Stephen Stills: “Love The One You’re With” (1970)

[Kronomyth 1.1]
Love, the One-Year Witch.

The stormy relationship of Crosby, Stills and Nash was over, with Stills fired, re-hired, and then the whole experiment discarded. You can point fingers, wag tongues, but the truth is that magnetic personalities both attract and repel. Stills wasted little time in attracting a coterie of stars for his first solo album, which was led by the brilliant “Love The One You’re With.” It’s an instant classic, with some worldly steel drums added for good measure (shades of Paul Simon there). The B side featured the pristinely produced “To A Flame,” which had a Spectoral gloss to it that gave it a distinctly dreamy feel. It’s one of my favorites on his first album, noting that his first is my favorite among all of the CSN solo adventures. Beatles fans will also detect a slight hint of Apple in the affair, as either Billy Preston or Doris Troy are typically credited for the song’s title, and Ritchie (Ringo to the rest of us) appears on the B side, apparently returning the favor following Stills’ contributions to “It Don’t Come Easy.”

Original 7-inch single version
A1. Love The One You’re With (Stephen Stills) (3:03)
B1. To A Flame (Stephen Stills) (3:10)

Australian 7-inch EP record
A1. Marianne
A2. Change Partners
B1. Love The One You’re With
B2. To A Flame

7-inch single reissue (Atlantic Oldies Series)
A1. Love The One You’re With
B1. Change Partners

The Plastic
Released on 7-inch single in December 1970 in the US (Atlantic, 45-2778), Canada (Atlantic, AT 2778) and in 1971 in the UK (Atlantic, 2091 046); reached #14 on the US charts (charted on December 12, 1970 for 11 weeks) and #37 on the UK charts. Also released as promotional 7-inch in 1970 in the US (Atlantic, 2778) with A mono on flip side.

  1. Re-issued on 7-inch single in the UK (Atlantic, K10001 on green/red label).
  2. Released on four-track 7-inch EP in 1972 in Australia (Atlantic, EPA 229) with picture sleeve.
  3. Re-released as back-to-back hit 7-inch single in the US (Atlantic Oldies Series, OS-13048 on brown label) with “Change Partners” on the flip side.
  4. Re-issued as back-to-back hits 7-inch single in the US (Atlantic Oldies Series, OS-13048 on silver label) with “Change Partners” on the flip side.

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