When one thinks of classic folk rock, one often thinks of the legendary 1970 album Déjà Vu. This album remains Crosby, Stills Nash & Young’s most famous album of their career together. Not only that, but it remains the highest-selling record of each band member’s career to this very day. And, speaking of this very day, Déjà Vu hit No. 1 on the US album chart (now known as the Billboard 200). It spent a whopping 88 weeks on the chart after it dropped on March 11, 1970.
The album was the first record released by the band after Neil Young joined and yielded a handful of legendary hits. “Our House”, “Teach Your Children”, and “Woodstock” are just a few. Today, Déjà Vu is 7x Certified Platinum in the US, having sold just over eight million copies. It was an enormously anticipated album, earning $2 million in preorders several months before it was released.
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‘Déjà Vu’ Is Still Beloved by Folk Rock Fans Today
The legacy of Déjà Vu is one that lives on today, quite a while after folk rock’s heyday. I’m not entirely surprised by that, considering how much talent was involved.
David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash, and Neil Young were already successful singer-songwriters and folk rock artists before getting together to drop Déjà Vu. There are other talented individuals on the record, too. You might be able to clock Grateful Dead’s own legendary guitarist Jerry Garcia on the pedal steel guitar on the song “Teach Your Children” and John Sebastian on harmonica on the title track. Greg Reeves and Dallas Taylor can also be heard on several tracks. One song, “Woodstock”, was written by the incomparable Joni Mitchell. Fun fact: “Our House” was written about Graham Nash and Joni Mitchell’s romantic relationship.
Déjà Vu was a smash hit on several charts outside of the Billboard 200. The record hit No. 1 in Australia, Canada, and the Netherlands. The record was later inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2012 and selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress in 2023.
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