Lyrics to
Hotel California

This version of Hotel California was released by Eagles in 1976.

Our About Eagles page at Decade Lyrics includes the lyrics for Hotel California from 1976 as well as all of the other lyrics from Eagles that we have in our lyrics database.

Here's more interesting things in songs and lyrics tied to Eagles or about the 1970s in general.

On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair
Warm smell of colitas, rising up through the air
Up ahead in the distance, I saw shimmering light
My head grew heavy and my sight grew dim
I had to stop for the night
There she stood in the doorway;
I heard the mission bell
And I was thinking to myself,
‘This could be Heaven or this could be Hell’
Then she lit up a candle and she showed me the way
There were voices down the corridor,
I thought I heard them say…

Welcome to the Hotel California
Such a lovely place (Such a lovely place)
Such a lovely face
Plenty of room at the Hotel California
Any time of year (Any time of year)
You can find it here

Her mind is Tiffany-twisted, she got the Mercedes Benz
She got a lot of pretty, pretty boys she calls friends
How they dance in the courtyard, sweet summer sweat.
Some dance to remember, some dance to forget

So I called up the Captain,
‘Please bring me my wine’
He said, ‘We haven’t had that spirit here since nineteen sixty nine’
And still those voices are calling from far away,
Wake you up in the middle of the night
Just to hear them say…

Welcome to the Hotel California
Such a lovely place (Such a lovely place)
Such a lovely face
They livin’ it up at the Hotel California
What a nice surprise (what a nice surprise)
Bring your alibis

Mirrors on the ceiling,
The pink champagne on ice
And she said ‘We are all just prisoners here, of our own device’
And in the master’s chambers,
They gathered for the feast
They stab it with their steely knives,
But they just can’t kill the beast

Last thing I remember, I was
Running for the door
I had to find the passage back
To the place I was before
‘Relax,’ said the night man,
‘We are programmed to receive.
You can check-out any time you like,
But you can never leave!’

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Eagles has released many songs over the years besides Hotel California. Eagles released songs from 1972 to 2007 spanning across albums like The Eagles, Desperado, On The Border, One Of These Nights, Hotel California, The Long Run, Hell Freezes Over, and Long Road Out Of Eden. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Eagles.

If you're a fan of 1970s songs looking for more songs from 1976 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and Hotel California by Eagles

The lyrics for Hotel California are made up of the words, verses and background chorus for the popular 1976 song by Eagles. Like a lot of songs, the lyrics to Hotel California have both direct meanings and metaphorical context hidden within the song's words. All of the meanings are only truly known by the creators of the lyrics for Hotel California - Eagles and any of the writers who worked with them on the song.

If you have an interest in the structure of words and phrases, you can dissect the lyrics to Hotel California by Eagles in multiple ways. The word "lyric" itself derives from the Latin word lyricus, with the actual English word lyrics applied to the definition "words set to music" listed in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Continuing the chain, the Latin word lyricus derives from the Greek word λυρικός or lyrikós. This somewhat means "poetry accompanied by the lyre" or "words set to music." You can easily see that by looking at the background of the word lyric, that the "lyrics to Hotel California" means the words set to the music of Hotel California, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Eagles. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song. However, the singular form lyric is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics. Hence, by this analysis of word structure, you could say that the lyric to Hotel California and the lyrics to Hotel California are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Eagles who came here looking just for the lyrics to Hotel California, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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