A rock album released 50 years ago is suddenly climbing the charts again, adding another chapter to an already staggering run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Their Greatest Hits (1971\u20131975)<\/em> by the Eagles<\/strong><\/a> has re-entered Billboard’s<\/em><\/a> Top Rock Albums<\/a> chart at No. 23, five decades after the blockbuster collection first arrived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The album’s latest chart appearance comes during a milestone year. In January,\u00a0Their Greatest Hits (1971\u20131975)<\/em>\u00a0became\u00a0the first album in U.S. history to earn quadruple Diamond certification<\/a>\u00a0from 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\u20131975)<\/em> had surprisingly unceremonious beginnings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Manager Irving Azoff<\/strong> told <\/a>Rolling Stone<\/em><\/a> that the thinking was straightforward: “We decided it was time to put out the first greatest-hits because we had enough hits.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n But guitarist Don Felder<\/strong> told <\/a>The Times of London<\/em><\/a> that the band members had no say in releasing the compilation, while drummer\/singer Don Henley<\/strong><\/a> objected to taking songs such as “Desperado” and “Tequila Sunrise” out of the context of their original albums.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “It’s that typical corporate thinking. All the record company was worried about were their quarterly reports. They didn’t give a s\u2013t 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.”<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n The band ultimately saw one upside: The release gave them additional time to work on\u00a0Hotel California<\/em><\/a>, which followed later in 1976.Whatever the band’s reservations were, listeners had other ideas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Their Greatest Hits (1971\u20131975)<\/em>\u00a0debuted at No. 4 on the\u00a0Billboard<\/em>\u00a0200 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n