1972 Graham Nash & David Crosby – Nash & Crosby

Nash & Crosby is the first album by the partnership of David Crosby and Graham Nash, released on Atlantic Records in 1972, catalogue SD 7220. It peaked at #4 on the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart, and a single taken from the album, “Immigration Man,” peaked at #36 on the Billboard Hot 100 on June 17 and 24,1972. It was certified gold by the RIAA, and it was dedicated to Joni Mitchell, as “to Miss Mitchell.”

After the split of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young in the summer of 1970, all four members would release solo albums over the course of the ensuing twelve months. Neil Young and Stephen Stills would both pursue independent band projects through the early years of the decade, Young working with Crazy Horse and the Stray Gators, with Stills assembling Manassas. Both If I Could Only Remember My Name and Songs for Beginners respectively by Crosby and Nash fared well in the marketplace, and in the autumn of 1971 the duo embarked on a series of concerts together, unable or unwilling to include Stills and Young. The success of the tour prompted Crosby and Nash to take the new songs audited on the road into the recording studio.

Sessions for this album featured backing from notable guests Dave Mason and members of The Grateful Dead — Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh and Bill Kreutzmann. Most of the musical support came from The Section, a quartet of in-demand session musicians on the West Coast in the 1970s. Consisting of Craig Doerge, Danny Kortchmar, Leland Sklar, and Russell Kunkel, they would appear on dozens of albums, notably those by James Taylor, Carole King, and Jackson Browne. They would also continue to work with Crosby & Nash for the remainder of the decade, both in the studio and on tour.

The songs continued the qualities that marked the pair’s work with the larger aggregate, with Nash writing tighter pop songs including the album’s hit, and Crosby exploring mood pieces and introspection, all amidst the duo’s usual vocal harmonies. The commercial success of this album equaled, if not surpassed a bit, that of the pair’s two solo albums of the previous year, although it would not be until after the second break-up of CSNY following their 1974 summer tour that Crosby and Nash would sign an album contract as a unit with ABC Records. Following the release of this album, the duo toured in 1973 with a backing band including, at different times, David Lindley and future Eagles guitarist Don Felder.

This album was remastered for compact disc in 1998 as part of the Atlantic Original Sound series, 50 titles reissued in Europe to celebrate Atlantic Records’ fiftieth anniversary. It is currently out of print, and American reissues still around use first generation digital remastering from the 1980s.