Stephen Stills released Stephen Stills in the United States on November 16, 1970, through Atlantic Records. His first solo album arrived in the same year as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s Déjà Vu, with “Love the One You’re With” opening a collection of ten songs he wrote himself.
Stills had already put several sides of his songwriting into Déjà Vu, including “Carry On” and “4+20.” The solo record gave him an entire album to follow those interests, moving through acoustic folk, electric blues and gospel arrangements. He also handled an unusually broad range of instruments: guitar, bass, piano, organ, percussion and steel drums. Across those different settings, his own playing was as central to the record as his writing and singing.
Recording took him between Island Studios in London and Los Angeles, where work continued at the Record Plant and Wally Heider’s. Bill Halverson shared the production credit with Stills. That movement between cities also shaped individual tracks: the basic recording of “Love the One You’re With” traveled back from London before its chorus was built up in California.
David Crosby and Graham Nash joined the backing singers on that track. In a Classic Rock feature originally published in 2013, Halverson recalled adding percussion around steel drums that Stills had learned to play in London. Learning an instrument became part of making the record.
Jimi Hendrix supplied lead guitar on “Old Times Good Times,” recorded at Island. Eric Clapton appeared on the following track, “Go Back Home.” The original album placed their contributions on consecutive songs, each guitarist working within a Stills composition. Hendrix died before the record’s release, and Stills dedicated the album to him.
Clapton’s contribution grew out of the informal exchanges between musicians around Stills. In a Q&A published by Louder in 2014, Stills recalled an evening together that turned into a prolonged jam on “Tequila,” followed by their work on “Go Back Home.” “His solo was one take and he got a fabulous sound,” Stills said. He described that openness as an approach borrowed from jazz, where musicians could turn up on one another’s records. The guest spot came from that working relationship.
Stills applied a different recording approach to “Black Queen.” Halverson told Classic Rock that the acoustic performance was recorded live in the studio, with Stills moving around the microphones after asking for the lights to be turned off. Halverson’s job was to stay ready to capture him.
“To a Flame” took Stills into orchestration. Arif Mardin helped him work through the arrangement, then handed him the baton at the recording session. Stills recalled expecting Mardin to conduct and finding himself directing the musicians instead. Ringo Starr played drums on the track, adding another guest contribution to a song that stretched Stills beyond his familiar role as a guitarist.
The album reached No. 3 on Billboard’s U.S. album chart. “Love the One You’re With” peaked at No. 14 on the Hot 100, and “Sit Yourself Down” followed it into the Top 40 at No. 37, giving Stills two hit singles from his solo debut.
