Déjà Vu

Déjà Vu is the first album by the rock band Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and the second by the trio configuration of Crosby, Stills, and Nash. It was released in March of 1970 by Atlantic Records, catalogue SD-7200. It topped the pop album chart for one week and generated three Top 40 singles: “Teach Your Children,” “Our House,” and “Woodstock.” In 2003, the album was ranked number 148 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Déjà Vu was greatly anticipated after the popularity of the first CSN album and the addition of Young to the group. Stills estimates that the album took around 800 hours of studio time to record; this figure may be exaggerated, even though the individual tracks display meticulous attention to detail. The songs, except for “Woodstock”, were recorded as individual sessions by each member, with each contributing whatever was needed that could be agreed upon. Young does not appear on all of the tracks, and drummer Dallas Taylor and bassist Greg Reeves are credited on the cover with their names in slightly smaller typeface. Jerry Garcia plays pedal steel on “Teach Your Children” and John Sebastian plays mouth-harp on the title track.

The popularity of the album contributed to the success of the four albums released by each of the members in the wake of Déjà Vu: Neil Young’s After the Gold Rush, Stephen Stills’ self-titled solo debut, David Crosby’s If I Could Only Remember My Name, and Graham Nash’s Songs for Beginners.