The 2 albums Neil Young considered his best

One of the most prolific songwriters of all time, Neil Young entered Rock history as a member of Buffalo Springfield, CSNY (Crosby, Still, Nash & Young), and of course, as solo artist. Until 2025 he has released 44 studio albums and continues to be one of the most influential artists in the world.

So it’s not easy for fans to say which are some of his best albums but back in the 90s, Neil Young mentioned two records that were some of his favorites.

The albums that Neil Young considered two of his best ones

“Everybody’s Rockin” (1983)

The first album mentioned by Neil Young, in an interview with Kurt Loder in the early 90s, was “Everybody’s Rockin'”. “I think ‘Everybody’s Rockin’ is one of my best records and I know it’s real hard for people to think that I’m… for a lot of my listeners to accept the fact that I could act and sing, do and be a character, have a soul doing it,” he said.

Released in 1983, “Everybody’s Rockin'” was Neil Young’s 14th studio album. It was recorded with the Shocking Pinks, a group formed just for the occasion and had a selection of Rockabilly songs. It is Young’s shortest, having only 25 minutes.

Talking with Mojo magazine in 1995, the musician talked more about that record and the character he created when writing. “The character was strong, the story was great but unfortunately, the story never got to appear on the album. Before I got a chance to finish it – I got stopped from recording.”

“Geffen (Records) cancelled a couple of sessions where I was going to do two songs – ‘Get Gone’ and ‘Don’t Take Your Love Away From Me’ – that would’ve given a lot more depth to The Shocking Pinks. But if you didn’t see the shows you wouldn’t be able to get into it fully.”

Neil Young continued:

“(…) See, when I made albums like Everybody’s Rockin’ and everyone takes the shit out of ’em… I knew they could do that. What am I? Stupid? Did people really think I put that out thinking it was the greatest fuckin’ thing I’d ever recorded? Obviously I’m aware it’s not. Plus it was a way of further destroying what I’d already set up. Without doing that, I wouldn’t be able to do what I’m doing now. If I build something up, I have to systematically tear it right down before people decide, “Oh, that’s how we can define him”,” Neil Young said.

Besides some famous covers, that album had original songs like the title-track, “Wonderin’, “Kinda Fonda Wanda” and “Jellyroll Man”.

“Tonight’s The Night” (1975)

The second album mentioned by Neil Young was the live record “Tonight’s The Night” released in 1975. He even said that the album was similar to “Everybody’s Rockin'” in some ways.

“Everybody’s Rockin’ and ‘Tonight’s The Night’ are two of my favorites. They’re very similar as far as I’m concerned, except one is extremely light and the other is extremely heavy. There’s not really a difference, they’re two different characters. One guy is a drugged out kind of semi-alcoholic rocker, gone awry at his friend’s wake.”

“This other one is like this Rock and Roll guy who’s just kind of like a country bumpkin Rock and Roll guy who’s made it big but it’s the wrong time. I don’t know how I justify all these ridiculous things, these characters and everything. But for a long time for me it was an escape, to just jump into a character. Be that character for as long as I could ride and then just jump off,” Neil Young said.

When this record was released in the mid-70s, Young said that it was like an “OD letter”, summarizing the album as something about life, dope and death.

Besides the title-track, the album also had praised songs like “New Mama” and “Tired Eyes”.