Credit: Far Out / The Eagles
Sun 10 May 2026 21:15, UK
2016 was a year that will go down in history. Politically, it was the beginning of the modern nightmare we now find ourselves in, with Great Britain dramatically announcing its exit from the European Union. But the democratic hope of a young generation wasn’t the only thing that died that year, as a string of musical icons all left with it, including Prince, David Bowie and Glenn Frey.
It was a truly bizarre year that had music fans questioning if higher powers had been at play. After all, suspicions about Bowie and Prince’s extra-terrestrial profile had often been raised, since their genius was too intense for the human brain to fathom, and their coordinated exit seemed to give that theory credence.
That wasn’t to mention Frey, who was an icon in his own right, but the sadness over his death was largely rooted in the perennial belief that the Eagles still had more in them.
Ever since their dramatic break-up in 1980, fans of the band lived in hope that the joy of their three-part harmonies would regularly bring them back together, which they of course did, but even in their riper years, as the 21st century moved on, the thought of one voice from the harmony falling away seemed unfathomable, especially because of how Frey had made it publicly clear that he had an appetite for more.
His furious ambition burned just as brightly as it did in the mid ‘70s, and he was continuously thinking of ways to innovate the Eagles’ sound, which, in the 2010s, meant a covers record.
“We’re talking about maybe putting out an EP or something, maybe doing four songs, six songs, you know, to just sort of be another part of the package,” he explained, “It might be some original material, but then I thought it’d be interesting if the Eagles recorded a song by the Buffalo Springfield, maybe a song by The Beach Boys, you know, something like that… Obviously, when the summer’s over, we’ll be back together talking about planning next year and see if we don’t do something.”
Buffalo Springfield and The Beach Boys would have been well in Eagles’ wheelhouse, and fans would have lapped up the opportunity to see them putting their three-part harmonies to the sword of these icons. But four years after that interview, Frey sadly passed, and the dream of this covers EP remained exactly that.
Further reading: From The Vault
While Eagles’ band policy often operated like a revolving door, there was no denying that Frey was the heartbeat of the group. Alongside Henley, he furiously led the creative vision of the band, turning them from a promising country-tinged rock band to outright global superstars.
To achieve such glittering heights, he often put the music ahead of personal relationships, yet it was clear, right up until the very end, he was never caught up in the entanglement of disagreements and would have always put an opportunity to record with the band first, no matter what.
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