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Credit: Jack Tempchin<\/p>\n
Sat 27 June 2026 22:00, UK <\/p>\n
Despite never standing as a member, folk rocker Jack Tempchin would gift the Eagles<\/a> one of their early breakthrough singles and help define the Los Angeles group\u2019s country rock sound.<\/p>\n Don Henley and Glenn Frey\u2019s songwriting chops certainly weren\u2019t lacking, as the\u2018Hotel California\u2019 mini-epic will attest, but longtime fans will know that the Eagles were more than happy to invite an outside lyricist to help pen their soft rock songbook. Some of their biggest hits, like \u2018Best of My Love\u2019 and \u2018New Kid in Town\u2019<\/a>, feature JD Souther\u2019s co-writing credit, Bob Seger lent his services to \u2018Heartache Tonight\u2019s chorus, and Jackson Browne teamed up with Frey to craft their \u2018Take It Easy\u2019 debut single back in 1972.<\/p>\n That same year saw Tempchin\u2019s credit on a big number from their eponymous debut LP. He\u2019d not long been drifting around the San Diego coffee shop community as a budding folk singer, carrying a $13 Stella guitar bought from a pawn store and a fake poster detailing glowing plaudits from a wholly fabricated rollcall of celebrity fans. The germ of his future Eagles hit was jotted down on the back of the poster, later to take on more life during his communal living with other artists, where a gaze at the window would truly nail the song\u2019s lyrical direction.<\/p>\n Chiefly, the bevvy of hot women that took Tempchin\u2019s fancy in the San Diego area. \u201cWe\u2019d sit in front of the picture window and watch the beautiful girls on the bus stop bench and fall in love with them until their bus came,\u201d he recalled to No Depression in 2012. <\/p>\n \u201cWe talked in those days about how love never seems to show up until you stop looking for it. But, as young guys, we were unable to stop looking for love, even for one day.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n After a later spot of a young girl with turquoise earrings against dark hair in the city\u2019s old town area, a feverish burst of inspiration in the car park of a Der Wienerschnitzel hot dog chain began to spark \u2018Peaceful Easy Listening\u2019 to life. The song\u2019s serene sense of acquiescence in the midst of lyrical passions owed all to the first night\u2019s draft on the back of the poster. He\u2019d been playing a show in El Centro when he thought the waitress was interested in him, and overeagerly declined the lift back to his stay that night.<\/p>\n In a classic case of male misread, the waitress went home without him, and he slept on the cold floor of the coffeehouse. After a natural pang of frustration passed, in came a strange sense of contentment and \u2018Qu\u00e9 Ser\u00e1, Ser\u00e1\u2019 inner peace.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a curious clash of lyrical dimensions<\/a> that would catch Frey\u2019s attention three years later. In 1972, Tempchin had moved to LA to \u2018make it\u2019 in the music industry, socially mixing with future Eagles collaborators Browne and Souther and staying at the former\u2019s house. It was here that Frey heard \u2018Peaceful Easy Feeling\u2019. Tempchin had a habit of tinkering on the piano most nights, and Frey happened to be around when he was playing his work in progress. It was a perfect tune for the Eagles, who\u2019d only formed eight days earlier, and asked if his new band could flesh the piece out.<\/p>\n Further reading: From The Vault<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThe next day, Glenn brought me a cassette of what they had done with it,\u201d Tempchin reflected, \u201cIt was so good I couldn\u2019t believe it\u201d.<\/p>\n \u2018Peaceful Easy Feeling\u2019 would be released in December 1972 as the Eagles\u2019 third single and help hone the band\u2019s stolid knack for folksy country stroll that would shine on subsequent records and help propel Their Greatest Hits (1971\u20131975) to ungodly sales<\/a>. Tempchin would continue to play shows and write songs for other artists, but his and Frey\u2019s artistic and personal friendship always remained. During the Eagles\u2019 hiatus, Tempchin again would co-write some of Frey\u2019s mammoth solo hits of the 1980s, including \u2018You Belong to the City\u2019, \u2018Smuggler\u2019s Blues\u2019 and \u2018True Love\u2019.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n\n
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<\/a> The Far Out Classic Rock Newsletter<\/p>\n