Just a Song Before I Go

Nash wrote it in Hawaii in about 20 minutes at the piano, a song about leaving loved ones behind before going on tour. He was staying with a friend, who bet him $500 that he could not write a song just before he left for the airport, with a hurricane approaching. In a February 2016 interview on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Nash said he still had the $500.

The trio arranged it as a straight ballad, mostly acoustic, with two electric guitar solos from Stills. Crosby played acoustic guitar, Nash piano, Joe Vitale electric piano, Tim Drummond bass and Russ Kunkel drums. Released as a single from CSN, it reached number seven on the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks ending 27 August and 3 September 1977, the group's highest-charting hit, and number ten in Canada. Billboard praised its hypnotically soothing orchestration. Russ Kunkel and the group Chateau Beach covered it in 2008 on the album Rivage.