• Writer: Stephen Stills
• Producers: Stephen Stills and Bill Halverson
• Recorded: March 1970 at Island Studios in London
• Released: November 16th, 1970 (album); December 1970 (single)
• Players:
  Stephen Stills — lead vocal, guitars, organ, steel drum, percussion
  Calvin “Fuzzy” Samuels — bass
  Jeff Whitaker — congas
  Rita Coolidge, Priscilla Jones, John Sebastian, David Crosby, and Graham Nash — backing vocals
• Album: Stephen Stills (Atlantic, 1970)
• Also On:
  Four Way Street (Atlantic, 1971) (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
  Still Stills: The Best Of Stephen Stills (Atlantic, 1976)
  Replay (Atlantic, 1980)
  Crosby, Stills & Nash (Atlantic, 1991)
  and other compilations
• Stephen Stills dedicated his self-titled solo debut, on which “Love The One You’re With” is the first track, to Jimi Hendrix, who died shortly before it was released. Stills and Hendrix had jammed together in England and at Stills’ house in Malibu, played together on a Timothy Leary record, and recorded the song “Old Times Good Times” for the Stephen Stills album.
• The album reached Number Three on the Billboard 200, the highest of any of his solo projects.
• “Love The One You’re With” entered the Top 40 on December 19th, 1970, and stayed for 10 weeks. It peaked at Number 14, which is the best performance of any Stills solo single.
• Stills said, “The title came from a party with Billy Preston. I took the phrase and wrote a song around it. It’s a ‘good times’ song, just a bit of fun. My favorite part is the steel drums. I played them before a little bit but I just kept diddling around till I found the right notes.”
• The song title and lyric classically sum up the hippie-era free-love philosophy and also reflect the life of touring musicians.

FAST FORWARD:

• In the summer of 1971, the Isley Brothers‘ cover of the song spent nine weeks in the Top 40, peaking at Number 18.
• Aretha Franklin covered it on her 1971 album Aretha Live At Fillmore West.
• Luther Vandross released a cover of the song in 1994. He performed it with Stills, David Crosby, and Graham Nash at the 1995 Grammy Awards ceremony.
• Stills recorded two albums and played with ex-Byrds/Flying Burrito Brothers bassist-singer Chris Hillman in the group Manassas in 1972 and 1973.
• Stills had only one other Top 40 song as a solo act — 1971’s “Sit Yourself Down,” also from his first album, which peaked at Number 37.
• Crosby, Stills & Nash (CSN) — with and without Neil Young — have recorded and toured off-and-on since their inception.
• The trio has the distinction of being one of a handful of acts to perform at the first two Woodstock festivals, in 1969 and in 1994.
• All three musicians are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 1997, Stills became the first musician inducted into the Rock Hall twice on the same night — with Buffalo Springfield and with CSN. Crosby is in with the Byrds and CSN. Nash is in with CSN. Young is also in twice, with Buffalo Springfield and as a solo act.
• In October 2003, Stills gave a lecture titled “American Traditions In Music: A Personal Journey” to students at the University of Florida at Gainesville.
• Stills was given the 2004 Children’s Champion Award from the U.S. Fund For UNICEF in honor of his work over the years on behalf of children’s issues.

In 2005, Stills released a solo album titled Man Alive!, and he toured behind it.