How the Eagles’ “Heartache Tonight” Reached No. 1 in 1979 and Marked the End of an Era

Eagles Heartache Tonight No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 1979, Digi Mart USA News: On Nov. 10, 1979, the Eagles reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Heartache Tonight,” knocking M’s synth-pop hit “Pop Muzik” out of the top spot. Sitting right behind them at No. 2 was Donna Summer’s “Dim All the Lights.”

Summer’s song never made it to the top. “Dim All the Lights” peaked at No. 2, one of the few times the Queen of Disco came up just short in a year she dominated.

She didn’t have to wait long for another chart-topper, though. Weeks later, she was back at No. 1 with “No More Tears (Enough Is Enough),” her duet with Barbra Streisand.

For the Eagles, “Heartache Tonight” was the band’s fifth No. 1, and it would be their last.

The song came together in an unusual way. Glenn Frey and songwriter JD Souther wrote the verses while listening to Sam Cooke records.

According to Souther, Bob Seger, a friend who had mentored Frey early in his career, made up the chorus on the spot after Frey sang the song to him over the phone. “He just came right in with the chorus,” Souther recalled, according to American Songwriter.

Frey and Don Henley finished the song, and all four men received writing credits.

“Heartache Tonight” was the lead single from The Long Run, the follow-up to the Eagles’ 1976 blockbuster Hotel California. The album topped the Billboard 200 and produced three top 10 singles, and “Heartache Tonight” later won a Grammy for best rock vocal performance by a duo or group.

Behind the scenes, the band was in trouble. The members were exhausted after years on the road, and tensions were high.

Bassist Randy Meisner had already left, replaced by Timothy B. Schmit.

In 1980, things boiled over. At a benefit concert for California Sen.

Alan Cranston, Frey and guitarist Don Felder spent the set threatening each other onstage. Soon after, the Eagles broke up, and for many fans, the breakup marked the end of the laid-back California rock sound the band had helped define in the 1970s.