Stephen Stills remembers it differently, claiming that the meeting of minds – and voices – happened at the home of Cass Elliot, of The Mamas And The Papas. But there is one thing all three agree on: that the moment they sang together for the first time changed everything. Crosby later said, “Stills and I looked at each other and we knew we wanted him to sing with us right then. Immediately.”
The snag: British beat combo The Hollies
By the time Nash returned to England in August, the trio had pledged their future to one another. Both Crosby and Stills were free agents: the former had been sacked from The Byrds in October 1967, while Stills’ former group, Buffalo Springfield, had gone their separate ways in early ’68. There was just one snag – Graham Nash remained a member of the British beat combo The Hollies.
On his return to London, Nash took part in a final recording session with the group, during which he told producer Ron Richards of his plans to join Crosby and Stills. Word spread, and Hollies’ lead singer, Allan Clarke, was informed by a friend that Nash was leaving the band they’d formed together in 1962.
The formation: “I hadn’t found anyone who could play these parts like I heard them”
Flush with a loan from Atlantic Records boss Ahmet Ertegun, Crosby and Stills decamped to London, where the new supergroup shared a flat on Moscow Road, Bayswater, which soon became a hive of late-night revelry as the trio workshopped the songs that would make up their self-titled debut album.
Nash still had Hollies commitments and played his last show with the group at the London Palladium on 8 December. His new pals showed up backstage, much to the displeasure of his old bandmates. It was around this time that Crosby, Stills And Nash casually auditioned for The Beatles’ Apple Records, with George Harrison and Peter Asher dropping by the group’s flat to hear them play (presumably Ahmet Ertegun was not aware of this). Apple passed, perhaps as the label was intended to be for fledgling talent, though Apple’s Chris O’Dell later speculated that CSN’s party antics might have proved a factor in the decision.
In the end, Crosby, Stills And Nash’s management team of Elliot Roberts and David Geffen managed to negotiate the contractual complications the trio found themselves in and landed their charges a six-album deal with Atlantic. Meanwhile, having moved back to the US, the group were honing their material during rehearsals in Sag Harbor, Long Island, New York, with drummer Dallas Taylor. News of the trio’s formation broke in late December, and in early February 1969 work began on CSN’s self-titled debut album at noted engineer Wally Heider’s Studio 3, at 1604 North Cahuenga Boulevard, Hollywood.
The recording: “We worked together and still gave each other room”
Crosby, Stills And Nash were primed, and by the end of the first day of sessions, they had the foundations of two Stills songs: the epic ode to former lover Judy Collins, Suite: Judy Blue Eyes, and You Don’t Have To Cry, the song that had brought them together.
