# Eagles – Their Greatest Hits…. Why so many album sales? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 27, 2020, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eagles-their-greatest-hits-why-so-many-album-sales/847056 "2020-01-27T16:57:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 10
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2020, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eagles-their-greatest-hits-why-so-many-album-sales/847056/10 "2020-01-27T20:40:05Z")
OK – I never miss an opportunity to tell one of my favorite stories. Ca. 1976, when I was working in Hollywood, California, I got a phone call from a publisher. She said, “We have a new album being released tomorrow, and we forgot to copyright all the songs! Can you help?” Since I specialized in writing lead sheets, the primary way to copyright songs under the latest (1909) law, I sure could. But it took me about an hour and a half to produce a single, finished lead sheet, and my usual time was about a week, sufficient for most music publishers. “How many songs on the album?” “About 10. But we need it right away!” "That would be a rush job, at double fee, about 48 hours. OK?’ “Sure, sure. Can you do it faster?” “What’s the name of the album?” “_Hotel California_, by the Eagles.” “No problem. But it will be triple fee.” My colleague and I stayed up all night, delivered the lead sheets the next day, then sacked out. Just another typical rush job, but one I’ll never forget! --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eagles-their-greatest-hits-why-so-many-album-sales/847056)._