Ten Favorite Don Henley Guest Vocals: Fire Lake (#10)

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It’s time to celebrate Don Henley’s birthday a little late, with some of my favorite songs that feature him as a backing vocalist. A number of these also feature his late Eagles co-conspirator, Glenn Frey, as part of the harmony team (and a notable couple do not). Here’s a superficially odd starting point. #10: Fire Lake - Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band So, what’s a guy from Texas and a guy from Detroit doing singing together? Well, Glenn Frey went to L.A. and joined Linda Ronstadt’s band, and..... Oh, wait. Actually, Frey is the key here. If you listen to the original Bob Seger recording of “Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man” from 1968 you’ll hear Frey singing backup. Not as distinctly as you can hear him on other things (such as Ronstadt’s live cover of “Rescue Me”), but he’s there. Once they all got successful the friendship continued. Some people might not know that Seger co-wrote the last pre-breakup Eagles #1 hit, “Heartache Tonight” (mostly on the telephone, according to Henley, because Seger didn’t want to move to L.A.). And, in those days, when you wanted some harmony, you called the Eagles. That’s what Seger did for this first single from his Against the Wind album (the title track featured Frey singing backup without Henley). The funny thing is that Henley came out sounding like Joe Walsh on this! Fire Lake Written by Bob Seger Recorded by Bob Seger and the Sivler Bullet Band From Against the Wind, 1980 Who wants to tell poor Aunt Sara: