“And so, over the course of two days, we recorded the entire seven minutes and twenty-two seconds of it over again.

There’s a funny story about it, though: When we got to the end of the record, we were listening back to everything and Stephen said, ‘The song’s really good, but I think we can beat it.’ We said, ‘You’re crazy.’ But he was serious – ‘No, I think we can do it even better.’ We did this one all in the space of a few days. “We recorded it at Wally Heider’s old studio in Hollywood, a funky little room. Stuff like that became our modus operandi. ‘It’s getting to the point’ – we’d all start on the same note and spread out. When we started doing harmonies on the song, we’d start on the same note and then slowly split apart as we went up. We’ll try things, but we usually know right away what is the right way for a song to go. “We have a sort of built-in arrangement sense – it’s a chemistry between the three of us. It was several pieces of different songs, and Stephen hooked them together in an extremely powerful way. I’m sure you’ve seen Judy Collins’ eyes, which are rather spectacular. Then he met Judy Collins, and that’s when it became Suite: Judy Blue Eyes. “Stephen was writing it when we started joining forces. Released on, the album Crosby, Stills & Nash was an immediate smash, spawning two radio hits (Marrakesh Express and Suite: Judy Blue Eyes) and creating a massive shift in popular music, one which would place an emphasis on harmony-laden songs.Īlthough the trio of Crosby, Stills & Nash would occasionally include a floating member, Neil Young, for the lineup of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, the supergroup that formed in Cass Elliot's living room survived and thrived through countless personal dramas and musical changes over the years. We wanted to do this thing with our voices, because it worked. 'Everybody wanted to go in that direction, and we had this completely different thing, even though Stephen was a really fine guitar player. 'It was the year of the guitar player – Clapton and Hendrix,' said Crosby. The resulting record, an inventive mixture of folk and light rock highlighted by the three's supreme vocal harmonies, ran counter to the musical flavor of the time. Nash, already disillusioned with the creative direction of The Hollies and their lackluster reaction to the new songs he was writing, quickly turned in his walking papers to the British pop group and set about recording an album with his new mates. 'When we were done, Nash said, 'Can you do that one more time? Just one more time.' The third time we sang it, Nash joined in and added a top harmony line. 'Stephen and I looked at each other and said, 'OK, sure,' and we sang it again,' Crosby remembered.

Nash, hanging out nearby, came over and asked the two to sing the song (what was to become You Don't Have To Cry) again.

Who wrote suite judy blue eyes