Don Henley and co. don’t allow their music on YouTube, first of all, so the video I post will be of Rene & Angela’s “yacht soul” cover of “Hotel California”, which I discovered last year on the Beyond Yacht Rock podcast and I enjoy very much. Besides, you’ve most likely heard the O.G. “Hotel California” before, and if you’re my age, you’ve heard it enough times that you can sing it in your sleep.

It says a lot to the overall peaceful easy distasteful feeling I’ve grown to have for The Eagles (or just Eagles if you want to be pretentious) that I considered dropping what many consider their definitive song (not to mention a definitive song of classic rock, of the ’70s, and of the “California” sound) a star. But how can you deny that cod-reggae groove and those mysterious lyrics? Doesn’t matter whether I like the people that made it or not; “Hotel California” is a stone classic. I can check out of Eagles fandom any time you like, but I can never leave.

Anyway, here’s Rene & Angela’s version of “Hotel California”. It’s one of two somewhat odd covers of the song that exists in my iTunes library. The other? It’s by Al B. Sure!Yeah, you read that right.

Oh, wait. Here’s a live version from the Eagles. That must’ve slipped through the cracks somehow.