Some artists might be content with resting on one’s laurels, but not Don Henley. The Eagles drummer/vocalist was looking to up his game when the band made one of their staple songs, “One of These Nights.”
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He certainly found a challenge. Anyone who has listened to this song will know how impressive Henley’s vocals are. From rich low notes to soaring high ones, Henley doesn’t disappoint for a second on this track.
Ooh, someone to be kind to
In between the dark and the light
Ooh, coming right behind you
Swear I’m gonna find you one of these nights
Henley cites his falsetto toward the end of this song as a career highlight. “Singing [“One of These Nights”] was a pretty big moment for me – particularly the falsetto parts,” he once told Rolling Stone. “But I’d been singing in basically the same way since I was 17 or 18. The fact that I was singing original material was the big difference.”
One of these dreams
One of these lost and lonely dreams, now
We’re gonna find one
Mmm, one that really screams
It’s hard to disagree with Henley. “One of These Nights” does seem like a major moment in the Eagles’ career. While their earliest material saw them focus mainly on a country twang mixed with rock, “One of These Nights” feels distinctly R&B influenced.
Their ability to lean into other sounds was one of the Eagles’ strengths as a band in their heyday–this song being a prime example. Henley credits the Beatles for making it okay to try on different styles.
“Stylistically, the One of These Nights album is all over the map, but somehow it worked as a coherent whole,” Henley continued in the same Rolling Stone interview. “In those days, you could do things like that – you could mix different styles on the same album. The Beatles had made it acceptable.”
Revisit “One of These Nights,” below.
(Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
