One More Song

“One More Song is the album that finally justifies why I left the Eagles.” – Randy Meisner, 1980¹

In early 1980, Randy Meisner returned to Los Angeles to reignite his career. He’d spent the past two years in Nebraska, mulling over the failure of his 1978 solo debut, Randy Meisner. But he was ready to make a comeback, and the result would be his best-selling and most critically-acclaimed solo effort, One More Song.

Looking confident. Randy in 1980, photographed by Henry Diltz.

For his second solo album, Randy acquired a new manager, Trudy Green, a new label, Epic Records, and a new producer, Val Garay.

Trudy Green got her start in the music business working as a secretary for the Beatles’ label, Apple Records, in England. Eventually she moved to the U.S. and began working as a publicist for Irving Azoff’s Front Line Management, who was then managing the Eagles. By 1977, she was fed up with being a publicist and wanted to be a manager. So she created her own management firm and took on her first client, Stephen Bishop, and eventually, Randy Meisner.

It was Trudy who pushed Randy to record songs that would attract Eagles fans. Prior to recording One More Song, he had written several R&B tracks, but Trudy steered him in a more mainstream direction. “It was really good stuff, ” explained Trudy, “but there are still Eagles fans out there and you don’t want to lose that.”²

Randy had known Val Garay since the late 1960s. They were introduced by Richie Furay, who had met Garay when he was still with Buffalo Springfield. In 1979, he produced Furay’s third solo album, I Still Have Dreams. Randy made a guest appearance as a backing vocalist on four tracks.³ A year later, when Garay heard that Randy was making another album, he wanted to produce him.

Randy:

“I’d just about given up on looking for different managers and producers. But when CBS (who owned Epic) went over to see Val’s studio, Val said, ‘What’s Randy doing? I want to produce him.’ He was really instrumental in putting the whole thing together. Val handpicked the band because he’d worked with all these people. And he got me together with Eric Kaz and Wendy Waldman, who helped with the writing.”⁴

Randy posing with a 1957 Corvette he purchased from Val Garay.

Randy had never been tasked with writing songs for an entire album. Although he had nine writing and co-writing credits under his belt as an Eagle, he admitted that melodies came to him more easily than words. “I’d start a good song, but couldn’t finish it,” he said.

Randy:

“There’s always either one person or two people who tend to control a group. With the Eagles, Don and Glenn are like a team. They’re very good writers. And I would have songs that I could hear in my head, but I couldn’t express verbally or lyrically what I really wanted to say. I can come up with melodies, but lyrics take more time. So they co-wrote with me a lot because I’d start a good song, but couldn’t finish it.” ⁵

He’d had few co-writing partners, so working with someone new made him self-conscious. But, it was different with Eric Kaz. “He made me feel comfortable right away and let me just express my thoughts,” Randy said. ⁶

Randy:

“I was paranoid about how I pronounced a word or if I spelled it right and he just broke through all that stuff. Now writing is more fun. I think, in about a week or a week-and-a-half, we wrote almost all the songs for the album.”⁷

Randy with co-writers Wendy Waldman and Eric Kaz.

Besides Kaz and Waldman, Jack Tempchin also contributed two songs to the album, including the title track. Tempchin had written “Peaceful Easy Feeling” and “Already Gone” for the Eagles. Randy also borrowed an old Poco tune written by Richie Furay. More on that below.

Band

Randy’s backing band for One More Song was assembled by Val Garay and included musicians who had toured with Kim Carnes and would later appear on her Mistaken Identity album, produced by Garay, which featured her 1981 hit “Bette Davis Eyes.”

Randy’s backing band and their credits prior to One More Song:

• Don Francisco – Percussion – Appeared on Prisoner In Disguise by Linda Ronstadt and Andrew Gold’s self-titled debut (both albums engineered by Val Garay). Francisco also toured with Ronstadt in 1975.
• Bryan Garofalo – Bass – Bassist on So What by Joe Walsh and Souvenirs by Dan Fogelberg. Randyalso  contributed backing vocals to both albums. 
• Craig Hull – Guitar – Appeared on Strange Company by Wendy Waldman. Hull and Waldman were also a couple.
• Craig Krampf – Drums – Appeared on Romance Dance by Kim Carnes, as well as albums by Flo & Eddie and Steve Cropper.
• Sterling Smith – Keyboards – Played on Terry Reid’s Rogue Waves and the Beach Boys’ L.A. (Light Album).
• Wendy Waldman – Backing Vocals – Original member of Bryndle, with Karla Bonoff, Andrew Gold and Kenny Edwards. Waldman was also a backup singer for Linda Ronstadt and Maria Muldaur, among others.

One More Song was recorded between May 26th-August 20th, 1980 at Garay’s newly-opened Record One studio in Sherman Oaks, CA.

