Best of My Love (Eagles song)

Composition and themes

The lyrics frame the narrator's plea for reassurance in a strained relationship: a mixture of melancholy, resignation and an appeal for honesty. Musically the track relies on warm acoustic textures, a steady backbeat and layered vocal harmonies that were a signature of the Eagles' early sound. The album version runs longer than the radio single, allowing a slightly more relaxed instrumental passage.

Release and single edit controversy

Issued as the third single from On the Border, the commercial single was shortened by the record label to make it more attractive to radio programmers. That editing was done without the band's approval and led to public friction: Don Henley reportedly wanted the record withdrawn. The full album track length appears on LPs and later compilations as four minutes thirty-four seconds.

Chart performance

The song earned the Eagles their first No. 1 hit in the United States, reaching the top of the Billboard Hot 100 in March 1975. It also reached No. 1 on the easy listening (adult-contemporary) chart for a week in February 1975. In Billboard's year-end summary for 1975 the single ranked among the most successful releases of the year, and it sold in excess of a million copies, receiving industry acknowledgement.

Notable facts and anecdotes

An often-told anecdote from the Eagles' camp concerns manager Irving Azoff, who sent the record company a gold record with a section deliberately cut out as a tongue-in-cheek protest against the unauthorized edit. The incident has been cited in histories of the band as an example of tensions between artists and labels over single-friendly edits and creative control.

Legacy and covers

"Best of My Love" remains a staple of classic-rock and soft-rock radio and appears on greatest-hits packages that document the Eagles' 1970s run. The song has been covered by artists across genres; notably, the country duo Brooks & Dunn recorded a version in 1993, reflecting how the Eagles' songwriting bridged rock and country music influences.

• Album: On the Border (1974)
• Single release: November 1974
• Full album running time: 4:34
• First U.S. No. 1 for the Eagles (Billboard Hot 100, March 1975)