard" Hot 100 and reached the top ten of several international charts.
assistant
can you tell me one interpretation that was made about this song?
user
Henley said "a journey from innocence to experience" to "a sociopolitical statement".
assistant
did the song belong to a band or a single singer?
user
I guess you could say it's a song about loss of innocence." The song has been described as being "all about American decadence and burnout, too much money, corruption, drugs and arrogance; too little humility and heart." It has also been interpreted as an allegory about hedonism, self-destruction, and greed in the music industry of the late 1970s. Henley called it "our interpretation of the high life in Los Angeles", and later said: "It's basically a song about the dark underbelly of the American dream and about excess in America, which is something we knew a lot about." In the 2013 documentary, "History of the Eagles", Henley reiterated:
Hotel California | Themes and interpretations
Glenn Frey said that originally "We decided to create something strange, just to see if we could do it," and that the song was meant to mimic the imagery of the 1965 novel "The Magus" by John Fowles, about a man in an unfamiliar rural setting who is unsure about what he is experiencing. Don Henley has given a number of explanations about the song, ranging from "a journey from innocence to experience" to "a sociopolitical statement". In an interview with "Rolling Stone", Henley said that the song was meant to be "more of a symbolic piece about America in general", and added: "Lyrically, the song deals with traditional or classical themes of conflict: darkness and light, good and evil, youth and age, the spiritual versus the secular.
Hotel California | Themes and interpretations
The lyrics of the song have been given various interpretations by fans and critics alike, the Eagles themselves describing the song as their "interpretation of the high life in Los Angeles". In the 2013 documentary "History of the Eagles", Henley said that the song was about "a journey from innocence to experience... that's all..." Since its release, "Hotel California" has been covered by a number of artists and has become a part of international popular culture. Julia Phillips proposed adapting the song into a film, but the members of the Eagles disliked the idea and it never came to fruition.
Hotel California | Introduction
We wanted to write a song just like it was a movie." Frey described the song in an interview with NBC's Bob Costas as a cinematic montage "just one shot to the next ... a picture of a guy on the highway, a picture of the hotel, the guy walks in, the door opens, strange people." Frey continued: "We decided to create something strange, just to see if we could do it." Henley then wrote most of the lyrics based on Frey's idea, and sought inspiration for the writing by driving out into the desert as well as from films and theater.
Hotel California | Composition
The melody of the title track, "Hotel California", was written by Don Felder. Don Henley wrote most of the lyrics, with contributions from Glenn Frey. Henley noted that hotel had become a "literal and symbolic focal point of their lives at that time", and it became the theme of the song. Frey wanted the song to be "more cinematic", and to write it "just like it was a movie". Henley sought inspiration for the lyrics by driving out into the desert, as well as from films and theatre. Parts of the lyrics of "Hotel California" as well as the song "Wasted Time" were based on Henley's break up with his then girlfriend Loree Rodkin.
Hotel California (Eagles album) | Composition
The demos he made were always instrumental, and on every album project he would submit 15 or 16 ideas. The demo he made for "Hotel California" showed influences from Latin and reggae music, and it grabbed the attention of Henley who said he liked the song that "sounds like a Mexican reggae or Bolero", which gave the song its first working title, "Mexican Reggae". Frey and Henley were both interested in the tune after hearing the demo, and discussed the concept for the lyrics. In 2008, Felder described the writing of the lyrics: Frey came up with a cinematic scenario of a person who, tired from driving a long distance in a desert, saw a place for a rest and pulled in for the night, but entered "a weird world peopled by freaky characters", and became "quickly spooked by the claustrophobic feeling of being caught in a disturbing web from which he may never escape." In an interview with Cameron Crowe, Frey said that he and Henley wanted the song "to open like an episode of the "Twilight Zone"", and added: "We take this guy and make him like a character in "The Magus", where every time he walks through a door there's a new version of reality.
Hotel California | Composition
Music critic Dave Thompson considers it an update of Joni Mitchell's "Big Yellow Taxi" but says that it is "even more weary and despairing." Thompson regards the line "Some rich men came and raped the land. Nobody caught ‘em" to be a critique of a free market economy. Critic William Ruhlmann said of it that it "sketches a broad, pessimistic history of America that borders on nihilism." Author James Perone says that it ties "all the previous songs [from "Hotel California"] together in this final reflection of the dark side of California Life." He notes, for example, how the song lyrics contrast the beauty of the California desert with ugly suburban houses and ultimately progresses to criticize the concept of manifest destiny, on which American expansion to California was partially based.
The Last Resort (Eagles song) | Critical reception
The first song written for the album was "Hotel California", which became the theme for the album. Henley said of the themes of the songs in the album: On the title "Hotel California", Henley said that "the word, 'California,' carries with it all kinds of connotations, powerful imagery, mystique, etc., that fires the imaginations of people in all corners of the globe. There's a built-in mythology that comes with that word, an American cultural mythology that has been created by both the film and the music industry." In an interview with the Dutch magazine "ZigZag" shortly before the album's release, Don Henley said:
Hotel California (Eagles album) | Theme
According to the producer Bill Szymczyk, there were 33 edits on the two‑inch master. The final section features a guitar battle between Joe Walsh (who had replaced Bernie Leadon after Leadon's departure from the band in 1975) and Felder, which took the two of them sitting together working for around three days to achieve the necessary precision. Walsh and Felder initially started improvising but Henley insisted that the recording should follow the music as first recorded in Felder's demo. Henley decided that the song should be a single, although Felder had doubts and the record company was reluctant to release it because, at over six minutes, its duration far exceeded that of the songs generally played by radio stations.
