The band’s legendary ‘Greatest Hits’ album has set an all-time sales record
The Eagles have made music history.
The rock icons are back on top. When Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975) arrived on February 17, 1976, it was a deceptively simple idea: take the Eagles’ first four studio albums—Eagles (1972), Desperado (1973), On the Border (1974), and One of These Nights (1975)—and distill them into a single, radio-ready statement of purpose. The timing mattered. As the band and label looked ahead to what would become Hotel California, the compilation functioned as both a recap and a bridge: a snapshot of the Eagles’ rapid rise from country-rock upstarts into mainstream hitmakers, anchored by the classic early lineup of Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Bernie Leadon, Randy Meisner, and Don Felder.
Now, just ahead of the album’s 50th anniversary – Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975) is officially the best-selling album of all time. The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) has certified the album Quadruple Diamond certification by the RIAA for sales of more than 40 million units.
That’s 40-times platinum.
It becomes the first ever album to receive that honor.
The band’s next album of original material – Hotel California – was certified 28× platinum.
Eagles are now the first band to earn Quadruple Diamond certification by the RIAA for sales of more than 40 million units of Their Greatest Hits 1971-75, which remains the best-selling album of all time in the U.S. To mark the 50th anniversary of the album on February 17th, a crystal-clear 180-gram vinyl edition will be released at
When Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975) arrived on February 17, 1976, it was a deceptively simple idea: take the Eagles’ first four studio albums—Eagles (1972), Desperado (1973), On the Border (1974), and One of These Nights (1975)—and distill them into a single, radio-ready statement of purpose. The timing mattered. As the band and label looked ahead to what would become Hotel California, the compilation functioned as both a recap and a bridge: a snapshot of the Eagles’ rapid rise from country-rock upstarts into mainstream hitmakers, anchored by the classic early lineup of Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Bernie Leadon, Randy Meisner, and Don Felder.
The album’s track selection is essentially a greatest-hits “spine” built around the songs that defined the Eagles on FM and Top 40 radio in the early-to-mid ’70s. Side One runs like a road movie: “Take It Easy” opens with that instant California mythos; “Witchy Woman” leans darker and swampier; “Lyin’ Eyes” delivers their most cinematic, radio-serial storytelling; “Already Gone” brings the punchy rocker edge; and “Desperado” closes the side as a slow-burning, piano-led signature ballad. Side Two shifts into the sleek prime-years: “One of These Nights” captures their sharpened pop-rock craft; “Tequila Sunrise” and “Peaceful Easy Feeling” bottle the band’s laid-back West Coast glide; “Take It to the Limit” spotlights Meisner’s high-wire vocal; and “The Best of My Love” seals the set with the warm, soft-rock inevitability that helped turn the Eagles into a household name.
What’s striking about the compilation is how it doesn’t just “collect” songs—it re-sequences the Eagles’ early identityinto an unusually coherent mood board: highway freedom, desert romanticism, late-night longing, and immaculate harmonies that feel like a brand as much as a sound. It also quietly underscores how many of these tracks were already proven hits—Rhino notes the set includes multiple major singles (including several Top Ten staples), which helps explain why the album played less like a stopgap and more like an essential purchase even for casual listeners.
Commercially, the record’s longevity is the stuff of industry legend, and it has only become more official with time. On January 22, 2026, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) updated the album’s certification to reflect more than 40 million units in the United States, making it the first album ever to reach a “quadruple diamond” milestone under the RIAA’s accounting (which now includes streaming equivalents as well as traditional sales). That same round of reporting emphasized what the numbers now make unavoidable: Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975) sits at the very top of the American album-sales mountain—an all-time benchmark that has outlasted format shifts from vinyl to cassettes, CDs, downloads, and streaming.
The album’s lasting legacy is also cultural, not just commercial. The Library of Congress has pointed out that the compilation was originally seen as a label-driven “greatest hits” package—something not every band wanted or needed at the time—but the public response turned it into a defining artifact of the era, effectively making a greatest-hits record one of the Eagles’ most widely recognized “albums.” Fifty years on, its track list still reads like a shorthand for the band’s early canon: if you know these ten songs, you understand why the Eagles became a crossover phenomenon—and why this particular compilation has remained the go-to entry point for generations, powerful enough to keep selling (and now streaming) at historic scale.
