"Hotel California" by the Eagles, was released on the album of the same name on February 22, 1977. Songwriting credits go to Don Felder (music), Don Henley, and Glenn Frey (lyrics). The recording features Henley singing lead vocals and concludes with an iconic 2 minute and 12 seconds long guitar solo performed by Felder with Joe Walsh, in which they take turns of playing the lead before playing together towards the fade out.
Henley decided that the song should be a single, although Felder had doubts and the record company was reluctant to release it because, at over six minutes, its duration far exceeded that of the songs generally played by radio stations. The band took a stand and refused the label's request to shorten the song. The song was released as the second single from the album after "New Kid in Town".
With the lyrics describing materialism and excess, California is used as the setting, but it could relate to anywhere in America. Don Henley in the London Daily Mail said: "Some of the wilder interpretations of that song have been amazing. It was really about the excesses of American culture and certain girls we knew.”
Glenn Frey offered this take: "That record explores the underbelly of success, the darker side of Paradise. Which was sort of what we were experiencing in Los Angeles at that time. So that just sort of became a metaphor for the whole world and for everything you know. And we just decided to make it Hotel California."
To bring the allegorical Hotel California to life, the Eagles enlisted the services of British art director Kosh (a.k.a. John Kosh), the man responsible for the Beatles’ Abbey Road album cover, the Who’s Who’s Next, the Rolling Stones’ Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out! and many others.
After listening to a rough cut of the album’s title track, he was given a simple directive. “Don wanted me to find and portray the Hotel California – and portray it with a slightly sinister edge,” Kosh recalled in a 2007 interview with the Rock and Roll Report.
He scouted locations with photographer David Alexander and assembled a shortlist of suitable venues. The Beverly Hills Hotel on Sunset Boulevard was quickly agreed upon as the favorite.
“To get the perfect picture, David and I had perched nervously atop a 60-foot cherry picker dangling over Sunset Boulevard.
The chosen shot, captured at the so-called “golden hour” just before sunset, would become one of the most recognizable album covers in rock history. Ironically, most failed to recognize the supremely famous hotel in the photo. When word finally got out about the building’s identity, representatives for the luxurious establishment were less than pleased. “As the sales of the album went through the roof, lawyers for the Beverly Hills Hotel threatened me with a ‘cease and desist’ action,” says Kosh, “until it was gently pointed out by my attorney that the hotel’s requests for bookings had tripled since the release of the album.”
Various Sources