Glenn Lewis Frey
(pronounced Fry
, born November 6, 1948) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and actor, best known as one of the founding members of the rock band Eagles.
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GLENN FREY TICKETS
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Early life
Frey was born in
Detroit, Michigan.
[1] Growing up in
Royal Oak, Michigan, he became part of the mid-1960s Detroit rock scene. One of his earliest bands was called the Subterraneans and included fellow
Dondero High School Class of '66 students Doug Edwards (later replaced by Lenny Mintz) on drums, Doug Gunsch and Bill Barnes on guitar and Jeff Hodge on bass.
His first professional recording experience was performing
acoustic guitar and background vocals on
Bob Seger's
Ramblin' Gamblin' Man
in 1968. Frey and Seger would remain friends and occasional songwriting partners in later years.
Frey then moved to
Los Angeles to follow a girlfriend who was an aspiring singer. His first recording as a musical writer was while fronting
Longbranch Pennywhistle, a duo with
J. D. Souther, in 1969. Frey also met
Jackson Browne there, with whom he would also write songs. The three shared an apartment for a short time.
Tenure with the Eagles
After a stint in 1971 backing
Linda Ronstadt, Frey helped form the
Eagles, playing
guitar and
keyboards. Frey wrote or co-wrote (often with
Don Henley) many of the group's songs, and sang lead vocal on a number of Eagles hits including "
Take It Easy", "
Peaceful Easy Feeling", "
Already Gone", "
Tequila Sunrise", "
Lyin' Eyes", "
New Kid in Town", "
Heartache Tonight", and "
How Long".
The Eagles broke up in 1980 and reunited in 1994, when they released an album mixing both live tracks and four new songs,
Hell Freezes Over
.
2007 saw the release of the Eagles' album
Long Road out of Eden
.
Glenn Frey participated in the Eagles'
The Long Road out of Eden Tour (2008-2009).
Solo career
After the Eagles disbanded, Frey found solo success in the 1980s, especially with two #2 hits: the
soundtrack songs "
The Heat Is On" (from
Beverly Hills Cop
) and "
You Belong to the City" (from the television series
Miami Vice
, the
soundtrack to which stayed on top of the U.S. album charts for 11 weeks in 1985). His other contribution to the soundtrack, "Smuggler's Blues", hit #12 on the Hot 100. Frey also contributed the song "Flip City" to the
Ghostbusters II
soundtrack, and "Part of Me, Part of You" to the soundtrack for
Thelma and Louise
.
During his solo career he had 12 songs in the U.S. Top One Hundred. Eleven of those were written with Jack Tempchin who also wrote "Peaceful Easy Feeling".
[2]
In the late 1990s, Frey founded a record company with attorney Peter Lopez called
Mission Records.
Acting career
As an actor on television, Frey guest starred on
Miami Vice
in the first season episode titled "Smuggler's Blues" inspired by his hit song of the same name and had a starring role in the "Dead Dog Arc" of
Wiseguy
. He was also the star of the short-lived
South of Sunset
, which was canceled after one episode. In the late-1990s, he guest starred on
Nash Bridges
as a policeman whose teenage daughter had run amok and gone on a crime spree with her sociopath boyfriend. In 2002, he appeared on
HBO's
Arli$$
, playing a political candidate who double-crosses Arliss and must pay a high price for it.
Frey's first foray into film was his starring role in
Let's Get Harry
, a 1986 film about a group of plumbers who travel down to Colombia to rescue a friend from a drug lord. Frey's next film appearance was a smaller role in
Cameron Crowe's third film,
Jerry Maguire
. Frey played the frugal owner of the
Arizona Cardinals football team who, in the film's climax, finally agrees to pay Cuba Gooding's character,
wide receiver Rod Tidwell, a large professional contract.
Commercial endorsements
Frey appeared in or wrote music for a few advertisement campaigns in the mid-to-late 1980s and early 1990s. This move was somewhat controversial within the music industry;
Neil Young was especially vocal in his criticism of Frey.
