Once upon a time The Eagles were an acoustic group singing country-folk harmonies.

Three-quarters of them had played in Linda Ronstadt’s backing band before they got together to form their own quartet.

I kinda lost interest when they introduced hard rock to their sound but I loved those first two albums of stripped-back acoustic country-folk.

Despite oozing the essence of Americana in their sound, they were both recorded in England.

Their self-titled 1972 debut put them on the map and its follow-up, Desperado – a set of songs with a loose Western theme – came out in 1973, when they performed this wonderful live session for the BBC.

As far as I’m concerned they’ve never been better than this BBC concert from the same year, which I’ve only just unearthed.

All four of them take lead vocals – Bernie Leadon on the opening Train Leaves Here This Morning and Earlybird, Don Henley on Saturday Night and Witchy Woman, Glenn Frey on Peaceful Easy Feeling and Take It Easy, and Randy Meisner on Certain Kind Of Fool.

A prize for anyone who knows what The Eagles were called before they settled on the band name… without googling. PM me for the answer.