Hotel California | Recordings
"Hotel California" is the title track from the Eagles' album of the same name and was released as a single in February 1977. Writing credits for the song are shared by Don Felder (music), Don Henley, and Glenn Frey (lyrics). The Eagles' original recording of the song features Henley singing the lead vocals and concludes with an extended section of electric guitar interplay between Felder and Joe Walsh. The song is considered the most famous recording by the band, and in 1998 its long guitar coda was voted the best guitar solo of all time by readers of "Guitarist". The song was awarded the Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 1978.
Hotel California | Introduction
According to Henley in a 1982 interview, the Eagles "probably peaked on "Hotel California"." Henley said: "After that, we started growing apart as collaborators and as friends."
Hotel California (Eagles album) | Recording
The last track of the album, "The Last Resort" had to be re-recorded a number of times due to noise from the next studio. For the title track "Hotel California", after the arrangement and instrumentation had been refined, several takes were recorded. The best parts were then spliced together, in all 33 edits on the two‑inch master, to create the final version. In contrast, "Victim of Love" was recorded in a live session in studio apart from the lead vocal and the harmony on the choruses which were added later. Don Felder initially sang the lead vocals in the many early takes for the song, but the band felt that his efforts were not up to the required standard, and Henley then took over as the lead.
Hotel California (Eagles album) | Recording
"Hotel California" was met with generally positive reviews. "Village Voice" critic Robert Christgau felt it was their "most substantial if not their most enjoyable LP", while Charley Walters of "Rolling Stone" felt it showcased "both the best and worst tendencies of Los Angeles-situated rock". Both critics picked up on the album's California themes – Christgau remarking that while it may in places be "pretentious and condescending" and that "Don Henley is incapable of conveying a mental state as complex as self-criticism", the band couldn't have written the songs on side one "without caring about their California theme down deep"; Walters in contrast felt the "lyrics present a convincing and unflattering portrait of the milieu itself", and that Don Henley's vocals express well "the weary disgust of a victim (or observer) of the region's luxurious excess".
Hotel California (Eagles album) | Critical reception
"Hotel California" is a song by the Eagles. Hotel California may also refer to:
Hotel California (disambiguation) | Introduction
Don Henley threatened a lawsuit for copyright infringement.
Hotel California | Cover versions
The Eagles recorded the track with Don Henley on lead vocal three different times, twice at the Record Plant in Los Angeles and finally at the Criteria Studios in Miami. They first recorded a riff, but when it came to recording the vocal, it was found to be in too high a key for Henley's voice, so Felder progressively lowered the key from E minor, eventually settling on B minor. The second recording however was judged too fast. In Miami, the band fine-tuned the instrumentation and the lyrics and recorded numerous takes. Five or six best ones were selected, and the best parts were then spliced together to create the released version.
Hotel California | Recordings
Bernie Leadon, who was the principal country influence in the band, left the band after the release of the previous album "One of These Nights". For "Hotel California", the band made a conscious decision to move away from country rock, and wrote some songs that are more rock & roll, such as "Victim of Love" and "Life in the Fast Lane". Leadon was replaced by Joe Walsh who provided the opening guitar riff of "Life in the Fast Lane" that was then developed into the song. The title for "Life in the Fast Lane" was inspired by a conversation between Frey and his drug dealer during a high speed car ride.
Hotel California (Eagles album) | Composition
However, when the identity of Beverly Hills Hotel was revealed, the hotel threatened legal action over the use of the image. The rear album cover was shot in the lobby of the Lido Hotel in Hollywood. The gatefold image shows the same lobby but filled with members of the band and their friends. Henley said: "I wanted a collection of people from all walks of life, It’s people on the edge, on the fringes of society." A shadowy figure appears on the balcony above the lobby, which led to speculations over the person's identity. Kosh designed a Hotel California logo as a neon sign which was used on the album cover and in its promotional materials.
Hotel California (Eagles album) | Artwork
This was because Henley feared that he would lack control over the project.
Hotel California | Proposed film adaptation
Ocean sampled the music from the Eagles' song "Hotel California" on the song "American Wedding" from "Nostalgia, Ultra". When asked about it, Ocean stated that Eagles band member "Don Henley is apparently intimidated by my rendition of 'Hotel California'. He threatened to sue if I perform it again." In response to Ocean's comments, the Eagles' legal representative released a statement: "Frank Ocean did not merely 'sample' a portion of the Eagles' 'Hotel California,' he took the entire master track, plus the song's existing melody, and replaced the lyrics with his own; this is not creative, let alone 'intimidating.' It's illegal.
Frank Ocean | Legal issues
According to Glenn Frey, the "warm smell" is "colitas... it means little tails, the very top of the plant." The Eagles' manager Irving Azoff appears to lend support to the marijuana hypothesis; however, Felder said: "The colitas is a plant that grows in the desert that blooms at night, and it has this kind of pungent, almost funky smell. Don Henley came up with a lot of the lyrics for that song, and he came up with colitas." Other interpretations of the song include heroin addiction and cannibalism. On the various interpretations, Henley said: "Some of the wilder interpretations of that song have been amazing.
Hotel California | Conjectures
The first live recording of the song appeared on the Eagles' 1980 live album, and an acoustic version with an extended intro is a track in the 1994 "Hell Freezes Over" reunion concert CD and video release. The "Hell Freezes Over" version is performed using eight guitars and has a decidedly Spanish sound, with Felder's flamenco-inspired arrangement and intro.
Hotel California | Recordings
J.D. Souther initially wrote the chorus for the song. According to Souther, the band thought it sounded like a hit, but he did not know what to do with it. About a year later, Souther, Frey and Henley gathered for the writing of "Hotel California" where Souther played the song for them, and the three finished the song. Souther later said that the song came about as a result of their "fascination with gunfire as an analogy" and added that "at some point some kid would come riding into town that was much faster than you and he'd say so, and then he'd prove it." He said: "We were just writing about our replacements." Similarly, Henley discussed the song's meaning in the liner notes of "The Very Best Of": The song was rumored to be about Bruce Springsteen, who was gaining fame when the song was written, but Souther has denied this idea.
