A rock album released 50 years ago is suddenly climbing the charts again, adding another chapter to an already staggering run.

Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975) by the Eagles has re-entered Billboard’s Top Rock Albums chart at No. 23, five decades after the blockbuster collection first arrived.

Released on Feb. 17, 1976, the compilation brought together songs from the Eagles’ first four studio albums, including “Take It Easy,” “Witchy Woman,” “Lyin’ Eyes,” “Desperado,” “One of These Nights,” “Take It to the Limit” and “Best of My Love.” Nine of its 10 tracks had been released as singles, and all but “Tequila Sunrise” reached the Top 40.

The album’s latest chart appearance comes during a milestone year. In January, Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975) became the first album in U.S. history to earn quadruple Diamond certification from the Recording Industry Association of America, representing 40 million certified album units.For an album that became one of the most successful releases in music history, Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975) had surprisingly unceremonious beginnings.

Manager Irving Azoff told Rolling Stone that the thinking was straightforward: “We decided it was time to put out the first greatest-hits because we had enough hits.”

But guitarist Don Felder told The Times of London that the band members had no say in releasing the compilation, while drummer/singer Don Henley objected to taking songs such as “Desperado” and “Tequila Sunrise” out of the context of their original albums.

“It’s that typical corporate thinking. All the record company was worried about were their quarterly reports. They didn’t give a s–t whether the greatest hits album was good or not, they jsut wanted product. It’s what was so frustrating, the forced and hideous marriage of art and commerce. They didn’t make good bedfellows, as far as we were concerned,” Henley famously said in the 2004 book “To the Limit: The Untold Story of the Eagles.”

The band ultimately saw one upside: The release gave them additional time to work on Hotel California, which followed later in 1976.Whatever the band’s reservations were, listeners had other ideas.

Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975) debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 and climbed to No. 1 the following week, beginning a five-week run at the top. Decades later, it has accumulated more than 500 nonconsecutive weeks on the chart.The collection also captured the period when the Eagles went from a successful California rock band to one of the biggest acts in America.

“Best of My Love,” written by Henley, Glenn Frey and J.D. Souther, became the Eagles’ first Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 in March 1975. According to music historian Fred Bronson in “The Billboard Book of Number One Hits,” the song had initially entered the chart at a modest No. 83 before becoming the band’s first chart-topper 13 weeks later.Later that year, “One of These Nights” gave the Eagles their second consecutive No. 1. The song also marked the harder, more R&B-influenced direction the band was pursuing on the album of the same name, with producer Bill Szymczyk taking over after the group’s earlier work with Glyn Johns.

Both songs eventually landed on Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975), alongside another enduring track from that era, “Take It to the Limit.”

Written by Randy Meisner, Henley and Frey, “Take It to the Limit” reached No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100. Rock critic Dave Marsh later included it in “The Heart of Rock & Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made,” ranking it No. 830 and, despite his famously prickly assessment of the Eagles, conceding that the song was “a good example of how their music worked.”

The compilation’s remarkable commercial life has now stretched across half a century. It was the first album ever awarded Platinum certification by the RIAA in 1976 and, in January 2026, became the first to reach 4× Diamond status in the United States.

And 50 years after its release, it’s back on a Billboard chart yet again.