I had forgotten that my man Howard Hewett had did a cover of it, so thank you for bringing it
up, and here's a copy for those who haven't heard Howard's version...
Even though I truly love Howard's voice and all his solo songs and Shalamar song's, I'll always be partial to the original with the Eagles and Timothy B Schmidt on lead vocals, they just killed it
I obviously love The Eagles original sung by Timmy B the best, but another great cover is by Gerald Alston, lead singer of The Manhattans on one of his solo albums.
Timothy B. Schmit came up with the song title and composed the nucleus of "I Can't Tell You Why", which he then presented to Glenn Frey and Don Henley and they completed the song together. Henley described the finished song as "straight Al Green", and that Frey, an R&B fan as he came from Detroit and grew up with the music, was responsible for the R&B feel of the song.[4] Frey said to Schmit: "You could sing like Smokey Robinson. Let’s not do a Richie Furay, Poco-sounding song. Let’s do an R&B song."[5]
Schmit describes the song as "loosely based on my own experiences".[6] Schmit said: "I had some writing sessions with Don and Glenn and I threw out a bunch of my ideas and that one [for "I Can't Tell You Why"] stuck. I had [composed] a pretty good part of it, not a huge part but enough for them to think 'That could be good' and go with it. So Don, Glenn and I finished it over a few all night sessions."[7] "When it was being developed in the studio...I knew it was a great song. I [thought] 'Yes! This is an amazing debut for me.' When we finally mixed it, we had a little listening party at the studio. As people were hearing it, Don turned to me and said, 'There's your first hit.'"[8]
Schmit sang the lead vocals on the song, with Frey and Henley singing counterpoint. Schmit also played the bass on the track, which has the distinctive bass riff believed by Schmit to have been devised by Frey.[7] According to Henley, Frey came up with the counterpart on the song, and played the guitar solo on the song.[5]
In 1980, the band promoted the rock ballad[9] with a music video which featured Schmit on bass guitar accompanied by Frey on the electric piano, although Frey recorded the guitar solos as it is printed on the LP inside sleeve, with Henley on the drums, Don Felder on the electric guitar, Walsh on the organ and Walsh's touring sideman Joe Vitale on ARP string synthesizer. Live versions of the song were released in the 1980 album Eagles Live and 1994's Hell Freezes Over.
A lot of great songs and hits on Hotel California.
I like "New kid in town" for its non standard chord structure. Someone was in a grove shifting chords underneath as melody evolved when that song was written.
I also like "Wasted time" for its unplugged feel with piano out front. There was a "reprise" of that song that is hard to find on youtube.
Mellow as gold is Joe Walsh singing "Pretty maids all in a row".
Driving back from San Clemente and listening to Sting...
"Some would say I was a lost man in a lost world
You could say I lost my faith in the people on TV
You could say I'd lost my belief in our politicians
They all seemed like game show hosts to me"
"If I ever lose my faith in you
There'd be nothing left for me to do
I could be lost inside their lies without a trace
But every time I close my eyes I see your face"
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