Especially this gloriously melancholy solo rendition of one of his greatest songwriting achievements, recorded some 35 years after it appeared on Hotel California – one of the ten biggest-selling albums of all time.

 

Not that he was just a songwriter. Back in the mid-70s Souther had a modestly successful solo career, was one-third of a modestly successful ‘supergroup’ with two members of the Byrds and Buffalo Springfield, and had a slightly more successful sideline producing and duetting with his girlfriend Linda Ronstadt.

 

Amid all that he wrote the chorus of New Kid In Town and played it to his room-mate and former bandmate Glenn Frey, who had already recorded another of Souther’s songs – the wonderful Doolin-Dalton – with his own band.

 

Frey finished it off with his bandmate Don Henley, and they recorded it for Hotel California, becoming the album’s first single.

 

Souther never joined the band, sticking with his solo career and his own trio the Souther-Hillman-Furay Band, formed with original Byrds bassist Chris Hillman and Buffalo Springfield founder Richie Furay, and collaborating with friends like Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor.

 

In the same year this song was released, Souther recorded several beautiful duets with Ronstadt, including If You Have Cryin’ Eyes, from his second solo album Black Rose, and produced her Don’t Cry Now album. Three years later he scored his biggest solo hit with You’re Only Lonely, and another duet, Hearts Against The Wind, appeared in the 1980 film Urban Cowboy.

 

An accomplished actor himself, the Texas-raised Souther had a recurring role in Thirtysomething and another in Nashville, his home for many years before moving to New Mexico, where he died this week.

 

RIP John David ‘JD’ Southern (1945-2024)