We have our own story to tell about Mr. Rogers. It’s an anecdote about fate and how a chance meeting on McKinney Avenue in Dallas helped craft the career of a future superstar whose band, the Eagles, recorded what still remains
the No. 1-selling album in music history.
The year was 1968.
Shopping for bell-bottoms one afternoon in a trendy boutique, members of the East Texas-bred band Felicity got to meet fellow customer Kenny Rogers, then a Top-40 sensation with the First Edition. Two of the members of Felicity, who grew up in Linden in the Piney Woods, were Richard Bowden and Don Henley. Bowden went on to become a guitarist for, among others, Linda Ronstadt and Dan Fogelberg. And Henley, of course, co-founded the Eagles with Glenn Frey. As members of the Eagles,
Henley and Frey were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998.
On that fateful day on McKinney Avenue, Rogers agreed to come hear the band and blessed them with the magic words, “I think I can help you boys out.”
“So he came to Linden and hung out with us for a couple of days,” Bowden said. “He said, ‘Get your stuff together and come to LA. You can stay in my house, go in the studio and cut a single.’ So we did.”
“Jennifer,” the 45 co-written by Don Henley and Jerry Surratt, gave Felicity the feeling that anything was possible. Henley once told us in an interview that the single’s flip side, “Simple Little Down-Home Rock 'n' Roll Love Song For Rosie,” got more airplay than “Jennifer,” though neither made the charts. It merely gave them the feeling that life was headed one way only — up.
Re: Don in the Press/Blogs/etc.
Originally Posted by WalshFan88
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