Kelly Clarkson took the Eagles‘ classic “Desperado” to new heights on Friday’s (Dec. 1) episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show.
For her daily Kellyoke cover, Clarkson chose the title track from the band’s 1973 album, taking some creative liberties with the well-known melody and hitting some power notes much loftier than Don Henley’s original vocal.
Forgoing her typical band and backup singers, Clarkson hit the stage with only her music director Jason Halbert behind the piano. She played it pretty straight through the first two-thirds of the performance with her lush delivery, before going up a whole octave to drive home the final few phrases.
“It may be rainin’, but there’s a rainbow above you/ You better let somebody love you (Let somebody love you),” she wailed, quietly finishing with: “You better let somebody love you before it’s too late.”
“Desperado,” which was written by Eagles’ co-frontmen Henley and the late Glenn Frey, was never released as a single, though it’s one of the band’s best-remembered songs. In fact, Billboard ranked it at No. 2 on our list of the 15 best Eagles songs — updated earlier this year following the death of original bassist Randy Meisner at age 77 in July — topped only by their Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit “Hotel California.”
Clarkson previously covered Eagles’ 1979 rocker “Heartache Tonight” — which Henley and Frey co-wrote with Bob Seger and J.D. Souther — last year for Kellyoke.
Watch her “Desperado” cover below:
