The title and idea for the song came when Glenn Frey and Don Henley were in their favorite Los Angeles restaurant/bar Dan Tana's which was frequented by many beautiful women, and they started talking about beautiful women who were cheating on their husbands. They saw a beautiful young woman with a fat and much older wealthy man, and Frey said: "She can't even hide those lyin' eyes. According to Henley, Frey was the main writer of the song, although he had some input with the verses and the music. The song was written when Frey and Henley were sharing a house in Trousdale, Beverly Hills. Frey said of the writing of the song: "...the story had always been there. I don’t want to say it wrote itself, but once we started working on it, there were no sticking points. Lyrics just kept coming out, and that’s not always the way songs get written. During the Eagles 2013 concert tour, Frey stated it was written in just two evenings.

"Lyin' Eyes" is the only song in the One of These Nights album that Frey sang solo lead on (he shared lead vocals with Henley on "After the Thrill Is Gone"). The song was released as the second single from One of These Nights, and reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, behind “Island Girl” by Elton John. "Lyin' Eyes' also crossed over to the Country chart where it reached No. 8, their first on that chart and a feat few rock bands could have achieved at that time.

The single version of the song is shortened considerably from the album version, removing the entire second verse, the second chorus and four lines in the middle of the third verse.