Neil Young Greatest Hits CD

In order to obtain the best possible audio reproduction, every effort was made to use the original source 2-channel master tapes which were then remastered according to the most up-to-date HDCD 24-bit remastering processes.
Personnel: Neil Young (acoustic guitar, electric guitar, piano); Neil Young (vocals, guitar, harmonica); Frank "Poncho" Sampedro (vocals, guitar, electric guitar); Graham Nash (vocals, acoustic guitar); Stephen Stills (vocals, electric guitar, piano); Danny Whitten, Crosby, David & Graham Nash, J.J. Cale (vocals, electric guitar); James Taylor (vocals, banjo); Billy Talbot (vocals, bass guitar); Ralph Molina (vocals, drums); Linda Ronstadt (vocals, background vocals); Nils Lofgren (guitar, piano); Teddy Irwin (guitar); Grant Boatwright, Johnny Christopher, Vic Jordan, Steve Gibson, Jerry Shook, Dale Sellers, Bucky Barrett (acoustic guitar); Ben Keith (steel guitar, keyboards); Rita Fey (autoharp); Rufus Thibodeaux (fiddle); Sheldon Kurland, Larry Harvin, George Kosmola, Martha McCrory, Lawrence Lasson, Maryanna Harvin, Carole Walker, Rebecca Lynch, George Binkley III, Roy Christensen, Virginia Christensen, Carl Gorodetzky, Stephanie Woolf, Marvin Chantry, Gary VanOsdale (strings); Bill Peterson (flugelhorn); Spooner Oldham (piano, organ); Andy McMahon (piano); Dallas Taylor , John Barbata, Kenneth A. Buttrey, Karl Himmel, Chad Cromwell (drums); Farrell Morris (percussion); James Taylor (background vocals); Nicolette Larson (vocals); Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Stray Gators.
Recording information: Broken Arrow Ranch, Woodside, CA (01/17/1969-09/22/1991); Cow Palace, San Francisco, CA (01/17/1969-09/22/1991); Home Studio, Topanga, CA (01/17/1969-09/22/1991); Quadrafonic Sound Studios, Nashville, TN (01/17/1969-09/22/1991); Record Plant Studio 3, Hollywood, CA (01/17/1969-09/22/1991); Redwood Digital Studios, Woodside, CA (01/17/1969-09/22/1991); Wally Heider Recording Studios, Hollywood, CA (01/17/1969-09/22/1991); Woodland Sound Studios, Nashville, TN (01/17/1969-09/22/1991).
All tracks have been digitally mastered using HDCD technology.
Director: Elliot Roberts.
Unknown Contributor Roles: Frank "Poncho" Sampedro; Tim Drummond.
It may be hard to believe, but 2004's Greatest Hits is not only the first retrospective Neil Young has released since 1977's Decade, it's the first ever single-disc collection of his best-known songs. That's a span of 27 years separating the two collections, which is an awful long time to resist a Greatest Hits disc -- many of his peers succumbed, offering countless comps during those years -- and such a resistance to a compilation may not be much a surprise from the legendarily prickly Young, but what is a surprise is that 11 of the 16 songs on Greatest Hits were also on Decade. Of the five songs that were not on Decade, only two date from after the '70s -- 1989's "Rockin' in the Free World" and 1992's "Harvest Moon" -- while one of the remaining three (1970's "Only Love Can Break Your Heart") comes from the time chronicled on Decade; the other two, 1978's "Comes a Time" and 1979's "Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)," arrived in the two years of the '70s not covered on the 1977 compilation. All this means is that Greatest Hits offers the basic canon, with no frills and none of Neil's trademark idiosyncrasy. Some may miss that cantankerous spirit, pointing out that this contains nothing from his towering twin masterpieces of dark introspection -- Tonight's the Night and On the Beach -- or that there's nothing from Buffalo Springfield (which was covered on Decade) and that noteworthy songs like "Powderfinger," "Cortez the Killer," "Lotta Love," and "Long May You Run" are missing. Ultimately, that doesn't matter much, because Greatest Hits has all the songs that every Neil Young fan, from the devoted to the casual listener, agrees are his biggest and best: "Down by the River," "Cinnamon Girl," "Helpless," "After the Gold Rush," "Southern Man," "Ohio," "The Needle and t