Desperado
by Eagles
- 120
- BPM
- G major
- Key
- 9B
- Camelot
- 23
- Danceability
- 95
- Acousticness
The Eagles were in London in 1972, recording their debut album, when Glenn Frey and Don Henley decided to write songs together. A day or two after returning to Los Angeles they wrote "Desperado". Henley had begun a song in 1968 in the style of Stephen Foster, about a friend named Leo. At his home in Laurel Canyon he played the unfinished version for Frey and called it a Southern Gothic thing they could easily make more Western. Frey filled in the blanks and brought structure. Henley said that was when they became a team. They wrote "Tequila Sunrise" that same first week.
The piano introduction is taken from Ray Charles's version of "Georgia On My Mind". They recorded it at Island Studios in London with musicians from the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Jim Ed Norman, Henley's friend from Shiloh, conducted and wrote the string arrangement. Producer Glyn Johns allowed Henley four or five takes. Henley felt intimidated by the orchestra and later said he wished he could do it again.
The song was never a single. It appeared on the 1973 album Desperado, and Henley said it was not a hit until Linda Ronstadt recorded it. After Frey died, the Eagles' recording reached number 20 on the Rock Digital Songs chart.
Desperado runs at 120 BPM, the tempo of house, disco and most club dance music. In classical terms it sits in allegro territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 2 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 500 ms. It is in G major, Camelot 9B, which shares its notes with E minor and mixes cleanly with C major and D major.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.