New Kid in Town | Background
Frey, in the "Hotel California" episode of "In the Studio with Redbeard", spoke about the writing of "The Last Resort". Frey said: "It was the first time that Don took it upon himself to write an epic story and we were already starting to worry about the environment… we're constantly screwing up paradise and that was the point of the song and that at some point there is going to be no more new frontiers. I mean we're putting junk, er, garbage into space now."
Hotel California (Eagles album) | Composition
If I don't show up to court, it'll be a judgement against me & will probably show up on my credit report. Oh well. I try to buy my shit cash anyway. They asked that I release a statement expressing my admiration for Mr. Henley, along with my assistance pulling it off the web as much as possible. Shit's weird. Ain't this guy rich as fuck? Why sue the new guy? I didn't make a dime off that song. I released it for free. If anything I'm paying homage." Ocean performed the song live occasionally with an altered arrangement not utilizing the original "Hotel California" sample.
Nostalgia, Ultra | Controversy
It was really about the excesses of American culture and certain girls we knew. But it was also about the uneasy balance between art and commerce."
Hotel California | Conjectures
The album was nominated for several Grammy awards in 1978 and its title track "Hotel California" won the Record of the Year. The band manager Irving Azoff however refused requests by the Grammy producer for the band to attend or perform at the ceremony unless a win was guaranteed. The band therefore did not appear at the ceremony to collect their awards. Henley later said: "The whole idea of a contest to see who is 'best' just doesn't appeal to us."
Hotel California (Eagles album) | Awards and nominations
On an episode of "In the Studio with Redbeard" (which devoted an entire episode to the making of "Hotel California"), Frey stated: I have to give all the credit for 'The Last Resort' to (Don) Henley. It was the first time that Don, on his own, took it upon himself to write an epic story. We were very much at that time, concerned about the environment and doing anti-nuclear benefit (concerts). It seemed the perfect way to wrap up all of the different topics we had explored on the "Hotel California" album. Don found himself as a lyricist with that song, kind of outdid himself...We're constantly screwing up paradise and that was the point of the song and that at some point there is going to be no more new frontiers.
The Last Resort (Eagles song) | Composition
D. Souther and Bob Seger who co-wrote with Frey and Henley on "Heartache Tonight". (Souther also got songwriting credit on "Teenage Jail" and "The Sad Cafe".) According to Henley, the title track was in part a response to press articles that said they were "passé" as disco was then dominant and punk emerging, which inspired lines such as "Who is gonna make it/ We'll find out in the long run". He said that the inspiration for the lyrics was also "irony", as they wrote about longevity and posterity while the group "was breaking apart, imploding under the pressure of trying to deliver a worthy follow-up to "Hotel California"".
The Long Run (album) | Background
"I start every song with this fear, thinking I'm never going to write another good song," he told "Upset". Skiba said that at the time of writing the album, he and Hoppus were both reading books such as "", "Blood Meridian", and "The Revenant", and he felt the prose impacted their lyrics: "there were a lot of rushing rivers and the whole idea of using metaphors to describe loneliness, just like settler, Native American and Southern Gothic influence of literature, that was kind of our rhyming dictionary."
California (Blink-182 album) | Composition
"The Last Resort" is a song written by Don Henley and Glenn Frey, which tells of how man inevitably destroys the places he finds beautiful. It was originally released on the Eagles' album "Hotel California" on December 8, 1976. It was subsequently released as the B-side of "Life in the Fast Lane" single on May 3, 1977. In a 1978 interview with "Rolling Stone", Henley said: "'The Last Resort', on "Hotel California", is still one of my favorite songs... That's because I care more about the environment than about writing songs about drugs or love affairs or excesses of any kind.
The Last Resort (Eagles song) | Introduction
The band took a stand and refused the label's request to shorten the song. The song was released as the second single from the album after "New Kid in Town". The front cover art for some overseas editions of the 45rpm single released was a reworked version of the "Hotel California" LP cover art, which used a photograph of the Beverly Hills Hotel by David Alexander, with design and art direction by Kosh. As "Hotel California" became one of the group's most popular songs and a concert staple for the band, live recordings of the song have therefore also been released.
Hotel California | Recordings
The metaphorical character of the story related in the lyrics has inspired a number of conjectural interpretations by listeners. In the 1980s the Rev. Paul Risley of Cornerstone Church in Burlington, Wisconsin alleged that "Hotel California" referred to a San Francisco hotel that was purchased by Anton LaVey and converted into his Church of Satan. Other rumors suggested that the Hotel California was the Camarillo State Mental Hospital. The term "colitas" in the first stanza ("warm smell of colitas, rising up through the air") has been interpreted as a sexual slang or a reference to marijuana. "Colitas" means "little tails" in Spanish; in Mexican slang it refers to buds of the cannabis (marijuana) plant.
Hotel California | Conjectures
A demo of the instrumental was developed by Don Felder in a rented house on Malibu Beach. He recorded the basic tracks with a Rhythm Ace drum machine and added a 12 string guitar on a four-track recording deck in his spare bedroom, then mixed in a bassline, and gave Don Henley and Glenn Frey each a copy of the recording. Felder, who met the Eagles through his high school bandmate Bernie Leadon, said that Leadon advised him to make tapes of songs he wrote for the band so that other band members like Henley, whose forte is in writing lyrics, might work with him on finishing the songs they liked.
Hotel California | Composition
In addition, the lyrics were not regularly sung at official events due to the politically insensitive themes. The "tomahawk" referenced in the chorus refers to the Stanford Axe. In November 2012, the band internally decided to cease playing the song until words could be rewritten. In the Spring of 2013 the song was rechristened "Gold and Blue" with new lyrics.
California Indian Song | Introduction
According to "Rolling Stone", Julia Phillips, the producer of films like "Taxi Driver" and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," was interested in shooting a movie based on the song's story. The band members and Phillips met to discuss the project. In her memoir "You'll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again", Phillips wrote that the band members were difficult to deal with and arrogant. Henley said that Phillips offered the band members cocaine and was "nonplussed" when they turned it down. Tension between the two parties ended the pre-development deal for the film. "Rolling Stone" reported that the band was not upset at this development, as they were not particularly enamored with the idea of "Hotel California" being adapted into a film.
Hotel California | Proposed film adaptation
"California" is a pop song written by Rick Nowels, Billy Steinberg and Maria Vidal, produced by David Tickle for Belinda Carlisle's sixth studio album "A Woman and a Man" (1996). It was released as the album's fourth single in the UK and the third single in Australia as a CD single.
California (Belinda Carlisle song) | Introduction
"Life in the Fast Lane" is a song written by Joe Walsh, Glenn Frey and Don Henley and recorded by the American rock band the Eagles on their 1976 studio album "Hotel California". It was the third single released from this album, and peaked at No. 11 on the "Billboard" Hot 100.
Life in the Fast Lane | Introduction
It was a band that could be bombastic, but also one that made music worthy of the later tag of 'classic rock', music appropriate for the arenas and stadiums the band was playing." Steve Holtje, writing for "CultureCatch" in 2012, felt that even though "an awful lot of the album is snarky whining from co-leaders Don Henley and Glenn Frey, two guys who didn't really seem like they had that much they could legitimately complain about", in the final analysis ""Hotel California" and the underrated concept album "Desperado" stand as the group's greatest statements".
Hotel California (Eagles album) | Critical reception
The song was produced by Bob Crewe and arranged by Hutch Davie. The track features guitars and drum set in a 60's pop fashion. The chorus includes multiples long tones over abnormal chords and the verses are noticeably accompanied by a soft electric piano. The lyrics speak of reminiscing about romantic evenings on the beach with a lover.
California Nights | Composition
The song has a basic sequence of G–C–D–C during the intro and interludes, changes to G–C–D–C in the verses and follows G–C–D–C at the chorus as its chord progression. The song opens at a shaky pace with a circular riff built from picked guitar strings. It comes along with spoken dialogue which satirizes the California party scene. The dialogue features adolescent characters engaged in frivolous conversation and speaking with stereotypical surfer as the band's music gradually rises in the background. During the verses, Cuomo sings free-associative lyrics that portray the image of a dazed social outcast out of place at a party.
Undone – The Sweater Song | Composition
The Eagles won the 1977 Grammy Award for Record of the Year for "Hotel California" at the 20th Grammy Awards in 1978. The song is rated highly in many rock music lists and polls; "Rolling Stone" magazine ranked it number 49 on its list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". It was named one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. At the induction of the Eagles into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, all seven former and present members of the band reunited to perform "Hotel California".
Hotel California | Accolades
“I Wish You Peace” was written by Bernie Leadon and his then-girlfriend Patti Davis, daughter of Republican then-Governor of California Ronald Reagan. Nancy Reagan had already disowned Patti during this period, ostensibly because of her choice to live together with Leadon as an "unmarried couple". Years later Don Henley would disparage this song as an Eagles release, describing it as “smarmy cocktail music and certainly not something the Eagles are proud of”. Henley was also annoyed that Davis was given cowriting credit, and told a reporter: "Nobody else wanted [the song]. We didn't feel it was up to the band's standards, but we put it on anyway as a gesture to keep the band together."
One of These Nights | "I Wish You Peace"
In a 2012 concert at the Troubadour in West Hollywood, California, Walsh explained that the song's lyrics are true. He said that he purchased a home in Santa Barbara, California shortly before he joined the Eagles. He then spent the next two years touring or recording albums, and spent very little time at the home. Rather, he spent most of his time living in hotels. He preferred hotel rooms with adjoining rooms. If a hotel room did not have two adjoining rooms available, he would rent two rooms next to each other. He would then make a connection to the other room by "tearing out a wall".
Life's Been Good | Inspiration
According to Love, he failed to impart the message that he had "originally intended" with the lyric. "I wanted the song to be a tribute to girls everywhere—not just in the United States, let alone California, but everywhere in the world." Biographer Mark Dillon wrote that Love's lyrics "show [that he keeps] concert-goers top of mind" and that the "Midwest farmer's daughter" line elicited the greatest applause when the group performed the song live.
California Girls | Lyricism
The front cover artwork is a photograph of The Beverly Hills Hotel shot just before sunset by David Alexander with design and art direction by Kosh. According to Kosh, Henley wanted him to find a place that can portray the Hotel California of the album title, and "portray it with a slightly sinister edge". Three hotels were photographed, and the one with The Beverly Hills Hotel was selected as the cover. The photographer shot the image 60 feet above Sunset Boulevard on top of a cherry picker. As the image was taken from an unfamiliar vantage point in fading light, most people did not initially recognize the hotel.
Hotel California (Eagles album) | Artwork
The song is about a marital affair with a woman in California which is unveiled when the mistress in the situation calls the narrator's wife, after which the wife questions the narrator with the song's title. No resolution is given to the song's question. According to Raven, he originally wanted to title the song "Who Do You Know in Dallas", but he felt that "California" fit the song's meter better.
Who Do You Know in California | Content
"Hotel California" first entered the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart dated February 26, 1977, and topped the Hot 100 singles chart for one week in May 1977, the band's fourth song to reach No. 1 on that chart. It peaked at number 10 on the Easy Listening chart in April 1977. "Billboard" ranked it number 19 on its 1977 Pop Singles year-end chart. Three months after its first release, the single was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), representing one million copies shipped. In 2009, the song was further certified Platinum (Digital Sales Award) by the RIAA for sales of one million digital downloads, and has since sold over 3 million downloads.
