“I Can’t Tell You Why” is a song by the American rock band The Eagles that appeared on their 1979 album The Long Run. It was written by band members Timothy B. Schmit, Glenn Frey and Don Henley. Recorded in March 1978, it was the first song finished for the album and the first Eagles song to feature Schmit on lead vocals.
Timothy B. Schmit provided the song title and composed the nucleus of “I Can’t Tell You Why,” which he then presented to Glenn Frey and Don Henley and they completed the song together. Henley described the finished song as “straight Al Green” and said that Frey, an R&B fan from Detroit, was responsible for the R&B feel of the song. Frey said to Schmit: “You could sing like Smokey Robinson. Let’s not do a Richie Furay, Poco-sounding song. Let’s do an R&B song.”
Schmit describes the song as “loosely based on my own experiences.” Schmit said: “I had some writing sessions with Don and Glenn and I threw out a bunch of my ideas and that one stuck. I had composed a pretty good part of it, not a huge part but enough for them to think ‘That could be good’ and go with it. So Don, Glenn and I finished it over a few all night sessions.” He also said, “When it was being developed in the studio…I knew it was a great song. I [thought] ‘Yes! This is an amazing debut for me.’ When we finally mixed it, we had a little listening party at the studio. As people were hearing it, Don turned to me and said, ‘There’s your first hit.'” Schmit sang the lead vocals, with Frey and Henley singing counterpoint. Schmit also played the bass on the track, which has a distinctive riff believed by Schmit to have been devised by Frey. According to Henley, Frey wrote the counterpoint part.
In 1980, the band promoted the song with a music video featuring Schmit on bass guitar accompanied by Frey on the electric piano, although Frey recorded the guitar solos on the recording, with Henley on drums, Don Felder on electric guitar, Joe Walsh on organ and Walsh’s touring sideman Joe Vitale on ARP string synthesizer. Live versions of the song were released on the 1980 album Eagles Live and 1994’s Hell Freezes Over. In 2017, Billboard ranked the song number six on its list of the 15 greatest Eagles songs.
In 1990, Howard Hewett covered “I Can’t Tell You Why”. It peaked at number 24 on the Billboard. In 1993, “I Can’t Tell You Why” was covered by American artist Vince Gill for an Eagles tribute album. Schmit sang backing vocals on the recording. This version went to number 42 on the Hot Country Songs chart. In 1995, R&B group Brownstone covered the song on their debut album, From the Bottom Up. Their version reached number 54 on the Billboard and number 22 on the Hot R&B chart and number 27 in the UK. Alternative rock band Lazlo Bane covered the song in 2007. In 2015, Canadian jazz pianist and singer Diana Krall covered the song on her album Wallflower.
