Desperado (Eagles album)  Desperado is the second studio album by the American band the Eagles. It was recorded at Island Studios in London, England, and released in 1973. The songs on "Desperado" are based on the themes of the Old West. The band members are featured on the album's cover dressed like an outlaw gang; "Desperado" remains the only Eagles album where the band members appear on the front cover. Although the title track is one of the Eagles' signature songs, it was never released as a single. The song "Desperado" was ranked number 494 on "Rolling Stone" 2004 list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". The album did yield two singles, "Tequila Sunrise" and "Outlaw Man", which reached number 64 and number 59 respectively. The album reached number 41 on the Billboard album chart and was certified gold by the RIAA on September 23, 1974, and double platinum on March 20, 2001. "Desperado" was the last Asylum Records album to be distributed in North America by Atlantic Records (catalog no. SD 5068), prior to Asylum's mid-1973 merger with Elektra Records by Asylum's, Elektra's and Atlantic's parent company, Warner Communications. After a commercially successful first album, Frey wanted the second album to be one with which they could be taken seriously as artists, and became interested in making a concept album. The original concept was for songs about anti-heroes; according to Glenn Frey, he was jamming together with Don Henley, Jackson Browne, and J. D. Souther after a Tim Hardin concert when they had the idea of doing an album about anti-heroes. One inspiration was a book on gunfighters of the Wild West given to Browne by Ned Doheny for his 21st birthday, and Browne showed them the book and suggested the theme. The book includes stories about Bill Dalton and Bill Doolin; from this came the song "Doolin-Dalton" about the Doolin-Dalton Gang. However, they ran out of ideas after writing "Doolin-Dalton" and "James Dean" about the eponymous actor. The idea for anti-heroes then became the Western-themed "Desperado", and the song "James Dean" would be used for the next album "On the Border" instead. Jackson Browne himself credited the song "Desperado" written by Frey and Henley, as the origin of the outlaw theme of the album.