Nearly three decades ago, Brooks & Dunn recorded “Best of My Love” in the Eagles’ tribute album Common Thread: The Songs of the Eagles. The song was also included in their compilation album Playlist: The Very Best of Brooks & Dunn.
And as expected, Ronnie Dunn and Kix Brooks together created an impressive rendition of the iconic song. After all, Brooks & Dunn has always been considered to be at the top of the pack out of all the duos that have ever existed in country music.
Many Believed It’s A Song About Being In Love, But It’s Actually Not
Written by Don Henley, Glenn Frey, and J. D. Souther, “Best of My Love” is often played at weddings and anywhere else that would like to show affection. But did you know that it’s really a breakup song?
“But every morning’ I wake up and worry what’s gonna happen today. You see it your way, and I see it mine, but we both see it slippin’ away,” the song goes. You can tell there’s no happy ending here, just a man who is giving his best, but things are unfortunately no longer working out.
The song was originally recorded by the Eagles – with Don Henley singing the lead vocals – and was included on their album On the Border in 1974. But Glenn Frey was reluctant to release it as a single because they wanted to move in a more rock-focused direction.
And Frey wasn’t the only one who questioned whether the song would work on the radio. “Someone at [the Eagles’ label] Asylum told us it could never be a single – too long, too slow, steel guitar, not enough drums,” Souther revealed. So, the release of “Best of My Love” was then held off for some time.
But the Eagles couldn’t shake their previous sound or fan expectations quickly, so the song was finally released as the third single from the album. It became the band’s first Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 single in 1975. It also topped the easy listening chart for one week a month earlier. At the end of 1975, Billboard ranked it as the No. 12 Song For The Year.
According to Don Henley, most of the lyrics were written while in a booth in Dan Tana’s Restaurant near the Troubadour. The maître d’ of Dan Tana, Guido, was credited in the album’s liner notes. The lyrics were actually inspired in part by Henley’s break up with his then-girlfriend, Suzannah Martin.
“I was playing acoustic guitar one afternoon in Laurel Canyon,” Frey said, “and I was trying to figure out a tuning that [his then-girlfriend] Joni Mitchell had shown me a couple of days earlier. I got lost and ended up with the guitar tuning for what would later turn out to be ‘The Best of My Love.'”
And the iconic country duo, Brooks & Dunn, made their cover of “Best of My Love” like their own. You can see it for yourself in the video below.
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