"Heart of Gold" from the 1972 album
Harvestis Neil Young's only number one hit single in his
long musical career.
Rolling Stoneranked it #297 on their list of the 500
greatest songs of all time. It features the back-up vocals of
James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt.
The song is one of a series of soft, acoustic pieces which
were written partly as a result of a back injury. Unable to
stand for long periods of time, he could not play his electric
guitar and so returned to his acoustic guitar, which he could
play sitting down.
The song was taped during the initial sessions for
Harvestin early 1971 at Quadrafonic Studios in
Nashville, Tennessee. Ronstadt and Taylor were in Nashville at
the time for an appearance on Johnny Cash's television program,
and the album's producer Elliot Mazer arranged for them to sing
backup for Young in the studio.
Originally, this song was meant to segue with the song "A
Man Needs a Maid", and was therefore played on piano. It was
played in this manner during Young's solo shows in 1971, but he
abandoned this approach midway through the tour and began to
play it on guitar as it is now known. Additionally, one line
that was cut when the two songs became separate entities was
"Afraid/A man feels afraid" An example of the segued version
appears on Young's
Live at Massey Hall 1971release.
Young wrote in the liner notes of his compilation album
Decade: "This song put me in the middle of the road.
Traveling there soon became a bore so I headed for the ditch. A
rougher ride but I saw more interesting people there." This
statement was in response to the mainstream popularity that he
gained as a result of "Heart of Gold"'s number-one status.
In 1985, Bob Dylan admitted that he hated this song, despite
always liking Neil Young:
The only time it bothered me that someone sounded like me
was when I was living in Phoenix, Arizona, in about '72 and the
big song at the time was "Heart of Gold." I used to hate it
when it came on the radio. I always liked Neil Young, but it
bothered me every time I listened to "Heart of Gold." I think
it was up at number one for a long time, and I'd say, "Shit,
that's me. If it sounds like me, it should as well be me."
The song has been covered by Tanya Donelly, Matchbox Twenty,
Tori Amos, Free Dominguez, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Richard
Lloyd, Bettye Lavette, Birds and Batteries, Zakk Wylde (with
Black Label Society), Boney M, Carla Cook, Lawrence Gowan,
Stereophonics, Rockapella, Roxette, Backburner, Hanah, Ossifar,
the James Last Orchestra, Five for Five, Sally Dworsky,
Channeling Owen, Stoney LaRue, The Bad Plus, Dave Matthews and
Jimmy Buffett (with the Coral Reefer Band), and as a Karaoke
backing track. It is also heard briefly in the film
Iceman.
In 2005, "Heart of Gold" was named the third greatest
Canadian song of all time on the CBC Radio One series
50 Tracks: The Canadian Version. It ranked behind only
Barenaked Ladies' "If I Had $1000000" and Ian and Sylvia's
"Four Strong Winds".