Songoftheday 6/21/12 - Look around me, I can see my life before me..

Crosby, Stills, & Nash - "Wasted On The Way"

from the album Daylight Again (1982)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #9 (four weeks)

Weeks in the top-40: 12

Today's song of the day is by the folk-rock collaboration of Crosby, Stills, and Nash. They were one of the first supergroups to emerge in the rock era; David Crosby from the seminal folk-rock group the Byrds, Stephen Stills from the pre-grunge activist rock of Buffalo Springfield, and Graham Nash from the 60s British pop hitmakers the Hollies. In 1969 they released their first self-titled album, and had two top-40 hits, the biggest being the classic "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes", which was a lesson in song composition I learned in music class as a youngster.

For their second LP they brought in another Buffalo Springfield alum, Neil Young, as an equal partner, and released the #1 disc Deja Vu, which produced two top-20 pop records, with the historical classic "Woodstock" just missing the top-10. They also issued the non-album political protest single "Ohio" and had another top-20 hit.

But after a live album, the four fractured from intergroup tensions, with each member issuing solo and duo (in the case of Crosby and Nash and Stills' Manassas) albums. The group wouldn't reunite in the recording studio again until 1977, when they released the CSN album without Young, and had their biggest pop hit to date, the #7 "Just A Song Before I Go", while the album peaked at #2 behind Fleetwood Mac's classic Rumours album.

Five years later, Stills and Nash were working on another "reunion"-style album, but Atlantic Records insisted on the inclusion of Crosby, even though he had by that time become a cokehead mess. Even so, the trio was able to complete Daylight Again, and the pleasant jangly Nash-led single "Wasted On The Way". To supplement Crosby's vocal, former Eagles/Poco member Timothy B. Schmit lended harmony vocals...

The song became their second top-10 hit, spending five weeks there, as well as hitting #2 on the soft-rock chart, top-10 on the rock chart, and even reaching the bottom of the country radio chart. Daylight Again also made the top-10 and sold over a million copies, including a cassette to a 14-year-old boy in New Jersey.

Up tomorrow: The Glimmer Twins go-go live to Motown...