With the country-tinged soft rock giants the Eagles, and as a solo artist, Frey released 24 American top 40 singles.

The Eagles' official website released a statement saying, "It is with the heaviest of hearts that we announce the passing of our comrade, Eagles founder, Glenn Frey, in New York City on Monday, January 18th, 2016."

The statement added: "Words can neither describe our sorrow, nor our love and respect for all that he has given to us, his family, the music community & millions of fans worldwide.

"Glenn fought a courageous battle for the past several weeks but, sadly, succumbed to complications from Rheumatoid Arthritis, Acute Ulcerative Colitis and Pneumonia." He is believed to have been recovering from intestinal surgery.

Frey learned piano at the age of six, then guitar at 16 in 1964 after seeing the Beatles in concert. He formed the Eagles in 1971 with Don Henley, Bernie Leadon and Randy Meisner after initially combining as a backing group for singer Linda Ronstadt.

Frey co-wrote the group's first single, Take it Easy with solo artist Jackson Browne but more crucially formed a productive songwriting partnership with Henley, which would yield dozens of singles - including Hotel California, Life in the Fast Lane, One of These Nights and Heartache Tonight - but also lead to a power struggle in the band.

Henley released his own statement following the news of Frey's death, calling him "the spark plug" to the Eagles and "the man with a plan" and "funny, bullheaded, mercurial, generous, deeply talented and driven".

"He was like a brother to me; we were family, and like most families, there was some dysfunction.

"But, the bond we forged 45 years ago was never broken, even during the 14 years that the Eagles were dissolved. 

"We were two young men who made the pilgrimage to Los Angeles with the same dream: to make our mark in the music industry — and with perseverance, a deep love of music, our alliance with other great musicians and our manager, Irving Azoff, we built something that has lasted longer than anyone could have dreamed."

Frey won six Grammy awards with the Eagles, playing guitar, piano and providing vocals on several classic Eagles songs including Tequila Sunrise, Lyin' Eyes, Heartache Tonight and Take it Easy.

When the Eagles split in 1980, Frey pursued a successful solo career, releasing theme songs for the hit movie Beverly Hills Cop (The Heat Is On) and hugely popular TV series Miami Vice (You Belong to the City). He even guest-starred in Miami Vice and had a string of film and TV appearances including a minor role in Tom Cruise's Jerry Maguire.

He released his last solo album in 2012, After Hours, a lounge-flavoured collection rock and pop classics such as Route 66 and The Look of Love.

It is not yet known if the Eagles, which became one of the world's most consistently successful touring acts after a stellar 1970s in the charts, will continue in any form without their co-founder and lead guitarist. Their four-year, 161-date 'Long Road Out of Eden' world tour, which earned an estimated US$250 million, is regarded one of the most successful tours of all-time.

Forty four years into their career the Eagles managed an arena tour of Australia in early 2015, on their History of the Eagles world tour, earning mixed reviews.