Hotel California | Chart performance
Adapted from AllMusic. Eagles Production
Hotel California (Eagles album) | Personnel
This song was written while Larry was in a traffic jam in Los Angeles; the song goes on to warn the listener that all the gold in the state "is in a bank in the middle of Beverly Hills in somebody else's name" and that attempting to make it big in California carries a risk of failure that could personally devastate one's resolve. On January 19, 1985, Larry Gatlin & the Gatlin Brothers Band sang the song at the nationally televised 50th Presidential Inaugural Gala, the day before the second inauguration of Ronald Reagan.
All the Gold in California | Content
"Hotel California" and its lyrics have become absorbed into the wider culture around the world, and have been used by various writers and commentators to reflect on issues ranging from politics to social media and welfare, or as an observation on a particular situation. The lines "We are programmed to receive / You can check out any time you like / But you can never leave!" were used by an economist to refer to how the appeal of an attractive "Hotel California"-type host country to foreign investors may be countered by the cost of exit on leaving the country. A term "The Hotel California Effect" was then used to refer to the negative effect of financial regulations on investment, and the problems foreign investors faced when getting their money out of China.
Hotel California | Cultural influence
According to Don Henley, "The Long Run" was written in part as a response to press articles that said the Eagles were "passé" as disco was then dominant and punk emerging, inspiring lines such as "Who is gonna make it/ We'll find out in the long run". He also said that irony was part of the inspiration, as the song is about longevity and posterity while the group "was breaking apart, imploding under the pressure of trying to deliver a worthy follow-up to "Hotel California"". "Billboard Magazine" describes "the Long Run" as "a midtempo rocker with a rather straightforward rhythmic delivery and a catchy lyrical hook towards the end." "Billboard" also praised the "tight, well crafted orchestration.
The Long Run (song) | Composition
The lyrics are a pointed, satirical attack on Jerry Brown, the Governor of California from 1975–1983 (and later 2011–2019), and are sung from his perspective, as an imaginary version of Brown outlines a hippie-fascist vision of America. The line "Serpent's egg already hatched" is a reference to a comment on the corrosive nature of power from William Shakespeare's play "Julius Caesar", and also a reference to the Ingmar Bergman film "The Serpent's Egg" set in 1920s Berlin that gets its title from the Shakespeare play. The lines "Big Bro on white horse is near" and "now it is 1984" refer respectively to a statement Brown made during his first governorship that Americans were supposedly looking for "a leader on a white horse", and to the totalitarian regime of George Orwell's classic novel "Nineteen Eighty-Four" to describe a future (from a 1979 perspective) where Jerry Brown has become President, and his "suede/denim secret police" kill "uncool" people in "organic poison gas" chambers.
California Über Alles | Meaning
It has also applied to other ideas such as problem when leaving a service provider or social media network, or when exiting cloud computing. The same analogy has been used by various commentators considering scenarios for Brexit, with the term "Hotel California Brexit". A book titled "Operation Hotel California: The Clandestine War Inside Iraq" was written about the clandestine operation named after the song title by CIA–US Special Forces teams in Iraqi Kurdistan in the lead-up to the Iraq War. Although the Eagles were noted for their reluctance to license their songs for use in shows, the song has been used in a number of films and television shows, such as "The Big Lebowski" (performed by the Gipsy Kings), "Absolutely Fabulous", and "The Sopranos".
Hotel California | Cultural influence
"California Nights" is a song written by Marvin Hamlisch and Howard Liebling and recorded by Lesley Gore. The song appeared on her 1967 album, "California Nights".
California Nights | Introduction
"The Only Thing That Matters" originally began as a cowpunk-infused number until Hoppus re-wrote it. "California" is about "giving credit to how lucky we are to have lived here and grown up" in California. "Brohemian Rhapsody"—its title a pun on Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody"—is another joke song with the sole lyric "There's something about you I can't quite put my finger in." Hoppus and Feldmann wrote and recorded the song in nine minutes.
California (Blink-182 album) | Songs
Music theorist Daniel Harrison compared the song to Wilson's later "God Only Knows", as both songs avoid a root-position tonic and suppress a cadential drive. The refrain alternates between the I and ii7 without ever meeting the expected V. During this, the relationship between the music and text is reflected in the lyric "I wish they all could be California girls", which is also never fulfilled to the narrator.
California Girls | Composition
Crouse praised the "subtlety" of the production, particularly "James Taylor's twitchy guitar and Russ Kunkel's superb, barely detectable high-hat and bass-pedal work."
California (Joni Mitchell song) | Introduction
The audible "is that really it?" heard at the end of the song was a genuine reaction from Barker. "No Future" was nearly cut from the record. It was inspired by punk rock history, as many songs—for example, the Sex Pistols' "God Save the Queen"—contain a "no future" lyric. "Home Is Such a Lonely Place" is a ballad with "clean arpeggiated finger-picking guitars with strings underneath it." Its lyrics are themed around lost love; it emerged from an early-morning coffee meeting between Hoppus and Feldmann, who both imagined how lonely their homes would be when their children grow up and move away.
California (Blink-182 album) | Songs
The song was a conscious attempt by the band to write something different from a country-rock and ballad-type song. Don Henley said: "We like to be a nice little country-rock band from Los Angeles ... about half the time." He added: "We wanted to get away from the ballad syndrome with "One of These Nights." With Don Felder in the band now, we can really rock." Frey said that they "wanted 'One of These Nights' to have a lot of teeth, a lot of bite—a nasty track with pretty vocals." The writing was influenced by R&B music and disco; according to Frey, he was listening to Spinners and Al Green records when he started writing the song.
One of These Nights (Eagles song) | Background
These are the credits and the personnel as they appear on the back of the single:
California (Mylène Farmer song) | Credits and personnel
"California" was written by Kelly Winrich about his girlfriend on the East Coast, while he was living in California, after troubles and difficulties they "Called it quits". He wrote the song soon after."
