Eagles Music Group

Independent record stores say they're falling through a hole in the Eagles' new marketing strategy. The Coalition of Independent Music Stores sent hundreds of music executives an open letter asking the band and co-founder Don Henley to reconsider a plan to sell their new single, "Hole in the World," exclusively through the Best Buy chain for 30 days.

When the Eagles play their first L.A.-area concert in five years on Wednesday at the Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim, they'll be heading into Southern California concert history. The performance kicks off a six-week, 10-concert blitz at the Pond and downtown L.A.'s Staples Center, with total attendance expected to surpass 180,000, especially if more shows are added, as has been rumored. That would put the L.A.

The Eagles' first new studio album since 1979 makes a surprise -- if not unexpected -- appearance at the top of U.S. pop sales chart this week. The double-CD "Long Road Out of Eden" sold 711,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Britney Spears' "Blackout" came in second on sales of 290,000 copies. The veteran rock act issued "Eden" through retailer Wal-Mart and the band's website.

For the Eagles, tonight's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in New York will mark a first and, quite possibly, a last. If things go as planned, all seven of the musicians who have been members of the classic Southern California band since it was formed in 1971 will perform together for the first time.

For all her musical accomplishments, Barbra Streisand would have amassed an even more valuable body of work had she recorded during the pre-rock era, when the creative heart of pop music was focused on the sophisticated stage and film songs so ideally suited to her dramatic instincts.

Frank Groff of Laguna Beach bought his $350 Barbra Streisand ticket without a qualm. "It's a historic event, and you want to be a part of that." He said he would have been willing to spend $1,000. He actually did spend that much once, to see her at a benefit. Karyn Vogt of Costa Mesa vied for hours with some 300 other fans to buy an Eagles ticket and was ready to spend the top price of $115. She ended up eighth in line, but still had to settle for a more distant (though still pricey) seat.

It's easy to predict when the Eagles will step onstage for the final time in the 20th century--right down to the minute. The band's New Year's Eve set at Staples Center is scheduled to begin at 10:15 p.m. But the band members can't predict even what year they'll launch another tour. It is clear, however, from talks with primary songwriters Don Henley and Glenn Frey, that the chances of another album and tour are increasingly good.

Amy McGlone stood despondently in the parking lot of the Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre on Saturday morning, resigned that she had no hope of getting a ticket for one of the May reunion concerts by the mellow rock band, the Eagles. The number McGlone had drawn two hours before the box office opened at 9 a.m put her 2,636 spots behind the first ticket-buyer--and each person was allowed to purchase as many as eight tickets.

"Stop . . . stop ," Glenn Frey shouts during an Eagles rehearsal with enough urgency to raise the blood pressure of anyone familiar with the band's history. The Eagles didn't just break up 14 years ago. The quintet exploded from the tensions surrounding it--chiefly, the pressures they put on themselves to live up to huge artistic and commercial expectations.

In what may have been their final performance together, the Eagles sang their first hit, 1972's "Take It Easy," and their most celebrated hit, 1977's "Hotel California," during the closing moments of the 13th annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremonies here Monday night.