Before "Smuggler's Blues" could ever be a Top 40 hit in the spring of 1985, the song had already gained fame within the previous nine months.
It became Glenn Frey's second Top 40 hit from his 1984 album, "The Allnighter," but rewind back to 1984 when Frey was putting together the album, co-writing all of the tunes from it with longtime friend Jack Tempchin. They wrote 10 songs for what would be Frey's follow-up to his 1982 debut album, "No Fun Aloud."
When it came to "Smuggler's Blues," both Frey and Tempchin framed the story of a drug dealer having to go through all sorts of hoops to make a deal in another country, only to have to do his best to get through customs without being suspicious ... but gets caught nonetheless. The 4-minute, 17-second record was more of a mini-drama and placed on "The Allnighter."
In June 1984, the album was released, but Frey's record label, MCA Records, had other plans for a first single. That single would be "Sexy Girl," which Frey filmed a silly music video for about a guy who meets a beautiful girl who turns out to be a neighbor of his, asks her out and finds out she's dating someone else, in the case of the video, that guy was Los Angeles Raiders defensive lineman Howie Long.
However, MCA still had plans for "Smuggler's Blues." So at the same time Frey was filming "Sexy Girl," they had him do a music video for the "next" single. And the music video turned into more of a short movie, lasting eight minutes, in which Frey and an associate go to make a drug deal, but shooting starts to take place and just when it looks as if the deal goes down without a hitch, Frey, driving the car, finds his associated dead in the front seat.
And like in the song, Frey has to assume the role alone of the drug dealer having to get the goods in a foreign land, while being pursued by a couple of bad guys who ware trying to get the goods from him. All the while, his female accomplice in the video, who was played Frey's first wife, actress Janie Beggs, is also trying to get the dope out of the foreign country. She arrives in the airport only to find security agents are there waiting to take her in. Same thing with Frey, who escapes trouble, only to have agents pull up to his car as he is ready to pull away in his back home.
At the end of the video, Frey's character is let go and as he is heading back to his Miami home, he is stopped by a motorcycle-riding cop. He goes to pull out his license and registration, only to see the face of his pursuer from the foreign country dressed as a cop and with a gun in his hand. In the last scene, you see Frey's body slumped over the car as the news of a killing in Dade County is announced in a news report on the radio.
Well just when MCA was about to release the next single from the album, they threw a curveball at Frey and his fans. "Smuggler's Blues" was not going to be released, even though the music video was now on heavy rotation in the late summer of 1984 on MTV. Instead, the label went for the title track from "The Allnighter."
But just when it looked as if "Smuggler's Blues" was a literal losing proposition musically and commercially, a new television show was beginning to make traction on NBC. The show was Miami Vice, starring Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas as a pair of narcotics cops who worked mainly undercover to wipe drug activity off the streets of Miami.
The producer of the new show, Michael Mann, was looking for ideas for screenplays that summer as filming had already commenced on the first season. Then he heard "Smuggler's Blues," especially the premise of the song and a phone call went out. Paul Michael Glasser, most famous for playing Starsky on the 1970s hit television cop drama Starksy And Hutch, was asked to direct the episode and Miguel Pinero, who made an amazing impression on the show as drug kingpin Esteban Calderone, was asked to write the script off of the song and the music video's premise.
And starring in the role of helping Detectives Crockett (Johnson) and Tubbs (Thomas) in the episode? None other than the man who co-wrote the song himself, Glenn Frey. Frey is a pilot who is asked by Crockett and Tubbs to fly them down to South America portraying drug smugglers, trying to solve the mystery as to why drug informants are being shot and killed.
The episode, the 15th episode of the show -- called "Smuggler's Blues," no less -- made its network debut on NBC on February 1, 1985. Frey's appearance and the episode itself had a high rating that particular week.
By now, though, MCA had stopped releasing songs from Frey's album as "The Allnighter" was nothing more than a No. 54 single. However, the positive reaction from that one episode of the top-rated new TV show gave the record label encouragement. Over a month and a half after that episode appeared, MCA finally released "Smuggler's Blues," the song.
And on the Billboard Hot 100 chart of April 6, 1985, "Smuggler's Blues" debuted at No. 74. After a jump to No. 61 the next week, "Smuggler's Blues" was up to No. 49. Then it went up to No. 42 the next week.
Then on the week of May 4, 1985, "Smuggler's Blues" made the highest Top 40 debut of the week at No. 38. From there, the song made modest moves up the chart all throughout the spring -- from No. 38 to No. 33 to No. 28 to No. 23 to No. 18 to No. 14, where it would hold for two straight weeks. It slowed down, but then moved to No. 12 the week of June 22, 1985. One year and three days after the album "The Allnighter" was released, "Smuggler's Blues" had hit its highest points on the singles chart, peaking at No. 12, before falling back the next week.
Ultimately, "Smuggler's Blues" would make its way to another vehicle musically -- the Miami Vice soundtrack album later in 1985 where the album hit No. 1 and stayed at the top for nine weeks.
The song became a success, even if it didn't hit the Top 10. It also became one of Frey's most popular songs as a solo performer and from time to time, he'd perform the song in concert when his old group, The Eagles, reunited in 1994.
They would still do the song in concert for years until Frey fell ill in late 2015. On January 18, 2016, Frey passed away after battling rheumatoid arthritis for years. The medication he was taking for it, unfortunately and reportedly, was causing Frey to contract acute ulcerative colitis. He had gastrointestinal tract surgery done, but it led to him getting pneumonia. Frey was 67 years old. Soon after, the rest of his bandmates in the Eagles performed a tribute to Frey at The Grammys show and bandmate Don Henley would say after that to BBC radio, "I don't think you'll see us performing again."
"Smuggler's Blues" remain as a favorite hit by a solo Eagles member.
And a year after the album's release -- one that saw it all but quit having singles from it -- "Smuggler's Blues" became a hit ... after it became a successful music video and the basis for an episode on a fast-rising television series.
Not a whole lot of artists can say that about their own material.
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