California (Delta Spirit song) | Origin
The song is a country rock song about an ending relationship, focusing on a woman who is leaving her man on a journey to California.
California (Big &amp; Rich song) | Content
Ian Anderson has said that the chord progression in "We Used to Know" was picked up subconsciously by the Eagles when they toured together in 1971 or 1972 and used in their song "Hotel California". However Don Felder, who wrote the music for "Hotel California", did not join Eagles until 1974. In a 2016 interview, Anderson stated that the chord progression had likely been used in earlier songs and also called "Hotel California" a "much better song" than "We Used to Know".
Stand Up (Jethro Tull album) | Musical style
"California" is a song written by Joni Mitchell that first appeared on her 1971 album "Blue". It was also released as the second single from the album, as a follow-up to "Carey." Mitchell wrote "California" while living in France but longing for the creative climate she had experienced in California. In the song she expresses the depth of her longing for California despite considering herself a member of the counterculture. Like "Carey", "California" takes the form of a travelogue and uses a stream of consciousness narrative technique. "Pitchfork" critic Jessica Hopper describes both songs as "how-Joni-got-her-groove-back ditties". The lyrics tell of her time in France, a trip she took to Spain and an excursion to a Greek island.
California (Joni Mitchell song) | Introduction
In 2003, the album was ranked number 37 on "Rolling Stone" magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, maintaining the rating in a 2012 revised list. The song "Hotel California" was ranked number 49 on "Rolling Stone" list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time", in 2004 and again in 2011.
Hotel California (Eagles album) | Accolades
Reviewing in "" (1981), Robert Christgau wrote: "I am suspicious of singer-songwriters who draw attention to phrases like 'hasten down the wind,' and I would suggest a moratorium on songs about the James Brothers that don't also rhyme 'pollution' and 'solution.' But I like the way Zevon resists pigeonholes like 'country-rock' while avoiding both the banal and the mystagogical, and I like quatrains like: 'And if California slides into the ocean/Like the mystics and statistics say it will/I predict this motel will be standing/Until I pay my bill.'"
Warren Zevon (album) | Critical reception
. .") in the student newspaper because a branch of the Women's Christian Temperance Union had complained about it.
California Drinking Song | Introduction
The song was inspired by and makes mention of the Big Sur Folk Festival in which the band played in 1970.
California Saga: California | Introduction
"New Kid in Town" is a song by the Eagles from their 1976 studio album "Hotel California". It was written by Don Henley, Glenn Frey and J.D. Souther. Released as the first single from the album, the song became a number-one hit in the U.S. and number 20 in the UK. The single version has an earlier fade-out than the album version. The song features Glenn Frey singing the lead vocals, with Don Henley singing main harmony vocals. Randy Meisner plays the guitarrón mexicano, Don Felder plays electric guitars, and Joe Walsh plays the electric piano and organ parts. The song won the Grammy Award for Best Vocal Arrangement for Two or More Voices.
New Kid in Town | Introduction
"Billboard" gave the album high praise: "The casually beautiful, quietly-intense multileveled vocal harmonies and brilliant original songs that meld solid emotional words with lovely melody lines are all back in force, keeping the Eagles at the acme of acoustic electric soft rock." It noted that, even though the album did not try out any new departure other than the "Procol Harum-type" title track, "the album proves that there's a lot more left to explore profitably and artistically in the L.A. countryish-rock style." Retrospective reviews have also been positive. Robert Hilburn of the "Los Angeles Times", writing after the band broke up, called the album "a legitimate rock masterpiece", in which the band "examined their recurring theme about the American Dream with more precision, power and daring than ever in such stark, uncompromising songs as "Hotel California" and "The Last Resort"." William Ruhlmann from AllMusic later said ""Hotel California" unveiled what seemed almost like a whole new band.
Hotel California (Eagles album) | Critical reception
The song follows a chord progression of G/B–C2 for the verses, and G–D–Em–C in the chorus. Rihanna's vocal range in the song spans from the low note of E to the high note of C. Both Ryan Burlenson of the website Consequence of Sound and James Reed of "The Boston Globe" compared the song with Taylor Swift's material. Mackay compared it with Beyoncé's "If I Were a Boy" (2008). Lyrically, the song was considered a "break-up song" that talks about "the waking death of a relationship, the stage of limbo before the final crash." As Digital Spy's Robert Copsey added, its lyrics discuss "the kind of separate-togetherness felt moments before a break-up." Adam R.
California King Bed | Composition and lyrical interpretation
Holz of Plugged In noticed that "'California King' ponders how a woman could be so physically close to a man yet so emotionally distant. She doesn't get an answer, but she does quip about evidence of their sexual relationship on the sheets the next morning. The woman also equates asking the man if he loves her with emotional weakness." During the chorus, she sings: "In this California king bed we’re ten thousand miles apart / I’ve been California wishing on these stars for your heart / For me, my California king."
California King Bed | Composition and lyrical interpretation
The song is an up-tempo in which the narrator uses various California-themed imagery to describe his lover, whom he says is "so California".
She's So California | Content
The song is a tribute to California. The lyrics display a highly elegant vocabulary, with an alternance of lines and puns in French and English. There are many literary references: for example, the phrase ""Vienne la nuit et sonne l'heure et moi je meurs / Entre apathie et pesanteur où je demeure"" alludes to the French poem "Le Pont Mirabeau", written by Guillaume Apollinaire, which contains the verse ""Vienne la nuit sonne l'heure / Les jours s'en vont je demeure"".
