6 Things You Didn't Know About "Hotel California"

On February 26, 1977, The Eagles absolute classic song “Hotel California” first entered the Billboard Hot 100 charts. It is The Eagles most famous song, one of the most popular songs of all-time and generally considered to contain one of the greatest guitar solos ever. It is without a doubt one of the most famous songs on Earth and a road[trip classic. In honour of its 40 years of cultural dominance we put together 6 fun facts that you might not know about “Hotel California”.

• Although the meaning of the song has been argued about for decades, the song was named after The Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles (and was not a code-name for the Church of Satan). Noted Don Henley:
  

  “We were all middle class kids from the Midwest, ‘Hotel California’ was our interpretation of the high life in L.A.”

• This 1990 cover version by The Orb (Jam on the Mutha) reached #62 on the UK singles chart but the most widely known cover version is probably The Gipsy Kings flamenco version.

• “Hotel California” won the 1977 Grammy for Record of the Year but the band didn’t show up to accept the award as Don Henley didn’t believe in contests. They finally received their award in 2016 after they performed a memorial to Glenn Frey (who had passed away earlier that year) during the 58th Grammy Awards.
• The working title of “Hotel California” was “Mexican Reggae”, as that is what the band thought early versions of the song sounded like. They came up with the name “Hotel California” once the lyrics were finalized.
• Don Henley said that the band was in pursuit of a note perfect song. The Eagles spent eight months in the studio polishing take after take after take. Henley also said, “We just locked ourselves in. We had a refrigerator, a ping pong table, roller skates and a couple cots. We would go in and stay for two or three days at a time.”
• Julia Phillips, the producer behind Taxi Driver and Close Encounters of the Third Kind wanted to turn “Hotel California” into a movie. Seriously. However after having initial discussions with the band, nothing more ever came of the idea. The Eagles never lost any sleep over not turning it into a feature film, as it would have slightly contradicted the meaning of the song itself.