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While remaining best known for his tenure in the Eagles, Glenn Frey also enjoyed
considerable success as a solo performer, with a career dating back to the glory days of
the Detroit rock scene of the mid-1960s. Born in the Motor City on November 6, 1948, Frey
formed his first band the Mushrooms in 1966, soon appearing live on the local TV program
Robin Seymour's Swinging Time and becoming a staple at the area teen club the Hideout; for
the club's Hideout Records label, the group cut their debut single "Such a Lovely
Child," a session produced by another aspiring Detroit rocker, Bob Seger.The
Mushrooms split soon after, and Frey joined the folk-rock group the Four of Us; he
subsequently formed two more Detroit teen bands, the Subterraneans and the Heavy Metal
Kids, before relocating to California in the early 1970s.
After co-founding the Eagles a year later, Frey enjoyed a remarkable run as a member
of one of the decade's most successful bands, assuming lead vocals on smashes including
"Take It Easy," "Tequila Sunrise," "New Kid in Town,"
"Lyin' Eyes" and "Heartache Tonight." When the Eagles disbanded in the
wake of 1979's The Long Run, he began a solo career in 1982 with No Fun Aloud, notching a
pair of Top 40 hits with "I Found Somebody" and "The One You Love."
1984's The Allnighter spawned the hit "Smuggler's Blues," which subsequently
inspired an episode of the hit TV series Miami Vice on which Frey guest-starred; his
acting work later continued in an extended guest role on the acclaimed Wiseguy as well as
a starring turn in 1993's South of Sunset, which as a result of its premiere episode's 6.1
Nielsen rating - believed to be the lowest fall debut in major network history - was
cancelled after only one episode.
More successful was Frey's continued musical career which reached its peak in 1985
with the Top Ten smash "The Heat Is On," a single released from the soundtrack
to the Eddie Murphy comedy Beverly Hills Cop. Frey's contribution to the Miami Vice
soundtrack, "You Belong to the City," was also a blockbuster, narrowly missing
the top of the charts. However, his next solo LP, Soul Searchin,' did not follow until
1988, notching only one Top 40 entry, "True Love; " Strange Weather, issued four
years later, missed the charts altogether. After issuing Glenn Frey Live in 1993, he
joined the reunited Eagles on their phenomenally successful "Hell Freezes Over"
tour, with a live album of the same name reaching Number One a year later. In the late
1990s, Frey also co-founded his own label, Mission Records, with attorney Peter Lopez.
No Fun Aloud - 1982
Glenn Frey's first solo album plotted two Top 40 singles, with "I Found
Somebody" going to number 31 in the summer of 1982 and the destitute-sounding
"The One You Love" hitting number 15 two months later. With help from Jack
Tempchin, who co-wrote the Eagles' "Peaceful Easy Feeling," the album reached
number 32 on the U.S. charts, but it's Frey's perfectly guided vocals and impeccable
talent for crafting laid-back love songs that make the album noteworthy. The saxophone
from "The One You Love," which tags alongside the soothing chorus, makes the
song even better, and "I Found Somebody" hints at the Eagles' warm, harmonic
style. Even the average-sounding "All Those Lies" went to number 41, but efforts
like "That Girl" and "She Can't Let Go" are thinned out too much, as
Frey gets a little too involved with singer/songwriter colloquialisms. Some life is
regained with a spirited attempt at Frankie Ford's "Sea Cruise," one of the
album's real movers. With Frey's own production assistance, No Fun Aloud stands up as a
modest debut album. - Mike DeGagne
01 - (4:06) I Found Somebody
02 - (4:36) The One You Love
03 - (2:58) Partytown
04 - (4:08) I Volunteer
05 - (4:38) I've Been Born Again
06 - (2:37) Sea Cruise
07 - (3:42) That Girl
08 - (4:45) All Those Lies
09 - (3:12) She Can't Let Go
10 - (4:49) Don't Give Up
The Allnighter - 1984
Frey breaks with the old Eagles sound on his second solo album, much of which has a
bluesy, rocking feel. Includes the hits "Smuggler's Blues" and "Sexy
Girl." - William Ruhlmann
01 - (4:24) The Allnighter
02 - (3:32) Sexy Girl
03 - (3:52) I Got Love
04 - (6:04) Somebody Else
05 - (4:14) Lovers Moon
06 - (4:21) Smuggler's Blues
07 - (5:04) Let's Go Home
08 - (3:04) Better In The U.S.A.