California (Mylène Farmer song) | Lyrics and music
Wilson and Love later disagreed over the extent of their lyrical contributions. Love said that he wrote "every syllable" of the song apart from "I wish they all could be California girls". In his recollection, he wrote the lyrics "in less than an hour" while he was in the hallway of the recording studio during the session for the backing track. Wilson disputed Love's assertion. "I wrote a lot of those lyrics too; it was line for line, back and forth between us. That’s what happened." He said that he came up with the opening lines and subject matter, and that "Every other line was his or mine.
California Girls | Background
Group member John Rich told "Billboard" that " "there’s some 80s Country on there, and also some Eagles west-coast Country kind of stuff. It’s also a really fun song to sing. When the fans learn it, they sing it at the top of their lungs." Lead single "California" was originally recorded by Tim McGraw on his album "Damn Country Music", and his version features Big & Rich on backing vocals.
Did It for the Party | Content
Hotel California is the fifth studio album by American rock band the Eagles. The album was recorded by Bill Szymczyk at the Criteria and Record Plant studios between March and October 1976, and then released on Asylum in December. It was their first album with guitarist Joe Walsh, who had replaced founding member Bernie Leadon, and is the last album to feature bassist Randy Meisner. The front cover is a photograph of the Beverly Hills Hotel by David Alexander. "Hotel California" topped the US "Billboard" Top LPs & Tapes chart. At the 20th Grammy Awards, the Eagles won a Grammy Award for "Hotel California", which won Record of the Year, and for "New Kid in Town".
Hotel California (Eagles album) | Introduction
All songs written by Mel Tormé and Robert Wells, except "California Suite" and "A Stranger in Town" (Tormé).
Sammy Davis Jr. Sings Mel Tormé's &quot;California Suite&quot; | Track listing
Don Henley was unhappy that songs like "Tequila Sunrise" and "Desperado" were lifted out of the context of the original album in a way that he thought detrimental to the nature, quality and meaning of the music. He said: "All the record company was worried about were their quarterly reports. They didn't give a shit whether the greatest hits album was good or not, they just wanted product." Despite being unhappy with the album's release, the band nevertheless reasoned that it gave them more time to work on the "Hotel California" album.
Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975) | Background
Al B. Sure! recorded his rendition for his album, "Private Times...and the Whole 9!" (1990). Gipsy Kings recorded a flamenco version sung in Spanish. The Orb, under the name of Jam On The Mutha, produced a version that charted at No. 62 in the UK in 1990. Mike Piranha recorded "Hotel Honolulu" in 1998, satirizing overdevelopment, crime, and other issues on Oahu; the song became a local hit in Hawaii. The Romanian band Vama Veche recorded its version with different lyrics entitled "", sung in its native language. Alabama 3 covered the song for the album, "La Peste" (2000). Nancy Sinatra recorded a cover version for her 2002 album "California Girl", an album of songs about California.
Hotel California | Cover versions
Commercially, "Hotel California" reached the number one position on the "Billboard" Hot 100 and reached the top ten of several international charts.
Hotel California | Introduction
At the end of each story in each location she expresses her desire to be back in California. The character that "Carey" was based on also appears in the second verse of "California". According to author Larry David Smith, Mitchell uses the descriptions in "California" as a strategy to demonstrate "principles associated with the Earth Mother manifesto." "California" uses a verse-bridge structure. James Taylor plays guitar on the song. Russ Kunkel provided drums and percussion. According to singer Estrella Berosini, the recitative phrasing Mitchell uses on "California" was influenced by California singer Laura Allan. According to "Rolling Stone" critic Timothy Crouse, the song "jumps along in quick bursts", but the refrain is "flowing" with tango elements.
California (Joni Mitchell song) | Introduction
In March 2012, controversy arose over the track "American Wedding", which samples The Eagles' song "Hotel California". Don Henley of the Eagles "had threatened legal action over Ocean's track", claiming that Ocean's version of the song was illegal. The track was widely removed from the internet following this controversy, being removed from music sharing sites such as YouTube. A spokesman for the band announced that a lawsuit would be filed against Ocean if performed the song live. "Frank Ocean did not merely 'sample' a portion of the Eagles' Hotel California; he took the whole master track, plus the song's existing melody, and replaced the lyrics with his own.
Nostalgia, Ultra | Controversy
"California" is the only song from the album "Anamorphosée" to refer to its singular name (""Sur ma peau ma vie qui s'anamorphose""), and was the second of Farmer's songs with an English title, after "Beyond My Control". The song begins with different sounds evoking the street: a door that slams, an English voice in a loudspeaker, a siren of a police car. Farmer then referred to her desire to live in America to make a new start in her life. The song has a "nagging rhythm" and "Anglo-Saxon sonorities". Lyrics play with "anglicisms, sounds and onomatopoeia". According to the psychologist Hugues Royer, the song is "the symbol of the rebirth by the exile".
California (Mylène Farmer song) | Lyrics and music
The song is centered on the band's adopted hometown; its lyrics reference the demolition of the Sixth Street Bridge in LA. Hoppus described "Sober" as "about rebuilding [and] finding yourself, and knowing that you're in a troubled place but striving to get to somewhere better." Its subject matter is based around two experiences: one when Skiba was a bicycle messenger in Chicago and was struck by a car, and another a fictional story of a "drunken night with a girlfriend". Patrick Stump of Fall Out Boy collaborated with the band, his initial idea being "what could Blink be on modern rock radio in 2016?" "Built This Pool" is a short joke song with homoerotic lyrics.
California (Blink-182 album) | Songs
In 1924. Cliff Edwards ("Ukulele Ike") released a very upbeat single of the song, which included some scat vocals and a brief sung intro: "Goodbye forever, goodbye forever, I'm going away for a long, long time." "Casa Loma Stomp," recorded by Fletcher Henderson, is a set of jazz variations on the song, whose tune is clearly audible in the first few verses and gradually disappears under the increasing complexity of the variations. Freddy Cannon recorded this song on his debut 1960 album "The Explosive Freddy Cannon".
