80's Guilt #10: The Eagles "I Can't Tell You Why" (1980) / Don Henley "The Heart of the Matter" (1989)

The way these "guilt" mixes work is that the songs are supposed to get more embarrassing as the list progresses, and #10 is surely the most embarrassing entry yet, so we're probably on the right track.

This might go without saying, but we hate The Eagles almost as much as The Dude from The Big Lebowski. "I Can't Tell You Why" is their only song that we'll even marginally accept, probably because it wasn't written or sung by Glenn Frey, Joe Walsh or Don Henley, but rather by their bass player who hasn't really sang on much else, although his Wikipedia entry reveals that he played bass on Toto's "Africa," which makes this his second appearance in the 80's Guilt Mix. Congrats.

After we recalled "The Boys Of Summer" appearing in our "80 Jams From The 80's," we quickly skimmed through Don Henley's "Greatest Hits" album as a "just in case" measure for the 80's Guilt Mix. And shockingly, we ended up not hating "The Heart of the Matter" enough to include it here. Not surprisingly, it's the only other Don Henley single besides "Boys of Summer" with a co-songwriting credit from Mike Campbell, the guitar player from Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers. Now it all makes sense. (Awesome structuring with the pre-chorus and chorus sections, and we're totally ashamed to admit that we kinda love the lyrics as well...)

Neither video was on Youtube for some reason, so we linked from alternate sources. But it's not like anyone's actually gonna watch either of these, so this paragraph is meaningless...