Five decades after release, Eagles’ Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975 remains the biggest selling album in American history, with 40 million sales in the United States alone
by Paul Cashmere
When Eagles released Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975 on 17 February 1976 through Asylum Records, it was intended as a tidy summation of a band that had dominated American radio across the first half of the decade. Fifty years on, it stands as a commercial benchmark that has reshaped the metrics of the modern music industry.
Certified 40 times Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, the album has shifted 40 million units in the United States. That places it ahead of Michael Jackson’s Thriller, which sits at 34 times Platinum, 34 million sales, and positions Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975 as the single biggest selling album in American history. Globally, it ranks as the fifth biggest seller of all time, behind Thriller, AC/DC’s Back In Black, Whitney Houston’s The Bodyguard soundtrack and Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side Of The Moon.
The compilation drew from the band’s first four studio albums, Eagles 1972, Desperado 1973, On The Border 1974 and One Of These Nights 1975. Across ten tracks, it distilled a catalogue that had already produced multiple Top 10 singles and two US number ones, One Of These Nights and Best Of My Love.
Side one opens with Take It Easy, co-written by Glenn Frey and Jackson Browne, followed by Witchy Woman, Lyin’ Eyes, Already Gone and Desperado. Side two delivers One Of These Nights, Tequila Sunrise, Take It To The Limit, Peaceful Easy Feeling and Best Of My Love. With the exception of Tequila Sunrise, every single had reached the US Top 40, underscoring the depth of the band’s early run.
Manager Irving Azoff steered the project, believing there was sufficient material to justify a compilation. Some members of the band were initially resistant, wary of interrupting momentum as they worked towards what would become Hotel California, released later in 1976. In hindsight, the collection bought the group valuable studio time while consolidating their audience at a moment when FM radio was at its peak cultural power.
Commercially, the response was immediate. The album debuted at number four on the US chart before climbing to number one, where it remained for five weeks. It finished 1976 as the fourth biggest album of the year in America and has rarely been absent from the charts since. In September 2025 it reached its 500th non consecutive week on the Billboard 200, an extraordinary statistic in an era that has seen seismic shifts from vinyl to cassette, CD, download and streaming.
It also holds a unique historical distinction. Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975 was the first album ever to receive Platinum certification from the RIAA when the award was introduced in 1976. Over subsequent decades, retrospective audits of shipment data have elevated its certification level, including reassessments in the 1990s and again in 2018 under updated rules that incorporate streaming equivalents. The process has prompted debate around methodology, yet the RIAA has confirmed the audits were based on comprehensive reviews of historic sales records dating back to the 1970s.
Worldwide sales are estimated at around 45 million copies, making it the best selling greatest hits album ever released. In 2017, the Library of Congress added the album to the National Recording Registry, citing its cultural and historical significance.
The cover art, created by Boyd Elder, features a stark eagle skull against a metallic blue background, an image that has become synonymous with 1970s Californian rock. Original vinyl pressings carried etched messages in the run-out grooves, small production flourishes that have since become collector lore.
Musically, the compilation captures the band’s foundational line-up, Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Bernie Leadon and Randy Meisner, with Don Felder contributing to several tracks. Producers Glyn Johns and Bill Szymczyk shaped a sound that fused country phrasing with rock structures, a hybrid that would define West Coast radio for a generation.
Half a century after its release, Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975 remains more than a retrospective. It is a document of a band refining a distinctly American voice, one that has endured across formats and eras. In sales terms it is unmatched on home soil. In cultural terms it continues to soundtrack long highways, suburban living rooms and late night radio, a testament to songs that have never drifted far from the public ear.
Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975)
LP Track Listing
Side One
“Take It Easy”
“Witchy Woman”
“Lyin’ Eyes”
“Already Gone”
“Desperado”
Side Two
“One of These Nights”
“Tequila Sunrise”
“Take It To The Limit”
“Peaceful Easy Feeling”
“The Best Of My Love”
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