Neil Young Plots ‘Tonight’s the Night’ Reissue With Unreleased Tracks

Neil Young will celebrate the 50th anniversary of his classic 1975 album Tonight’s the Night with a reissue package featuring several previously unreleased recordings from the original album sessions. 

Young and his backing band — which included, at the time, guitarist Nils Lofgren, pedal steel player Ben Keith, bassist Billy Talbot, drummer Ralph Molina, and others — recorded most of Tonight’s the Night at S.I.R. Studios in Los Angeles in 1973. A couple of songs, though, were cut at Young’s own Broken Arrow Ranch.

The bonus tracks all come from those S.I.R. sessions, including a previously unreleased version of “Lookout Joe” that’ll be slotted into the album track list on the reissue in place of the Broken Arrow version from the original album. One of the other unreleased bonus tracks from the S.I.R. sessions is a rendition of “Walk On,” which was cut again at Broken Arrow for Young’s 1974 album, On the Beach. 

The last unreleased track is an alternate take of “Tonight’s the Night.” Among the other rarities are versions of “Everybody’s Alone,” “Raised on Robbery” with Joni Mitchell, and “Speakin’ Out Jam,” all of which were previously included on Neil Young Archives Vol. II. The reissue will also boast “Wonderin’,” which has only been available to stream on Young’s website. 

Tonight’s the Night was the last album in Young’s so-called “ditch trilogy” — along with On the Beach and 1973’s Time Fades Away — which followed the massive success of 1972’s Harvest. While those three albums failed to garner the same critical or commercial success as Harvest, they’ve since become revered efforts in Young’s discography. Tonight’s the Night is often heralded as one of Young’s best as it found him grappling with the overdose deaths of Crazy Horse guitarist Danny Whitten and longtime roadie Bruce Berry.

The 50th anniversary edition of the album will be released on Nov. 28 on vinyl, CD, and digitally. It’s available to pre-order now, with a clear vinyl edition available at Young’s Greedy Hand Store and via other independent retailers.