Greatest Hits Volume II (1982)
1. Hotel California
2. Heartache Tonight
3. Seven Bridges Road
4. Victim of Love
5. The Sad Cafe
6. Life in the Fast Lane
7. I Can't Tell You Why
8. New Kid in Town
9. The Long Run
10.After the Thrill Has Gone
When Their Greatest Hits 1971–1975 appeared in 1976, no one could have reasonably predicted that it would become the best-selling album of the 20th century — nor that it would outlive the band itself. Four short years and two studio albums later, the Eagles were no more, and the release of Greatest Hits Volume 2 arrived not as a celebration but as a quiet epilogue.
The challenge, of course, was simple arithmetic. The band had only released Hotel California and The Long Run since the first compilation, and while both albums generated hits — three apiece — there wasn’t quite enough material to construct a follow-up collection that felt either expansive or necessary. Still, the machine must roll on, and so the label did what any respectable entity would do: it improvised.
The six obvious hits are all here. Hotel California, Life in the Fast Lane, and New Kid in Town from the former; Heartache Tonight, I Can’t Tell You Why, and The Long Run from the latter. To pad the running time, one more track is pulled from each of those albums — Wasted Time and The Sad Cafe, respectively — both defensible inclusions. Then there’s Seven Bridges Road, the minor hit from Eagles Live, which earns its place for harmonic complexity, if not commercial stature. And finally, After the Thrill Is Gone, a quiet standout from One of These Nights, is resurrected to round out the list.
In total: ten songs. No more, no less. A slim package — barely 42 minutes — and one that feels more dutiful than inspired. Even the artwork, muted and unmemorable, suggests a certain shrug of finality. This wasn’t a legacy burnished. It was a catalog closed.
To its credit, the album doesn’t commit the cardinal sin of omitting hits. Everything one would expect is here, and nothing egregious is missing. But Volume 2 lacks the cohesion and narrative power of its predecessor. There is no arc, no thematic thread. It’s a well-sequenced set of singles, bookending a band that, for all its monumental success, left the stage with barely a wave.
As a compilation, it functions. As a cultural artifact, it’s more curious than essential. Had the band never reconvened, this would have been the final word. But as fate — and freezing temperatures in Hell — would have it, this volume, like the band itself, turned out not to be so final after all.
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