"Decade" is a compilation album by Canadian-American musician Neil Young, originally released in 1977 as a triple album and later issued on two compact discs. The album includes 35 of Young's songs recorded between 1966 and 1976, featuring five previously unreleased tracks. It peaked at No. 43 on the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart and was certified platinum by the RIAA in 1986.
Compiled by Young himself with his handwritten liner notes, Decade encompasses nearly all of his albums up to that point, except for 4 Way Street and Time Fades Away. Among the unreleased songs, "Down to the Wire" features New Orleans pianist Dr. John with Buffalo Springfield; "Love Is a Rose" became a minor hit for Linda Ronstadt in 1975; "Winterlong" was later covered by Pixies; and "Campaigner" critiques Richard Nixon. The track "Long May You Run" is a different mix from its album version, including harmonies from Crosby, Stills & Nash before David Crosby and Graham Nash left the sessions.
For many years, Decade was the only Neil Young compilation available. A 1993 compilation called Lucky Thirteen covered only Young's output from 1982 to 1988. In 2004, Reprise Records released a single-disc retrospective titled Greatest Hits. Young had long promised a follow-up to Decade, tentatively called Decade II, but this idea was abandoned in favor of a comprehensive anthology titled Archives, covering his entire career. The first archival material released after Decade and Lucky Thirteen appeared in 2006 with Live at the Fillmore East, followed by additional archival releases and the multi-disc box set The Archives Vol. 1 1963–1972 in 2009. In April 2017, Decade was reissued on vinyl as a limited-edition Record Store Day release, with remastered vinyl and CD editions planned for general release in June 2017.
Originally, Decade was set for release in 1976 but was pulled at the last minute. The album was ultimately released in 1977 with two songs removed from the original tracklist: a live version of "Don't Cry No Tears" and a live version of "Pushed It Over the End." Young's handwritten liner notes for the removed songs provided insight into his thoughts on them, including his reflections on the challenges surrounding the Time Fades Away album and the personal significance of "Pushed It Over the End."