Track Highlights

“One More Song”

Written by Jack Tempchin

For the title track, Randy invited his former Eagles bandmates Don Henley & Glenn Frey to sing backing vocals. It was the first time they had been in the studio together since the recording of Hotel California in 1976. The appearance of Henley and Frey on Randy’s album may have been mutually beneficial since the Eagles were working on their first live album, which featured 4 tracks from Randy’s tenure with the band, including a version of “Take It To The Limit,” recorded at the Inglewood Forum in 1976.⁸ For Randy, it was nice to see his old bandmates.

Randy:

“It was a good feeling. We hadn’t talked to each other in a couple of years. Little grudges lingered. But we’ve patched things up. It was great singing together again; Henley and I in particular really got off.” ⁹

Randy and Don Henley during the recording of “One More Song.”

Jackson Browne first suggested “One More Song” to Randy at Record One, where he was recording Hold Out in an adjacent studio. It would have been a tune Randy was familiar with since Browne had performed “One More Song” in concert since the mid-1970s, usually with Linda Ronstadt. One such concert was the Jerry Brown benefit with the Eagles in May 1976.

Although Jackson Browne is often credited with “rewriting” Tempchin’s song to reflect Randy’s last night with the Eagles, the following live recording from 1974 shows that the lyrics were mostly left unchanged from Tempchin’s original, except for the line: “packin’ away my bass guitar” instead of “packin’ away my guitar.”

Listen to Jackson Browne and Linda Ronstadt performing “One More Song” in Worcester, MA, March 1974. David Lindley on fiddle.

Randy also used the band name in Tempchin’s lyrics, “The Silverados,” as the name of his backing band in the album credits, as well as his 1981 tour.

In addition to “One More Song,” Tempchin also wrote another track on the album, “White Shoes.”

Randy performed the “One More Song” throughout the rest of his career. Watch a performance with Meisner, Swan & Rich from 1995 below, filmed at the Oregon Trail Lounge in Gering, NE. From the documentary Randy Meisner Comes Home by Richard Randall.

“Deep Inside My Heart”

Written by Eric Kaz and Randy Meisner.

The first single from One More Song was a duet with Kim Carnes called “Deep Inside My Heart.” Recorded before Carnes’ massive hit “Bette Davis Eyes,” which came out in March 1981, and shortly after her hit duet with Kenny Rogers called “Don’t Fall In Love With A Dreamer, a song she co-wrote with her husband, David Ellingson.

Read about the recording of the track in an article published by the Los Angeles Times here:

Watch Randy and Kim Carnes perform “Deep Inside My Heart” on The Midnight Special, 1980:

“Hearts On Fire”

Written by Eric Kaz & Randy Meisner.

“Hearts On Fire” was the second single from One More Song. It debuted on Billboard’s Hot 100 at #65 on January 24th, 1981, peaking seven weeks later at #19. “Hearts On Fire” was Randy’s only Top 20 hit as a solo artist.

Official video for “Hearts On Fire” (1980).

“Gotta Get Away”

Written by Eric Kaz, Randy Meisner and Wendy Waldman.

“Gotta Get Away” was the third and final single from One More Song.

Randy and his band perform “Gotta Get Away” on Fridays, February 27, 1981. His band now included backup vocalist, Therese Heston, and guitarist Josh Leo.

“Anyway Bye Bye”

Written by Richie Furay.

For the album’s closing number, Randy included the Richie Furay track, “Anyway Bye Bye,” on which he had sang lead as an original member of Poco in 1969.

Randy:

“‘Anyway Bye Bye’ was killer song for us at the Troubadour. It was one of those really high songs that Richie and I did.”¹⁰

Poco (then known as Pogo) at the Troubadour.

Poco later recorded “Anyway Bye Bye” for their second studio album, Poco, with Richie Furay on lead vocal and Randy’s replacement, Timothy B. Schmit, on bass & backing vocal. Poco’s version runs a full 7 minutes with Rusty Young going wild on pedal steel, which he played through a Leslie speaker, giving it the sound of a Hammond B3 organ.

In 1980, Randy relearned “Anyway Bye Bye” from a live recording he’d made of himself singing the song with Poco at the Troubadour in February 1969. For his version, he replaced Rusty Young’s original pedal steel with Sterling Smith’s Hammond B3 organ. He also includes one slightly different word change from Poco’s 1970 version:

Poco version (1970): “Would you come along, if I was needin’/I’ve been down on my knees long enough for pleadin’.
One More Song version (1980): “Would you come along, if I was leavin’/I’ve been down on my knees long enough for pleasin’.

One More Song was released in October 1980 on vinyl and cassette. It was reissued on CD in 1991.

The front cover art was by John Kosh, who had previously worked on Hotel California in 1977 and Randy’s first solo album, Randy Meisner, in 1978. When Randy passed away in 2023, Kosh remembered him fondly.

