Paul Gambaccini of Rolling Stone gave the album a positive review on its release in 1973. He wrote: "The beautiful thing about it is that although it is a unified set of songs, it is not a rock opera, a concept album, or anything pretending to be much more than a set of good tunes that just happen to fit together." In conclusion, he wrote: "Desperado won't cure your hangover or revalue the dollar, but it will give you many good times. With their second consecutive job well done, the Eagles are on a winning streak." Robert Christgau, however, took the view that "with its barstool-macho equation of gunslinger and guitarschlonger, its on-the-road misogyny, its playing-card metaphors, and its paucity of decent songs, this soundtrack to an imaginary Sam Peckinpah movie is "concept" at its most mindless."
The album is now considered by some critics to be one of the significant albums of country rock. Music writer John Einarson argued in his book Desperados: The Roots of Country Rock that despite its weak initial sales, the album "would set the tone for all the later soft country rock sounds, and impact what would become the foundation of 'new country', in both image and music."
It was voted number 631 in the third edition of Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums (2000).
Ultimate Classic Rock critic Sterling Whitaker rated both "Tequila Sunrise" and "Doolin-Dalton" as being among the Eagles' 10 most underrated songs.
Commercial performance
Released in April 1973, the album was not a commercial success initially. It debuted on the US Billboard 200 chart at a lowly number 145 on its week of its release, rising to number 41 in its eighth week on the chart, It remains Eagles' lowest charting album and it produced no hit song, as both singles released from the album, "Tequila Sunrise" and "Outlaw Man", failed to reach top 50 on the main singles chart.
However, the success of their next album release, On the Border, as well as subsequent releases, spurred on the sales of the album. It was certified Gold on September 23, 1974 by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) after the release of On the Border, followed by a double platinum certification on March 20, 2001, indicating shipment of 2 million copies in the United States.
Track listing
Personnel
Eagles
- Glenn Frey – vocals, acoustic and electric guitars, keyboards, harmonica
- Don Henley – vocals, drums, acoustic guitar
- Bernie Leadon – vocals, electric and acoustic guitars, banjo, mandolin, Dobro
- Randy Meisner – vocals, bass guitar
Production
- Glyn Johns – producer, engineer
- Howard Kilgour – assistant engineer
- Barry Diament – mastering
- Ted Jensen – remastering
- Jim Ed Norman – string arrangements, conductor, piano ("Saturday Night"), electric piano ("Outlaw Man")
- Gary Burden – art direction, design
- Henry Diltz – lettering, photography
Charts
Weekly charts
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|-
! scope="col"| Chart (1973–1976)
! scope="col"| Peak<br />position
|-
! scope="row"| Australia Albums (Kent Music Report)
| 31
|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
|}
Year-end charts
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|-
! scope="col"| Chart (1973)
! scope="col"| Position
|-
! scope="row"| Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)
| 32
|-
! scope="row"| US Billboard 200
| 64
|}