Souther landed his first-ever Eagles co-write with the opening track of their second album, Desperado. He wrote “Doolin-Dalton” with Don Henley, Glenn Frey and Jackson Browne, drawing on a real-life Western legend for the song’s Old West imagery. The song also features an instrumental reprise and a second reprise that encompasses parts of “Desperado,” and while it was never a single, it has played an important role on the Eagles’ live shows over the years.

Souther scored another co-wrote with Henley, Frey and Browne with “James Dean,” which the Eagles released as the second single from their On the Border album. The song was a departure from the group’s country-rock roots, and while it was not one of their biggest hits, it played an important role in their live shows and their ultimate transition into more rock-oriented material.

Souther is best-known for slower and mid-tempo material with strong melodies, but “Victim of Love” is a turn in another direction altogether. He collaborated with Don Felder, Henley and Frey on “Victim of Love” from Hotel California, and the song’s massive slabs of guitar power chords and sledgehammer delivery provided a stark contrast to most of the rest of the album.

Souther was right in his wheelhouse for “New Kid in Town,” which the Eagles released as the first single from Hotel California. Written by Souther, Henley and Frey, the song is an acoustic, mid-tempo track with layered harmonies that fit the group perfectly. The lyric about the fleeting nature of newfound fame is the icing on the cake, and the song reached No. 1. and won a Grammy Award for Best Vocal Arrangement for Two or More Voices.

J.D. Souther scored one of his biggest hits with “Her Town Too,” a duet with James Taylor. He and Taylor co-wrote the song with Waddy Wachtel, and Taylor and Souther recorded it as a duet for Taylor’s Daddy Loves His Work album in 1981. The song reached No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100, No. 5 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart and No. 21 on the Mainstream Rock chart.

Souther collaborated with Henley, Frey and Frey’s mentor, Bob Seger, on “Heartache Tonight,” which the Eagles recorded and released as the first single from The Long Run. With its shuffle groove, power chords and uncharacteristically fun lyrics, it’s an interesting outlier in the Eagles’ catalog, and it gave them their final No. 1 hit on the Billboard 100.

Souther was the sole author of “Faithless Love,” which Linda Ronstadt recorded for her fifth solo album, Heart Like a Wheel, in 1974. He released his own version in 1976, but Glen Campbell scored the biggest hit with the song, reaching No. 10 in 1984 with his version.

Souther was also the only songwriter on “You’re Only Lonely,” which became his biggest pop solo hit. He worked with an all-star cast of vocalists on the track, including Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Don Felder, Jackson Browne and Phil Everly. The first single from his 1979 album of the same name reached No. 1 on Billboard‘s Adult Contemporary chart and No. 7 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100.

Souther’s longstanding collaboration with Don Henley followed the Eagles maestro into his solo career. Souther and Henley wrote “The Heart of the Matter” with guitarist Mike Campbell, and Henley released it as the third single from his watershed The End of the Innocence album in 1991. The song reached No. 21 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 2 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks, and has become one of Henley’s signature solo songs.

Souther helped the Eagles score one of their most important hits with “Best of My Love,” from their On the Border album in 1974. He worked with Henley and Frey on the song, which Frey objected to releasing as a single, since he was trying to steer the group away from its country roots into more rock-based songs. But the song became the biggest hit to date when it was released as the album’s third single, giving the Eagles their first-ever No. 1 hit.