Bob Seger is the writer of plenty of his own hits, including “Against The Wind”, “Night Moves”, “Like A Rock”, and more. Likewise, members of The Eagles are also the writers of most of their hits, including “One Of These Nights” and “Hotel California”, among others. So it’s a bit surprising that Seger actually wrote a song for Eagles, but he did.
In 1979, Eagles released “Heartache Tonight”. The song, a No. 1 single for the band, appears on their The Long Run record. Seger wrote “Heartache Tonight” with band members Don Henley and Glenn Frey, along with veteran songwriter JD Souther.
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“Heartache Tonight” begins with, “Somebody’s gonna hurt someone / Before the night is through / Somebody’s gonna come undone / There’s nothin’ we can do / Everybody wants to touch somebody / If it takes all night / Everybody wants to take a little chance / Make it come out right / There’s gonna be a heartache tonight / A heartache tonight, I know / There’s gonna be a heartache tonight / A heartache tonight, I know / Lord, I know.”
How Bob Seger Helped Write “Heartache Tonight” for The Eagles
Frey and Seger were good friends, although their co-writing of “Heartache Tonight” was not intentional.
“I seem to remember that I had the verse thing going on for ‘Heartache Tonight,’ and I was showing it to Seger, and we were jammin,” Frey remembers. “I think we were jammin’ on electric guitars at LaFontaine — and then he blurted out the chorus. That’s how ‘Heartache’ started.”
Seger echoes Frey’s version of how “Heartache Tonight happened.
“Glenn had the verse, ‘Somebody’s gonna hurt someone before the night is through,’” he recalls. “We hadn’t been sitting down for more than five minutes. And I just blurted out, ‘There’s gonna be a heartache tonight.’ His eyes lit up huge.”
Souther is also grateful for Seger’s contribution to “Heartache Tonight”, however unique it may have been for Eagles.
“Seger just came right in with the chorus, just sang it, and it was so good,” Souther says. “Glenn called me and said, ‘Is four writers okay on this?’ And I said, ‘Sure, if it’s good.’ And he said, ‘Yeah, it’s great. Seger just sang this to me.’ And he sang it to me, and I said, ‘That’s fantastic.’”
Although “Heartache Tonight” is one of The Eagles’ biggest hits, it was not enough to keep the band together. “Heartache Tonight” is The Eagles’ final No. 1 before parting ways in 1980.
In 1983, Conway Twitty had a Top 10 single with “Heartache Tonight”.
Photo by David Tan/Shinko Music/Getty Images
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