The rerelease of all the Eagles albums on Elektra/Asylum from 1972 to 1980 allowed me the guilty pleasure of listening to the complete works of one of California's two most successful pop bands. And I have to say that as much as I loved – OK, love – "One of These Nights," for instance, and as many albums as the Eagles have sold, their collective songs don't hold a candle to those of the Beach Boys.

In fact, as Stephen Thomas Erlewine points out in All Music Guide, 1976's Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975) (Asylum) was actually the band's best album because it skimmed the cream off the top and left a lot of sour songs unheard. The truth is that even if you loved "Desperado," "Tequila Sunrise," "Peaceful Easy Feeling," and "The Best of My Love," you don't want hear "Journey of the Sorcerer" ever again.

And when you listen to 1976's miserable Hotel California, the Eagles' ponderous all-time chart-topping monstrosity, all you've got to say is that Don Henley was no Brian Wilson and that the title song was a piece of hypocritical social commentary so blatant that it's no wonder the Eagles have set world records for backlash in the past 25 years. While seeming to throw stones at Hollywood excess, the band was merely tossing martini olives in the air and catching them in their mouths on the way down.

Wilson may have been crazy for years, but Henley too often seems little more than a cynical Mike Love, Wilson's cash-crazed cousin. Still, there were those first four albums – about as full of promise as California was in the early '70s, when the four original Eagles (Henley, Glenn Frey, Bernie Leadon, and Randy Meisner) met while playing in Linda Ronstadt's band. If you were alive then, it's hard to hear the band today and not remember when a long-ago yesterday was some elusive, alluring tomorrow.

The payoff never arrived, however. What did arrive sucked up the Eagles and turned them into a predictable if valuable commodity. Years ago I'd crank up "One of these Nights" and head out into the sweltering Los Angeles night ready for anything – I flew with the Eagles and crashed too. If you didn't, I'd recommend saving your money and purchasing Their Greatest Hits. (J.H. Tompkins)