‘Southern Cross’: the only Crosby, Stills, and Nash song to technically reach number one
Record company executives could be forgiven for assuming that the formation of a ‘supergroup’ would bring with it the combined commercial power of each of its respective members. If that were true, though, then the illustrious career of Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young would have produced far more in the way of chart-toppers than it did.
Individually, of course, each of those band members has had a plethora of commercial hits, along with countless enduring classics. Graham Nash, in particular, was among the biggest stars of the 1960s through his work with The Hollies, whose litany of UK hit singles across the 1960s and beyond dwarfed the commercial prowess of his later supergroup outings. Then again, CSNY was never really about creating chart hits.
After all, Nash was probably the only songwriter within the band who ever paid much heed to the idea of mainstream success. Coming up during the hippie age with Buffalo Springfield and The Byrds, the rest of the group were part of a newfound generation of songwriters who placed artistry and authenticity on a higher rung than the fresh-faced pop success that denoted much of The Hollies’ tenure, particularly during their early years.
Nevertheless, given the cult reputation that the band amassed, not only in its supergroup formation but also in terms of each member’s individual efforts, too, you would assume that CSNY had at least a handful of high-charting hits. The reality, though, is that the group are among a select few outfits of their stature who never managed to strike upon a number one single during their extensive tenure.
Contributing factors to that lack of chart success are multitudinous, one such factor being that CSNY came to fruition during an industry-wide shift from focusing on singles and coveting the singles chart to a deeper interest in LPs and crafting whole albums. In that sense, the group were rather successful, having created a variety of the greatest LPs from that particular era in musical history.
For the stick-in-the-mud record company executives, though, trying to persuade CSNY to generate a bona fide chart-topping hit was a fruitless endeavour. About the closest to achieving that feat the band ever came was in 1982, with their folk rock favourite ‘Southern Cross’.
Led and largely written by Stephen Stills, the song didn’t feature Neil Young, who had left the band years prior, or David Crosby, who was in and out of the band sporadically during that period.
Despite its messy behind-the-scenes history, though, the song ended up becoming a concert staple for CSNY, as well as their only chart-topping hit. Admittedly, it only reached number 18 in the US singles charts, but it did manage to reach the number one position as far as the Canada Adult Contemporary charts were concerned.
The equivalent of a musical participation trophy, topping the Canadian adult contemporary charts, can hardly be included in a list of Crosby, Still, and Nash’s greatest achievements. Nevertheless, ‘Southern Cross’ does hold the accolade of being the group’s only number one single, at least in a technical sense. If that doesn’t prove that widespread commercial success isn’t always a mark of a band’s quality, I don’t know what does.
