An Abandoned Eagles Side Project Led to ‘Love Will Keep Us Alive’
"Love Will Keep Us Alive," the 1994 Eagles single that appeared on Hell Freezes Over, came to life during the band's extended hiatus.
"There was a short time, while the band had broken up, that Timothy [B. Schmit] and Sharkey - that's [Don] Felder - were trying to put together a group with Max Carl from Jack Mack and the Heart Attack, Jim Capaldi from Traffic and Paul Carrack," Glenn Frey explained in the 2003 liner notes for Eagles' The Very Best Of. "The five of them were getting together, I believe, out at Felder's house and doing demos, trying to write songs and sing and do different things. From those demo sessions came Paul Carrack singing 'Love Will Keep Us Alive.'"
The proposed band, with the working name of Malibu Men's Choir, would never come to fruition, so the demo tape of the song - written by Capaldi, Carrack and Peter Vale - was sent to Eagles manager Irving Azoff, who originally turned it down. In early 1995, the Eagles version reached No. 1 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart and stayed there for three weeks.
At the time of Hell Freezes Over's release, Eagles hadn't played together for more than a decade. The idea of a reunion seemed unlikely. “I just rule out the possibility of putting the Eagles back together for a Lost Youth and Greed tour," Frey told People in 1982. Don Henley was even more frank, saying the band would get back together "when hell freezes over."
Watch Eagles Perform 'Love Will Keep Us Alive'
Henley, however, may have spoken the reunion into existence. With a lineup of Frey, Henley, Felder, Schmit and Joe Walsh, the band reconvened and performed live for the first time in 14 years in April 1994 at Warner Bros. Studios for an MTV special.
The songs recorded during the performances made up the tracks featured on the chart-topping Hell Freezes Over album.
"For the record, we never broke up," Frey remarked at the start of the reunion performance. "We just took a 14-year vacation."