♫ Remembering the 80s ♫: I CAN’T TELL YOU WHY – Eagles (Soft Rock/Blue-eyed Soul)

Remember this one? It was released February 4, 1980

It’s one of my all-time favourite classics, from one of my all-time favourite bands, the Eagles, and when it first came out I could totally relate to it. I was fairly young at the time, probably too young to be dating boys or even know anything about relationships but yet, I understood it. Perhaps it was from watching family friends growing up around me and the struggles they went through in their relationships. Who knows. All I know is, I could relate to it. I also remembered loving the mellow, laid-back-style riff of the music… and still do.

The song, “I Can’t Tell You Why” was written by band members Timothy B. Schmit, Glenn Frey, and Don Henley of that great old American rock band and it was recorded in March of 1978 and was the first song finished for the album, The Long Run and it was also the first Eagles song to feature Schmit on lead vocals.


The studio version became a Billboard Top 10 hit in April 1980, reaching #8 on the Hot 100 and number 3 on the Adult Contemporary chart… and number 1 on my charts!

Timothy B. Schmit – who describes “I Can’t Tell You Why” as “loosely based on my own experiences” – composed the nucleus of “I Can’t Tell You Why” which he then presented to Glenn Frey and Don Henley: Schmit – “I had some writing sessions with Don and Glenn and I threw out a bunch of my ideas and that one [for “I Can’t Tell You Why”] stuck. I had [composed] a pretty good part of it, not a huge part but enough for them to think ‘That could be good’ and go with it. So Don, Glenn and I finished it over a few all night sessions.” “When it was being developed in the studio…I knew it was a great song. I [thought] ‘Yes! This is an amazing debut for me.’ When we finally mixed it, we had a little listening party at the studio. As people were hearing it, Don turned to me and said ‘There’s your first hit’. Schmit himself played bass on the track but believes Frey devised the distinctive bass riff (Schmit – “I would guess that might have been a Glenn thing, but I don’t really remember.”)

In 1980 the band promoted the song with a music video which featured Schmit on bass guitar accompanied by Frey on the electric piano, although Frey recorded the guitar solos as it is printed on the LP inside sleeve. Henley on the drums, Don Felder on the electric guitar, Joe Walsh on the organ and Walsh’s touring sideman Joe Vitale on synthesizer.

The year is 1980…

The world population was around 4,449,048,798.

And on February 4th, 1980:

• Bani Sadr was sworn in as premier of Iran
• Joanne Carner won the LPGA Whirlpool Golf Championship of Deer Creek
• and Studio 54 held its grand closing party on its last night in business

… just to name a few thing that happened on that day. As for some of the movies released that week:

• American Gigolo
• Caligula
• FatsoThe Fog Horror and
• My Brilliant Career