Origins Neil Young and
Stephen Stills met in 1965, at the Fourth Dimension in
Thunder Bay, Ontario. Young was there with
the Squires, a
Winnipeg group he had been leading since February 1963, and Stills was on tour with
the Company, a spin-off from the
Au Go Go Singers. When Stills' band broke up at the end of that tour, he moved to the
West Coast, where he worked as a
session musician and auditioned unsuccessfully for, among other bands,
the Monkees. Told by record producer
Barry Friedman there would be work available if he could assemble a band, Stills invited fellow Au Go Go Singers alumnus Richie Furay and former
Squires bass player
Ken Koblun to come join him in
California. Both agreed, although Koblun chose to leave before very long and joined the group
3's a Crowd. While in Toronto in early 1966, Young met
Bruce Palmer, a Canadian who was playing bass for
the Mynah Birds. In need of a lead guitarist, Palmer invited Young to join the group, and Young accepted. The Mynah Birds were set to record an album for
Motown Records when their singer Ricky James Matthews, later known as
Rick James, was tracked down and arrested by the U.S. Navy for being
AWOL. With their record deal cancelled, Young and Palmer pawned the Mynah Birds' musical equipment and bought a 1953
Pontiac hearse, which they drove to
Los Angeles. Young and Palmer arrived in L.A. hoping to meet
Stephen Stills, who, as Young had learned, was living in the city. However, after almost a week of searching clubs and coffeehouses, the pair had been unable to find Stills. Consequently, on April 6, 1966, Young and Palmer decided to leave Los Angeles and drive north to
San Francisco. While the two were stuck in traffic on
Sunset Boulevard, they were spotted by Stills and
Richie Furay, who were heading the other direction down Sunset. Stills and Furay managed to switch lanes and maneuver behind Young's hearse, at which point the musicians pulled off the road and reunited. The new group debuted on April 11, 1966, at
The Troubadour in
West Hollywood, five days after the chance encounter on Sunset Boulevard. A few days later, they began a short tour of California as the opening act for
the Dillards and
the Byrds.
Management and first recordings 's
Whisky a Go Go (
pictured 2006). Stephen Stills later said: "[T]hat's when we peaked. After then, it was downhill."
Chris Hillman of the Byrds persuaded the owners of the
Whisky a Go Go to give Buffalo Springfield an audition, and they essentially became the house band at the Whisky for seven weeks, from May 2 to June 18, 1966. This series of concerts solidified the band's reputation for live performances and attracted interest from a number of record labels. It also brought an invitation from Friedman to Dickie Davis (who had been the Byrds' lighting manager) to become involved in the group's management. In turn, Davis sought advice from
Sonny & Cher's management team, Charlie Greene and Brian Stone; unbeknownst to Davis and Friedman, Greene and Stone then aggressively pitched themselves to the band to be their new managers. Friedman was fired, and Davis was made the group's tour manager. Greene and Stone made a deal with
Ahmet Ertegun of
Atlantic Records for a four-album contract with a $12,000 advance, following a brief bidding war with
Elektra Records and
Warner Bros. Records, and arranged for the band to start recording at
Gold Star Studios in Hollywood. The first Buffalo Springfield single, "
Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing", was released in August, but made little impact outside Los Angeles, where it reached the top 25. Young and Stills have long maintained that their own
mono mix was superior to the
stereo mix engineered by Greene and Stone. The band's
eponymous album was released by Atlantic subsidiary
Atco in mono and in stereo in October 1966. A revamped version issued both in mono and stereo with a different track order was issued in March of the following year. In November 1966, Stills composed "
For What It's Worth", responding to a protest that had turned violent following the closing of the
Pandora's Box nightclub on
Sunset Strip. The song was performed on Thanksgiving night at the Whisky a Go Go, recorded within the next few days, and on the air in Los Angeles on radio station
KHJ soon afterwards. By March 1967, it was a top ten hit. Atco took advantage of this momentum by replacing the song "Baby Don't Scold Me" with "For What It's Worth" and re-releasing the album. "For What It's Worth" sold over one million copies and was awarded a
gold disc.
Lineup changes, arrest, and breakup In January 1967, Palmer was deported for possession of
marijuana but returned to the group at the beginning of June, while Young was temporarily absent (guitarist Doug Hastings filled in for Young during this period). The band, with
David Crosby sitting in, played the
Monterey Pop Festival. Young returned in August and the band severed ties with Greene and Stone, then divided its time between playing gigs and finalising the second album, ultimately titled
Buffalo Springfield Again. Produced by Ertegun,
Buffalo Springfield Again was released in November 1967. It includes "
Mr. Soul", "Rock & Roll Woman", "Bluebird", "Sad Memory", and "Broken Arrow". In October 1967, they appeared on an episode of detective series
Mannix, with Stills later praising their performance as "the best sound we ever got." The band toured as support for
the Beach Boys during early 1968. In January of that year, after Palmer was again deported for drug possession,
Jim Messina, who had worked as engineer on the band's second album, was hired as a permanent replacement on
bass. During this period Young began to appear less and less frequently, and he often left Stills to handle lead guitar parts at concerts. Recording sessions were booked, and all the songs that appeared on the final album were recorded by the end of March, usually with Messina producing. In the
Netflix documentary
Echo in the Canyon, Stills related an incident that illustrated the band's problems with law enforcement. The band were hosting a small rehearsal party, attended by
Eric Clapton among others, in April 1968. Despite reportedly playing at a comfortable sound level, a police officer arrived after a disturbing the peace complaint. During the encounter, the officer smelled marijuana and Stills ran next door to "call lawyers," but in actuality went next door and escaped out the bathroom window. According to Stills, Young was going to chase the police down the street, to which Stills said "cause he's Canadian and I guess in Canada you can do that". Ultimately, Young, Furay and Messina were arrested and sent to the
Los Angeles County Jail. Following a gig at the Long Beach Auditorium on 5 May 1968, the band held a meeting with Ertegun to arrange their breakup. Stills and Furay stayed with Atlantic, while Young moved to Warner Bros. Later, Furay and Messina compiled various tracks recorded between mid-1967 and early 1968 into the third and final studio album,
Last Time Around (1968). == New Buffalo Springfield and reunion attempts ==