- Year of release
- 1972
- Global sales
- 4.3 million
- Genre
- Country / folk rock
- Buy this album
- Buy CD
Neil Young's breakthrough record - producing his first US Billboard Number One single, Heart Of Gold - was the biggest-selling album worldwide in 1972 and is pure golden Californian country rock. Not bad, coming from a Canadian.
Best tracks:
Heart Of Gold
Old Man
Out On The Weekend
Top facts:
- The track The Needle & The Damage Done was Young's anti-heroin song, written about musician friends who abused the drug. It was said to be aimed more specifically at Danny Whitten of his backing band Crazy Horse, who later died of an overdose.
- The album reached number one in the UK on 11th March 1972. Young released a "follow-up" album called Harvest Moon which went to number nine in November 1992 – a whole two decades afterwards.
- Young was inspired to write the track A Man Needs A Maid after seeing his future wife Carrie Snodgrass on TV in a film called Diary Of A Maid. At the time Young had damaged his back and was stuck at home wearing a brace. It features the lyric: "I fell in love with the actress / She was playing a part that I could understand".
If you like this, try:
The Byrds: Sweetheart Of The Rodeo
Crosby, Stills & Nash: Crosby, Stills & Nash
Gram Parsons: Grievous Angel
Joni Mitchell: Blue
