It’s the opening song on the album and was released as a single in September 1969 with “Long Time Gone” on the B side. “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” is a song about Stephen Still’s former girl friend, folk singer Judy Collins. 28 on the Billboard pop chart by August 23rd, 1969. Released with “Helplessly Hoping” on the B side, another song from the CSN album, “Marrakesh Express” would rise to No. It’s a song by Graham Nash describing a Moroccan vacation he took in 1966 by train from Casablanca to Marrakesh – a song that was turned down by Nash’s earlier group, the Hollies, as not being commercial enough. “Marrakesh Express” was released first, in July 1969. The album also spawned two Top 40 hits – “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” and “Marrakesh Express.” 6 on the Billboard album chart and had a 107-week stay on that chart. In the U.S., Crosby, Stills & Nash peaked at No. Graham Nash, Stephen Stills, and David Crosby, on the cover of their 1969 album that would help advance the singer-songwriter genre of music through the 1970s. Their performance at Woodstock - then the largest gathering at a rock festival to that date - helped place them among the leading troubadours of the counterculture era.

The boys also added to their rising standing by performing at the enormous Woodstock music festival in August 1969, where Neil Young joined the group (later becoming “Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young”). And with the help of progressive FM radio in those days, which served up generous portions of new albums over the air, Crosby, Stills & Nash became a wildly popular album. Before long, excepting a rejection at Apple Records, they were signed by Ahmet Ertegün at Atlantic Records, hiring David Geffen and Elliot Roberts as their management team. Legend has it, that at a July 1968 party in Laurel Canyon area of Los Angeles (at either Joni Mitchell or Cass Elliot’s house) Crosby, Stills and Nash tried out a new song written by Stills, “You Don’t Have To Cry,” revealing to themselves and others they had very good vocal chemistry and exceptional harmonies. David Crosby, Graham Nash & Stephen Stills at Big Sur Folk Festival, CA, Sept 1969.

Suite judy blue eyes individual parts