California, Here I Come | Covers
The lyrics describe an appreciation for the qualities of girls from different regions of the United States and the wish that "they all could be" in the narrator's home state of California. Among the qualities that the narrator appreciates are "East Coast girls" for being "hip", "southern girls" for "the way they talk", the "northern girls" for "the way they kiss", and the "Midwest farmer's daughter" for making "you feel all right". After the first chorus, the West Coast is invoked for its "sunshine", tanned girls, "French bikini on Hawaii Island", and beach "dolls". At the end of the lyric, the singer declares that, having had the experience of seeing "all kinds of girls" from "all around this great big world", California contains "the cutest" of them all.
California Girls | Lyricism
These also had text engraved in the run-out groove of each side, continuing an in-joke trend the band had started with their third album On the Border. The text reads: Side one: "Is It 6 O'Clock Yet?"; Side two: "V.O.L. Is Five-Piece Live", indicating that the song "Victim of Love" was recorded in a live session in studio, with no overdubbing. Joe Walsh and Glenn Frey confirm this on the inner booklet of "The Very Best Of". This only referred to the instrumental track, however; the lead vocal and harmony for the chorus were added later. This was in response to those who criticized the Eagles' practice of copious overdubbing of instruments and that they were too clinical and soulless in the studio.
Hotel California (Eagles album) | Release
"California Dreamin'" is a song written by John Phillips and Michelle Phillips and was first recorded by Barry McGuire. However, the best-known version is by the Mamas and the Papas, who sang backup on the original version and released it as a single in 1965. The song is No. 89 in "Rolling Stone" list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The lyrics of the song express the narrator's longing for the warmth of Los Angeles during a cold winter in New York City. The song became a signpost of the California sound, heralding the arrival of the nascent counterculture era.
California Dreamin' | Introduction
In 2003 and 2012, it was ranked number 37 on "Rolling Stone" list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time".
Hotel California (Eagles album) | Introduction
The title and idea for the song came when Glenn Frey and Don Henley were in their favorite Los Angeles restaurant/bar Dan Tana's which was frequented by many beautiful women, and they started talking about beautiful women who were cheating on their husbands. They saw a beautiful young woman with a fat and much older wealthy man, and Frey said: "She can't even hide those lyin' eyes." According to Henley, Frey was the main writer of the song, although he had some input with the verses and the music. The song was written when Frey and Henley were sharing a house in Trousdale, Beverly Hills.
Lyin' Eyes | Background and writing
"California" is a song by American indie rock band Delta Spirit from their 2012 self-titled album. Written by the band and released as a single two months prior to the album's release, it earned the band some of its first radio airplay and television appearances. A music video for the song was filmed and released in 2012.
California (Delta Spirit song) | Introduction
An edit of the song (removing the second verse and refrain) was lip-synced by Gore on the January 19, 1967 episode of the TV series "Batman", "That Darn Catwoman". She played Pussycat, the Catwoman's protégé, who also wanted to be a singer.
California Nights | Use in media
A common theme throughout the record is the morality of persistent attention, most prevalently profiled in "Little Room". "Little Room" is "homily," written in response to White's favorite song, "Grinnin’ in Your Face" by Son House. "The Union Forever" contains allusions to "Citizen Kane" (1941), reportedly Jack White's favorite film. In fact, nearly every line in the song comes from the movie. "Hotel Yorba" is based on a real hotel a couple of blocks from Jack White's childhood home: "The Hotel Yorba is a really disgusting hotel," he remarked to "Spin" in 2001. "There was a great rumor when I was a kid that The Beatles had stayed there.
White Blood Cells (album) | Lyrics
"All music and lyrics written by Mel Tormé, except "San Fernando Valley" by Tormé and Gordon Jenkins."
Mel Tormé's California Suite | Track listing
As it proved difficult to bend real neon tubings into the desired shape of the script, the neon effect of the logo was achieved with airbrush by Bob Hickson. Additional portraits of the band used in the album package and promotional materials were shot by Norman Seeff.
Hotel California (Eagles album) | Artwork
With her two female backing vocalists, she sat on a staircase, then got up and walked a few steps on the stage; then she went in front of the door at the top of the stairs, and at the end, she left the stage while it was in full black. "California" was sung during the 13 concerts at Bercy in 2006. While the screens and the central cross showed the words "Crime scene. Do not cross", Farmer slowly descended the stairs of the stage and performed a dance with her hands during the musical bridge. The song was only performed in stadiums.
California (Mylène Farmer song) | Live performances
The song is about the callousness of TV news reporting as well as the tabloidization of all news. Henley sings from the standpoint of a news anchorman who "could have been an actor, but I wound up here", and thus is not a real journalist. The song's theme is that TV news coverage focuses too much on negative and sensationalist news; in particular, deaths, disasters, and scandals, with little regard to the consequences or for what is important ("We all know that crap is king"). The song was inspired by the intrusive press coverage surrounding the deaths of John Belushi and Natalie Wood, and Henley's own arrest in 1980 when he was charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor and possession of marijuana, cocaine, and Quaaludes after paramedics treated a 16-year-old female who was subsequently suffering from drug intoxication at his Los Angeles home.
Dirty Laundry (Don Henley song) | History
According to the biography of Lorenz Hart by Frederick Nolan ("Lorenz Hart - A Poet on Broadway", 1994; Oxford University Press, ), the song was inspired by a visit that Richard Rodgers made to the Stockton Inn, in Stockton, New Jersey. Hart reputedly found the melody insistently cloying and often ad-libbed raunchy parody verses, much to Rodgers' chagrin. Another claimant to be the inspiration for the song is the Belmond El Encanto in Santa Barbara County, California. Renovations to the hotel in the 1950s replaced the wishing well, mentioned in the song, by a floral fountain.
There's a Small Hotel | Background