One of the trademark sounds of the Eagles in their heyday was Randy Meisner’s high, yearning vocal performance on the band’s 1975 hit Take It to the Limit. It was one of several songs that Meisner, who has died aged 77, wrote or co-wrote for the group. Prior to his tenure with them, he had been bassist and vocalist with Poco, and then a member of Rick Nelson’s Stone Canyon Band. After leaving the Eagles in 1977 he released five solo albums, as well as working with the groups Black Tie, Meisner, Swan & Rich and the Roberts-Meisner Band.
However, he will be best remembered for his work with the Eagles (usually billed as “Eagles”), the bestselling American band of the 1970s. Meisner became one of the group’s founding members after he had been recruited into Linda Ronstadt’s backing band. At a Ronstadt gig at Disneyland in California in July 1971, Meisner appeared alongside Glenn Frey, Don Henley and Bernie Leadon – and the quartet formed the Eagles later that year.
