I'm a HHGTTG fan, but not an Eagles fan.
Props to the Hotel California Hitmakers for penning a great tune, and to you for bringing it to our attention.

bluegrass playing. Check out the original line up, Bernie Leadon's banjo is everywhere.

but back to the OP - the questions is *how*...*why*?

I expect to hear Peter Jones' voice come in to tell us about Zaphod Beeblebrox's last meal; how he escaped the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Trall; where Ford Prefect left his towel; and why Arthur is stuck on a spaceship with a lot of chatty doors.

Mad Men's theme comes from an unexpected source too, given the style of the show. The music was originally a backing track for the rapper Aceyalone. RJD2, the record's producer, later released the instrumental version of the song under his own name and that was the track that the TV show's producers bought (publishing and all).

However, the hook comes from a song a lot closer to Mad Men's era: the strings were sampled from "Autumn Leaves" by Enoch Light (1966, I believe).

that the original version of "Sorcerer" was used for the radio series but a re-recorded one for TV. I suspect that was down to copyright or such issues. There's some detail here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_of_These_Nights

What always surprised me is that the piece was written by Bernie Leadon, who quit after the LP with this track was released. Leadon was the main country influence in the band and was/is a highly talented multi-instrumentalist. When you consider that The Eagles are usually thought of as a 'soft rock' group, it's quite ironic that "Sorcerer" and another Leadon song, "Witchy Woman" were written by the man who quit because he wanted a more country sound than the rock direction the rest of the band wanted to take!

Then again, it could be another example of a band thriving on creative tensions but unable to keep those tensions in check for long.

also wrote one of my favourite songs from the Desperado album.
Perfect for a Sunday morning

there's another version again from the film version. With horns and 80s drums.

I'm a massive fan of the film, but I suspect most of the Massive prefers either radio or TV. But in my viewpoint, having only read the book before, and already being a fan of Mos Def (Ford), Martin Freeman (Arthur), Alan Rickman (Marvin), and the League of Gentlemen (the Vogons), with the book voiced by Stephen Fry, it was always going to appeal to me.

So many little quirks in it that I love. And am not ashamed. No one is going to convince me otherwise.