Members of this band had already released an album in 1968 as The Rockets, and had appeared on record twice with Neil Young as Crazy Horse. The core trio from the Rockets, Danny Whitten, Billy Talbot, and Ralph Molina, provided instrumental backing for Young's 1969 album Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, and performed on some songs from Young's 1970 album After the Gold Rush. Producer/keyboardist Jack Nitzsche, who had been a member of Phil Spector's Wrecking Crew and played on records by The Rolling Stones, had worked with Young on his debut album and on tracks for Buffalo Springfield. He was drafted into Crazy Horse to back up Young on their short tour in early 1970. During sessions for Gold Rush, they met teenage guitar prodigy Nils Lofgren, who joined the band in time for this album, picking up a contract with Reprise Records after the exposure garnered from their association with Young. This was Whitten's last album release before his death from a drug overdose in 1972. For the recording of this album in the fall of 1970, they also recruited Ry Cooder, who had worked previously with Nitzsche on sessions for the Stones as well as Young's debut album. Cooder plays on three tracks. The album contains compositions from four principal writers. Whitten's ballad, "I Don't Want toTalk About It", would be covered by a variety of artists, including Rita Coolidge; Everything but the Girl on their 1988 album Idlewild; and Rod Stewart, who had a chart-topping hit with the song in the United Kingdom, taken from his 1975 album Atlantic Crossing. Neil Young's "Dance Dance Dance," was covered by The New Seekers in 1972, and Randy Newman had already performed Nitzsche's "Gone Dead Train" on the soundtrack for the 1970 film Performance by Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg. The song was also covered by the Scottish hard rock bandNazareth on their 1977 album Expect No Mercy, as was "Beggar's Day" for the group's 1975 album Hair of the Dog. A live version of "Downtown" by Whitten and Young would appear on Young's 1975 album Tonight's the Night, entitled " Downtown." On Neil Young's 2007 vault release Live at the Fillmore East 1970, the song is credited to Whitten alone. This song is not to be confused with "Downtown" from Young's 1995 album Mirror Ball. Crazy Horse was released on compact disc on March 22, 1994, as part of the Warner Brothers archive series, produced for compact disc by Lee Herschberg. It appeared in its entirety as part of Rhino Handmade's compilation from 2005, which also included outtakes from the sessions for this album. That compilation is no longer in print.