Kosh:

“It was a stunning blow to learn of the death of the founding member of the Eagles, the great Randy Meisner. It was our love of ’40s and ’50s American cars that brought us together to work on his solo albums after the Hotel California shoot…a truly gentle man with an incredible range and a sardonic grin. It was good knowing you, Randy.” (koshartdesign/Instagram, July 27, 2023.)

Photography for One More Song by Aaron Rapoport.

Album and accompanying inner sleeve:

Album Inner Sleeve with photo and lyrics:

One More Song Songbook

Published in 1981, the One More Song Songbook included photos, lyrics and sheet music. Click here to see select pages.

Album Reviews

	October 31, 1980	Loyola Greyhound	“A Lone Eagle Reaches For The Sky”	“One More Song is a “refreshing version of the country rock made famous by the Eagles.”
	November 14, 1980	Rocky Mountain News (Denver)	“Randy Meisner: One More Song”	“On this one, you should try the blindfold test. The first cut on either side will do. Ten seconds into either song, you’ll be saying. ‘I know that voice!'”
	December 22, 1980	Time	Eagles Live & Randy Meisner: One More Song	The Eagles Live album and One More Song are reviewed in same article. Hint: They preferred One More Song.
	December 27, 1980	Melody Maker	“Randy Meisner: One More Song”	What they liked: “Gotta Get Away” and “Anyway Bye Bye.”
	January 11, 1981	Los Angeles Times	“One More Ex-Eagle”	“One More Song is far less pretentious and weighty than the Eagles’ recent outings.”
	March 6, 1981	Lake County News-Herald	“No Goose Egg From Ex-Eagle Randy Meisner”	What they liked: “Hearts On Fire,” “Gotta Get Away,” and “Trouble Ahead.” Review calls the latter a “Doobie Brothers/Steely Dan crossover.”
	March 20, 1981	Ball State Daily	“Meisner Album A Hit”	“There isn’t a bad cut on the album.”

Below, Randy and Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick at Epic’s New York offices, 1980. Randy is wearing a shirt for a band called 8-Ball, which was his 17-year-old son Dana’s band in Scottsbluff, NE. Dana was the drummer.

Press

One More Song was heavily promoted and Randy was interviewed more in 1980 &1981 than he had ever been in his career. I have included a few of these below, including an interview with Randy’s parents.

Interviews

	November 7, 1980	BAM	“Ex-Eagle Randy Meisner Flies High Solo”	Interview
	November 14, 1980	Citizens’ Voice (Wilkes Barre, PA)	“Meisner Learns From Early Mistakes”	Interview
	December 4, 1980	Intelligencer-Journal (Lancaster, PA)	“The Eagle Who Flew The Nest”	This syndicated interview appeared in hundreds of newspapers.
	December 25, 1980	Gering Courier	“Meisners Tell Story Behind One More Song”	Features a rare interview with Randy’s parents.
	January 12, 1981	People	On The Move	Interview
	February 1981	Teen	“Randy Meisner: An Ex-Eagle Soars Solo”	Interview
	February 28, 1981	Omaha World-Herald	“Meisner Remembers Nebraska”	Interview
	March 1, 1981	Houston Chronicle	“Getting His Act Together And Taking It On The Road”	Randy is interviewed in Houston, before the opening date of his 1981 tour.
	March 10, 1981	New York Daily News	“Ex-Eagle Randy Meisner Flying Solo”	Interview
	March 31, 1981	Circus	“Ex-Eagle Soars On Solo Flight”	Interview
	April 5, 1981	Los Angeles Times	“Front And Center For Shy Ex-Eagle”	Interview

Carl Wilson of the Beach Boys listed One More Song among the albums he’d been listening to in 1981. Randy opened for the Beach Boys during his 1981 tour.

One More Song Tour

Randy toured in support of One More Song during February-March 1981. It was the first time he’d been on stage in over two years. See the dates here, with photos, ads, reviews, and more.

Randy also toured Japan in May 1981. It was his second visit to the country since the Eagles toured there in 1976.

Tour Book, Japan 1981

See the rest of the book here.

Randy was proud of his success with One More Song, commenting later that it was “one of my best.” It seemed he’d accomplished what he set out to do, which was prove himself as a solo artist.

Notes

1. Rolling Stone, November 13, 1980 ↩︎
2. Billboard, March 14, 1981 ↩︎
3. Randy appeared on the the following tracks: “Oooh Child,” “Come On,” “I Still Have Dreams,” “What’s The Matter, Please?” ↩︎
4. Houston Chronicle, March 1, 1981 ↩︎
5. Houston Chronicle, March 1, 1981 ↩︎
6. BAM, November 7, 1980 ↩︎
7. Houston Chronicle, March 1, 1981 ↩︎
8. Eagles Live and One More Song were released almost simultaneausly in the Fall of 1980. ↩︎
9. BAM, November 7, 1980 ↩︎
10. John Einarson, Desperados: The Roots Of Country Rock, 2000 ↩︎