About The Song
Written by Glenn Frey and Don Henley, this song was inspired by the soul music Frey was listening to when he started writing it on the piano. Artists like B.B. King and Al Green were a big influence on many songs on the album.
In a 1975 interview with Phonograph Record, Frey explained: “It’s like, puttin’ things off… Everybody I’m sure has said, ‘One of these nights I’m gonna…’ Gonna drive back to that restaurant an’ take that waitress in my arms, whatever. Find that girl, make that money, buy that house. Move to that country. Any of that stuff. Everyone’s got his ultimate dream, savin’ it for ‘someday.’ And ‘someday’ is up to you.”
Don Felder, who was the Eagles newest guitarist, came up with the opening bass line. In a 1975 Rolling Stone interview, Don Henley credited Felder with helping the Eagles get away from ballads: “With Don Felder, we can really rock. He’s made us nastier and he’s done a great guitar solo on One Of These Nights.”
In the same Rolling Stone article, Don Henley said that this song was challenging to sing live: “My voice has to be just right to hit the high notes. Sometimes I make it, sometimes I don’t.”
Glenn Frey cited this as an example of how he and Don Henley clicked as songwriters. “I’d go over to the piano and say, ‘Hey, what do you think of this?’ he told Tavis Smiley. “I’d play something, and he’d go, ‘Yeah, I like that, I like that.’ Maybe just get up and start singing. That’s the way we wrote ‘One of These Nights.’ I just went over to the piano and I started playing this little minor descending progression, and he comes over and goes, (singing) ‘One of these nights.’ I go, yeah, yeah.”
This was the Eagles second #1 single in America, preceded by “Best Of My Love” a year before.
The album One Of These Nights sold platinum in the UK and Canada, and sold 4x platinum in the US. It was the Eagles highest-selling album to date, but their next album Hotel California sold even better.
Video
Lyrics
One of these nights
One of these crazy old nights
We’re gonna find out
Pretty mama
What turns on your lights
The full moon is calling
The fever is high
And the wicked wind whispers
And moansYou got your demons
And you got desires
Well, I got a few of my ownOh, someone to be kind to in
Between the dark and the light
Oh, coming right behind you
Swear I’m gonna find you
One of these nightsOne of these dreams
One of these lost and lonely dreams now
We’re gonna find one
One that really screamsI’ve been searching for the daughter
Of the devil himself
I’ve been searching for an angel in white
I’ve been waiting for a woman who’s a little
Of both
And I can feel her but she’s nowhere
In sightOh, loneliness will blind you
In between the wrong and the right
Oh, coming right behind you
Swear I’m gonna find you
One of these nightsOne of these nights
In between the dark and the light
Coming right behind you
Swear I’m gonna find you
Get ya baby one of these nightsOne of these nights
One of these nightsI can feel it
I can feel it
One of these nights
Coming right behind you
Swear I’m gonna find you now
One of these nightsAnd it gets so dark, so dark
In the cold and lonely
One of these nights
One of these crazy, crazy, crazy nights
One of these nights
Swear I’m gonna find you
Coming right behind you now
One of these nights
Ooh oohOne of these nights
Ah and I wanna say ah!
One of these nights
Yes ah one of these one of these
One of these nights
Ah coming right behind you
Swear I’m gonna find you
One of these nights
One of these nights
One of these crazy old nights
One of these nights