CSPC: Eagles Popularity Analysis

40 years ago the success of the Eagles‘ fifth album titled Hotel California was so massive that the industry was looking for new words to define it. Along with Stevie Wonder‘s Songs In The Key of Life, Fleetwood Mac‘s Rumours and Frampton Comes Alive!, it sold over6 million units during its first year. While the RIAA had introduced the Platinum Award some months earlier, these industry gorillas opened the door for multi-Platinum discs that would arrive in 1984 for the first time.

By then the Eagles had already split although they only released one more studio album, 1979’s The Long Run, since their global breakthrough. Their former members Joe Walsh, Don Henley and Glenn Frey were successfully going solo. This brief period of success shouldn’t be enough to make this band one of the all-time greats. The Eagles are inevitable in every Classic Rock bands list though. The song Hotel California is an absolute classic, but in various countries there is nothing else from them that is popular. Just one song doesn’t transform an average act into a giant rock band, the Animals and Derek & the Dominos can confirm that. What’s the truth then? How does Hotel California stand against the biggest albums of all-time? How many units has Their Greatest Hits 1971-75 sold, the album that was long the front runner in terms of Platinum awards in the US?

As usual, I’ll be using the Commensurate Sales to Popularity Concept in order to relevantly gauge their results. This concept will not only bring you sales information for all Eagles‘ albums, physical and download singles, as well as audio and video streaming, but it will also determine their true popularity. If you are not yet familiar with the CSPC method, the next page explains it with a short video. I fully recommend watching the video before getting into the sales figures. Of course, if you are a regular visitor feel free to skip the video and get into the figures.