Frey's first appearance as an actor in a commercial was for
Pepsi with
Miami Vice
star
Don Johnson. Another notable commercial campaign was the "Hard Rock in the 70s, Rock Hard in the 80s" gym campaign of 1988, which featured a photograph of a newly physically toned Frey contrasted with the famous
Hotel California
insert photograph. He even did a picture spread in
Rolling Stone
modeling ski wear, and a spread in
Penthouse
modeling sweaters.
Frey also contributed music for several commercials, with his jingle for
Canada Dry ginger ale evolving into the obscure Japanese
Strange Weather
bonus track "Ain't It Love".
References in pop culture
Cameron Crowe, who interviewed the Eagles on the road when he was a teenager, has stated that the character of Russell, the lead guitar player from his film
Almost Famous
, was based primarily upon Glenn Frey. The instruction Russell gives to Crowe's autobiographical young critic William Miller, to "Just make us look cool," was apparently a direct quote from Frey.
There is a
Saturday Night Live
short, called The H(eat) Is O(n), by
Adam McKay, in which a character named Wes, played by
Ben Stiller has a one night stand with Glenn Frey (played by
Will Ferrell). Over the course of the evening, Glenn reveals his penchant for aggressive sex play, leaving Wes very upset.
The
Randy Stonehill song
Teen King
is about Glenn Frey's experiences as a rock star.
Discography
Studio albums
| Year
| Album
| Chart Positions
| RIAA
|
| US
| UK
|
| 1982
| No Fun Aloud
| 32
| —
| Gold
|
| 1984
| The Allnighter
| 22
| 31
| Gold
|
| 1988
| Soul Searchin'
| 36
| —
| —
|
| 1992
| Strange Weather
| —
| —
| —
|
Compilation and specialty albums
| Year
| Album
|
| 1993
| Glenn Frey Live
|
| 1995
| Solo Collection
|
| 2000
| 20th Century Masters - The Milennium Collection
|
Singles
| Year
| Single
| Peak chart positions
| Album
|
| US
| US Main
| US AC
| CAN
| UK
|
| 1982
| "I Found Somebody"
| 31
| 57
| 27
| —
| —
| No Fun Aloud
|
| "The One You Love"
| 15
| —
| 2
| 12
| —
|
| "Don't Give Up"
| —
| 25
| —
| —
| —
|
| "Partytown"
| —
| 5
| —
| —
| —
|
| 1983
| "All Those Lies"
| 41
| —
| 28
| —
| —
|
| 1984
| "Sexy Girl"
| 20
| —
| 23
| 48
| 81
| The Allnighter
|
| "The All Nighter"
| 54
| —
| —
| —
| —
|
| "The Heat Is On"
| 2
| 4
| —
| 8
| 12
| Beverly Hills Cop
(soundtrack)
|
| 1985
| "Smuggler's Blues"
| 12
| 13
| —
| 37
| 22
| The Allnighter
|
| "You Belong to the City"
| 2
| 1
| 2
| 6
| 94
| Miami Vice
(soundtrack)
|
| 1988
| "True Love"
| 13
| 15
| 2
| 2
| 84
| Soul Searchin
|
| "Soul Searchin'"
| —
| —
| 5
| —
| —
|
| 1989
| "Livin' Right"
| 90
| —
| 22
| —
| —
|
| 1991
| "Part of Me, Part of You"
| 55
| 9
| 7
| 9
| —
| Strange Weather
|
| 1992
| "I've Got Mine"
| 91
| —
| 12
| 18
| —
|
| "River of Dreams"
| —
| —
| 27
| 57
| —
|
| 1993
| "Love in the 21st Century"
| 112
| —
| —
| —
| —
|
| 1995
| "This Way to Happiness"
| —
| —
| —
| 54
| —
| Solo Collection
|
Trivia
- "Partytown" is played at Waterloo Black Hawks games when the home team scores. The team plays in the United States Hockey League.
- Every Friday, KSHE95 in St. Louis, MO plays "Partytown" at 10:00 AM CST with Todd Rundgren's "Bang the Drum All Day" following right after.
- Frey sang backup vocals on "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man" by The Bob Seger System.
References
- Glen Frey of the Eagles - Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee
- http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:hpfuxq95ldte~1~T32C