B-side "Sugar Mountain" Format 45 RPM Record | Released 1971 Length 3:07 | |
Recorded Quadrafonic Sound Studios, Nashville, TN, February 6–7, 1971 Genre Folk rock, country rock | ||
"Heart of Gold" is a song by Canadian singer-songwriter Neil Young. Released from the 1972 album Harvest, it is so far Young's only U.S. No. 1 single. In Canada, it reached No. 1 on the RPM national singles chart for the first time on April 8, 1972, on which date Young held the top spot on both the singles and albums charts. Billboard ranked it as the No. 17 song for 1972. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked it No. 297 on their list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.
Contents
Description
The song, which features backup vocals of James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt, 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, Young could not play his electric guitar and so returned to his acoustic guitar, which he could play sitting down. He also played his harmonica during the three instrumental portions, including the Introduction to the song.
"Heart of Gold" was recorded during the initial sessions for Harvest on February 6–-8 1971 at Quadrafonic Sound Studios in Nashville, Tennessee. Ronstadt (who herself would later cover Young's song "Love is a Rose") 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.
Young played this song in 1971 solo shows before recording it. At a January 19 concert (preserved on Live at Massey Hall 1971, released in 2007) he played it on piano, starting with "A Man Needs a Maid" and then segueing into this song. By the time of Harvest he had separated the two songs and played "Heart of Gold" on guitar and harmonica.
Young wrote in the liner notes of his 1977 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 the number-one status of "Heart of Gold".
In 1985, Bob Dylan admitted that he disliked hearing 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."
Covers
"Heart of Gold" has been covered by Diana Krall, Roch Voisine, Widespread Panic, Tanya Donelly, Matchbox Twenty, Tori Amos, Free Dominguez, Johnny Cash (with John Frusciante), Richard Lloyd, Bettye Lavette, Birds and Batteries, Zakk Wylde (with Black Label Society), Boney M, Carla Cook, Lawrence Gowan, Stereophonics, Rockapella, Roxette, Kiki Dee, The Polyphonic Spree, Backburner, Hanah, Ossifar, the James Last Orchestra, Five for Five, Sally Dworsky, Channeling Owen, Stoney LaRue, The Bad Plus, Dave Matthews, Jimmy Buffett (with the Coral Reefer Band), Tavi Gevinson, Charles Bradley, Sarah Barthel (recording under the name Demarest), Michael Sweet (with Electra Mustaine, daughter of Dave Mustaine), Girls in Hawaii, Skypilot, Wildling, and as a Karaoke backing track. It is also heard briefly in the 1984 film Iceman. The Demarest version was used in the official trailer for Out of the Furnace and was produced by Michael A. Levine and Lucas Cantor.
A cover by Willie Nelson peaked at No. 44 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart in 1987.
Recognition
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 $1,000,000" and Ian and Sylvia's "Four Strong Winds", the latter covered by Young on his 1978 album Comes a Time. Whatever the value of such polls, by 2014 both "If I Had $1,000,000" and "Heart of Gold" were no longer on the 100 place list, while "Four Strong Winds" remained at No. 13.
The song was included (along with Young's song "Harvest Moon") on the soundtrack of the 2010 film Eat Pray Love, and is referenced in "You and I" by Lady Gaga with the line "On my birthday you sang me A Heart of Gold/With a guitar humming and no clothes".