"Desperado" is a soft rock

Soft rock

Soft rock is a style of music which uses the techniques of rock music to compose a softer, more toned-down sound. Soft rock songs generally tend to focus on themes like love, everyday life and relationships. The genre tends to make heavy use of acoustic guitars, pianos, synthesizers and sometimes...

 song by the Eagles, an American rock

Rock music

Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

 band, written by group members Glenn Frey

Glenn Frey

Glenn Lewis Frey is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and actor, best known as a founding member of the Eagles. Frey formed the Eagles after he met drummer Don Henley in 1970 and the two eventually joined Linda Ronstadt's backup band for her summer tour. The Eagles formed in 1971 and...

 and Don Henley

Don Henley

Donald Hugh "Don" Henley is an American singer, songwriter and drummer, best known as a founding member of the Eagles before launching a successful solo career. Henley was the drummer and lead vocalist for the Eagles from 1971–1980, when the band broke up...

. It first appeared on the 1973 album Desperado, and has later appeared on numerous compilation album

Compilation album

A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...

s although it was not a single.

William Ruhlmann of Allmusic described the song as one of the band's best, saying that it showed the strength of Henley's and Frey's co-writing, but also called it a "painfully slow ballad."

In television

The eighth-season Seinfeld

Seinfeld

Seinfeld is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, lasting nine seasons, and is now in syndication. It was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, the latter starring as a fictionalized version of himself...

episode "The Checks

The Checks

"The Checks" is the 141st episode of the sitcom Seinfeld. This was the 7th episode for the 8th season. It aired on NBC on November 7, 1996.-Plot:...

" features the original Eagles version of the song prominently. It is mysteriously shown to have a profound and mesmerizing effect on Elaine Benes

Elaine Benes

Elaine Marie Benes is a fictional character on the American television sitcom Seinfeld , played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Elaine's best friend is her ex-boyfriend Jerry Seinfeld; she is also good friends with George Costanza and Cosmo Kramer...

's current boyfriend Brett, who drops everything and listens in a trance-like state any time he hears it. Elaine's attempts to get him to pick a new tune ("Witchy Woman

Witchy Woman

"Witchy Woman" is a song written by Don Henley and Bernie Leadon, and recorded by the American rock band Eagles. Released as the second single from the band's debut album Eagles, it reached #9 on the Billboard Pop singles chart and is the only single from the album to feature Henley on lead...

") for their coupling lifestyle or to share "Desperado" with her prove futile.

In the episode "Helen's Story" of the British series Accused

Accused (TV series)

Accused is a British television anthology series. Written and created by Jimmy McGovern, it stars Christopher Eccleston, Benjamin Smith, Juliet Stevenson, Andy Serkis, Marc Warren and Naomie Harris as the accused in each episode. Filming for the series took place around Manchester between May and...

 a verse of the song is sung a capella by Helen's husband.

The bootcamp section of The X Factor U.S. 2011 featured a group performance of the song. Melanie Amaro performed the song during the show's second week of live performances.