Glenn Frey sold over 200 million albums as frontman of the Eagles, and a fraction of that with his five solo albums, the last of which, the traditional jazz-influenced After Hours, was released in 2012. That record, featuring standards from the Great American Songbook, failed to break into the business end of the Billboard 200 - peaking at number 116 - but always held a special place in the late singer's heart, not least because he was able to dedicate it to his parents, who had raised him on records by the likes of Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald.
"The greatest two days in the entire process were getting to sit in the control room and watch 22 string players and a couple of flutes and French horns lift my songs to heaven.," Frey told Jazz Times in 2012. "At the end of the second day, I addressed the orchestra and said, What you’ve done to this material is beyond my wildest dreams. I’ve been a rock ‘n’ roll star for most of my adult life, but today I am a musician'."
The inspiration to make the album came from an unusual source: Hollywood film legend Clint Eastwood.
The story begins in 2000, when the Eagles frontman received an invitation to play the annual AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am golf tournament in Monterey, California.
"They have a party on the night before the tournament starts, for the 2,000 people who work for free all weekend, " Frey explained to this writer in 2012. "And Clint, who's the head guy there, asked all the singers and comedians if they'd do a little show - this has been going on since the days of Bing Crosby and Bob Hope - so of course I said, Sure.
"And then I got a note saying, 'Clint would like you to do two songs: one of your hits, and something from the 1940s'. I was a bit taken aback. But I did a Tony Bennett song (1962 hit I Left My Heart in San Francisco) and it fitted my voice."
When Frey was invited to perform again the following year, he sang I Wanna Be Around, and the year after that he sang The Good Life, both singles having featured on Bennett's 1963 album I Wanna Be Around...
"And then later I saw Michael Bolton at a dinner party," Frey revealed, "and he said, 'Your voice sounds really good singing that material. Have you ever thought of doing a record?' So then I cut I Wanna Be Around and The Good Life as demos, and they sounded good, and from there we recorded more stuff."
After Hours was released on May 8, 2012, and while it was never going to match the commercial success of his work with the Eagles, it was a record of which Frey was extremely proud.
"Music isn't about how many records you've sold," he told me, "it's about showing that you still care."