09 - (4:42) Living In The Darkness
10 - (4:28) New Love
Soul Searchin' - 1988
Eight years after the demise of The Eagles, Glenn Frey had settled into a career that
involved writing the occasional movie theme song, taking the occasional acting role, and,
every four years, turning out another album of light soul-pop tunes written with Jack
Tempchin. Soul Searchin' showed him to be more interested in body building than record
making (he was also appearing in health club before-and-after ads at this time, the two
photos showing him as an Eagle - "Hard Rock" - and today - "Rock
Hard"), and the songs here were so interchangeable with those on his first two albums
he apologized for it in his note about "True Love," which became the album's
sole Top 40 hit. The music was pleasant, but inconsequential, and suggested that Frey,
living off his Eagles royalties, had come to think of his solo career as a hobby. -
William Ruhlmann
01 - (5:06) Livin' Right
02 - (4:45) Some Kind Of Blue
03 - (4:44) True Love
04 - (5:12) Can't Put Out This Fire
05 - (4:05) I Did It For Your Love
06 - (4:53) Let's Pretend We're Still In Love
07 - (3:37) Working Man
08 - (5:34) Soul Searchin'
09 - (4:08) Two Hearts
10 - (5:03) It's Your Life
Glenn Frey Live - 1993
In the course of this 70-minute, 14-song live disc, recorded at the Stadium in Dublin
on July 8, 1992, Glenn Frey divides the set list just about equally between solo material
and old Eagles songs. As such, it provides a good sampler of Frey's career in total, from
"Take It Easy" to "Smuggler's Blues." One might have hoped for a bit
less of Frey's then-current solo album, Strange Weather, and a bit more of The Eagles
(after this record, Frey returned for the group's reunion). At presstime, MCA planned a
Frey hits compilation for the second half of 1995; until then, this will serve as the
album best able to give listeners an idea of what his solo career has been like (and it is
the only one to contain a version of "The Heat Is On," albeit not the hit
recording). - William Ruhlmann
01 - (2:38) Peaceful Easy Feeling [Live]
02 - (6:11) New Kid In Town [Live]
03 - (5:17) The One You Love [Live]
04 - (4:33) Wild Mountain Thyme [Live]
05 - (5:07) Strange Weather [Live]
06 - (6:00) I've Got Mine [Live]
07 - (5:57) Lyin' Eyes - Take It Easy [Medley] [Live]
08 - (5:00) River Of Dreams [Live]
09 - (5:26) True Love [Live]
10 - (6:12) Love In The 21st Century [Live]
11 - (3:52) Smuggler's Blues [Live]
12 - (4:33) The Heat Is On [Live]
13 - (6:05) Heartache Tonight [Live]
14 - (4:06) Desperado [Live]
Solo Collection - 1995
Glenn Frey has had a mixed solo career, alternating between Top Ten hits and outright
commercial disasters. Solo Collection performs a welcome service by collecting the
highlights from his decidedly uneven solo albums, including all of his biggest hits. Not
only is it a perfect introduction, it's arguably the most consistent solo record Frey ever
released. - Stephen Thomas Erlewine
01 - (3:29) This Way To Happiness
02 - (4:08) Who's Been Sleeping In My Bed?
03 - (4:46) Common Ground
04 - (4:14) Call On Me [Theme From South Of Sunset]
05 - (4:37) The One You Love
06 - (3:34) Sexy Girl
07 - (3:53) Smuggler's Blues
08 - (3:50) The Heat Is On
09 - (5:56) You Belong To The City
10 - (4:44) True Love
11 - (5:39) Soul Searchin'
12 - (6:01) Part Of Me, Part Of You
13 - (5:39) I've Got Mine
14 - (6:12) River Of Dreams
15 - (0:41) Rising Sun
16 - (6:23) Brave New World
Millennium Collection: The Best Of Glen Frey - 2000
The problem with assembling a Glenn Frey compilation - and this discount-priced one is
the second, following 1995's full-priced Solo Collection - is that his debut solo album,
No Fun Aloud (1982), was released on Asylum Records, making it the property of Warner,
while the rest of his solo recordings were released on MCA Records, the property of
Universal, and the two major record labels have not shown an interest in pooling their
resources. Thus, Frey's first three Top 40 hits, "I Found Somebody," "The
One You Love," and "All Those Lies," are unavailable to MCA in their
original form, though both Solo Collection and this album have used the live version of
"The One You Love" from 1993's Glenn Frey Live. A compilation is particularly
important for the collection of a Frey fan, because his two biggest hits, "The Heat
Is On" and "You Belong to the City," appeared on soundtracks, not his solo
albums. Those two are here, of course, along with what turns out to be a slightly more
comprehensive selection of his singles than Solo Collection contained. That 16-track album
featured only nine of the 17 tracks Frey placed on one chart or another between 1982 and
1993; this one has ten, including the minor hit "The Allnighter," which is not
on Solo Collection. Given the more favorable price point, this album gets the edge as the
Frey album for casual fans. - William Ruhlmann
01 - (3:48) The Heat Is On
02 - (3:52) Smuggler's Blues
03 - (5:55) You Belong To The City
04 - (3:32) Sexy Girl
05 - (6:14) Love In The 21st Century
06 - (4:41) True Love
07 - (4:25) The All Nighter
08 - (5:05) The One You Love [Live]
09 - (5:05) Strange Weather
10 - (5:38) I've Got Mine
11 - (5:39) Soul Searchin'
12 - (6:00) Part Of Me, Part Of You
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