‘It was very easy being around the Eagles, just like hanging out with friends’: how David Alexander photographed the album cover for Hotel California

It began with a guitar lick and a sense of things having gone awry. In 1976, the Eagles, comprising Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Joe Walsh, Don Felder and Randy Meisner, were at the top of their game, having notched up nine Top 40 hits, including the soulful Lyin’ Eyes and Take It Easy.

With their flawless five-part harmonies and phrasemaking so casual as almost to hide the virtuosity, the Eagles had come to define a certain type of Californian sound, one that conjured up nights on the drift, club noise and dream-time transfusions of tequila.

But things had become a little unpredictable recently: the touring, the drugs, the ‘third encore’ parties and the macho jockeying for power — all these were breaking the calm, note-perfect panorama of their country-pop. As the band put it so breezily in Take It to the Limit, they kept ‘turning out and burning out and turning out the same’.

It was in this context that Felder came up with a haunting riff, something his fellow guitarist Walsh described as a cross between ‘Spanish music and reggae’. It had a weird, narcoleptic vibe that chimed with songwriter Henley’s desire to write about Los Angeles at night — a city where neon lights tempted starstruck innocents like coloured squares on a dance floor.

The result was Hotel California, a woozy paean to lost innocence sung by Henley in his rural Texan wail. Frey thought it sounded like a musical version of the TV series The Twilight Zone. Today it is widely regarded as one of the greatest pop songs ever made and a cornerstone of rock radio. The eponymous album sold nearly six million copies on its release in 1977.

The famous image of the Beverly Hills Hotel on the record cover was taken by photographer David Alexander, who had made a name for himself as the go-to man for high-concept album art. Alexander had a genius for communicating a musician’s ideas visually, and his photograph of the legendary hotel in a tranquillised evening light captured the darkness and years of addiction the Eagles were singing about.

On 11 December 2025, the original prints of Alexander’s photographs from which the classic Hotel California album cover was produced will be offered in Groundbreakers: Icons of our Time at Christie’s in London. Here, the photographer recalls his time with the Eagles and the making of that celebrated album cover.

Getting to know the band: ‘To my mind, Glenn Frey and Don Henley were the poets of a certain LA scene at that time’

I was hired to photograph a wonderful singer called Minnie Riperton. Her manager was Irving Azoff, and he wanted to meet me before the shoot. Over lunch, he said, ‘I have this other group I represent, would you like to photograph them?’ And that was the Eagles.

I flew down to Florida, where they were recording Hotel California. They had rented this big house on the water, and I stayed there. It was very easy and casual being around them — there was no star power, it was just like hanging out with friends. I know a lot has been said about the conflicts within the band, but I found them all really straightforward and down-to-earth. Just people doing their work and being really warm and friendly with each other.

Looking back, Don and Glenn were very generous. They spoke the lyrics of the song and told me about the atmosphere they were trying to achieve. They were super-excited about using a kind of reggae-inspired rhythm track, which was just catching on in the United States. Don Henley slapped some headphones on me and said, ‘Listen to this!’ It was extremely cool.

At the time, I was photographing a lot of musicians — Tina Turner, Aretha Franklin, James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt — and my intention was always to figure out where they were in their careers and the themes that might influence their music. I never talked to the musicians per se about this, except with the Eagles: we collaborated really closely. To my mind, Glenn Frey and Don Henley were the poets of a certain LA scene at that time.

The day of the shoot: ‘The cherry-picker took me up 60 feet in the air, and I saw this bell tower you can’t see from the road. Then the hotel manager came out and was yelling up at me’

The first place I photographed was the Castle Green in Pasadena, but it didn’t look right, so Irving suggested the Beverly Hills Hotel, which had become something of a focal point for the band. I was really reluctant. The Beverly Hills Hotel has never allowed a movie or a commercial to be shot there. They are very strict. The only way I could think of doing it was to hire a cherry-picker and park it up on the opposite side of the street. Sunset Boulevard is pretty wide, and I hoped the manager of the hotel wouldn’t notice.

The day of the shoot, I got there late because I had been on a date with the woman who later became my wife, and we were just enjoying ourselves so much. By the time I got out to Beverly Hills, it was rush hour and the light was fading. The cherry-picker took me up 60 feet in the air, and I saw this bell tower which you can’t see from the road. It was so cool. Then the hotel manager came out and he was yelling up at me and I was swearing down at him and the sun was setting and the traffic was rushing by and I had no time. So I just started shooting. No planning, nothing. But it was perfect.

I wanted the image to look really grainy, to give it that impressionistic feel, so I used a Nikon 35 mm and underexposed the film by at least three stops.

The neon ‘Hotel California’ logo was created by John Kosh, who was pretty legendary by then for having designed The Beatles’ Abbey Road. I had done a bunch of stuff with him. We had to re-photograph the logo several times to give it that grainy quality so that it looked like it belonged in the picture.

The gatefold: ‘The ghostly figure in the balcony window, which led to accusations that the Eagles were into devil worship, is actually a fashion model. She just performed’

One of my assistants suggested a Spanish-style residence hotel in old Hollywood called the Lido Apartments. It had been a popular place for actors to live in the 1930s but was now really rundown. It was a perfect fit for the mood of the song. You could feel the history of the space.

I think there are about 115 people in the photograph, and I placed everyone in a way that would express something about LA. The characters standing at the counter on the right are people that I cast — they were like my repertory company, I’d used them on shoots before. All the pretty people on the left are friends of the Eagles, and then we put the word out in the neighbourhood and members of the Hispanic community showed up.

The ghostly figure in the balcony window, which led to accusations that the Eagles were into devil worship, is actually a fashion model. She just performed: she flung out her arms and leaned over, and infused the space with her spirit — it was great energy.

The thing about the Eagles is that nobody really knew what they looked like. Everyone knows what Mick Jagger and John Lennon look like, but with the Eagles it was all about their sound. One of my goals, regardless of all the razzle-dazzle, was to bring something out in the band that nobody had ever seen before, to try to get to some sort of truth. I wanted the Eagles to just be themselves. The scene was lit so they stood out, in a muted highlight, in the middle of this interpretation of LA humanity.

We spent hours lighting the hotel, starting early in the morning. We chose not to have any natural light, so to bring in the feeling of daylight, we had bright, clear light shining through the window on the left; and we used a warm light inside and in the chandeliers to match the mood of the song. By the time we were done with Polaroid testing, and I finished placing the people — pretty much one by one — it was mid-afternoon. The band were waiting in this dingy side lobby and got a little antsy with us.

The purpose of the back-cover picture was to complete the story. When the people are gone, someone has to clean up. The photograph was taken after we shot the group picture and everyone had left — no lighting or set changes at all. I just asked one of the people in the gatefold photograph to stay for a few minutes. My father was in the uniform supply business: I got the coveralls from him.

When I hear Hotel California now, it brings back such great memories. In my career, not every picture that got printed was either the right photograph or presented in the best way, but with the Eagles it all worked out perfectly. In that sense, it was a real artistic experience. I had other amazing artist collaborations, but this was special and unique.

Groundbreakers: Icons of our Time is on view 6-11 December 2025 at Christie’s in London

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