The Regrets and Confusion of the Eagles’ Post-Revelry Ode “Funky New Year”

It’s the morning after a New Year’s Eve party. As the evening starts coming to light on the first day of the new year, so do some regrets, embarrassment—and a nasty hangover—left over from the night before.

The Eagles captured how some people may feel the day after a hard night of partying on New Year’s Eve on the band’s more humorous funk-bent “Funky New Year.”

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Post New Year’s Eve

Written by Glenn Frey and Don Henley, “Funky New Year” starts where everything left off the night before, and through a presumed hangover—Can’t remember when I ever felt worse / Nothing matters and everything hurts. It’s going to be a funky new year based on the way he’s feeling.

Went to a party just last night
Wanted to bring the year in right
Woke up this morning I don’t know how
Last night I was a happy man, but the way I feel right now

It’s gonna be a funky new year
Funky new year
Ooo, ah, got to be a funky new year
Funky new year

Can’t remember when I ever felt worse
Nothing matters and everything hurts
They were passin’ round the bottle, made me feel brand new
Trouble with the new man he wants a hit too, hit me

Throughout the next few verses, you can feel the pain and the sense of disorientation on New Year’s Day.

Lord, mmm, funky new year
Nurse I’m worse funky new year
I got to perk up a little funky new year
My hair hurts funky new year

A party baby
Never again funky new year
Funky new year
Who’s shoes are these funky new year

[RELATED: 6 Songs Randy Meisner Wrote for the Eagles]

“Please Come Home for Christmas”

“Funky New Year” was released as the B-side to the band’s cover of Charles Brown’s 1960 holiday classic “Please Come Home For Christmas” in 1978. Their rendition of the standard went to No. 18 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was the first Christmas song to do so since Roy Orbison in 1963 with “Pretty Paper.”

A live version of the Eagles’ “Please Come Home For Christmas” and “Funky New Year,” from their The Millennium Concert (A Night to Remember), was also released in the band’s 2000 box set, Selected Works: 1972–1999.

Photo: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images