“At first it felt like a bit of a novelty song. It was a shock that it became so popular”: How an unknown American trio scored a huge hit with the greatest Neil Young song Neil Young never wrote

The country-rock band America posing for a photograph in the 1970s.

What price would any sane bookmaker offer on three American youths meeting one another in the UK, scoring a hit with a single that wasn’t even on their debut album’s first pressing, then becoming one of the biggest-selling acts of the 70s? Probably very long odds. But in fact it’s exactly what happened when guitarist/singer Dewey Bunnell, pianist/singer Gerry Beckley and guitarist/singer Dan Peek – all sons of US servicemen –crossed paths during the late 60s.

“Our fathers were stationed at an Air Force base in West Ruislip, just outside of London,” says Bunnell, composer of the song that would change their lives.