diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
index 82998bed7fe..c8a3b3087ff 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
@@ -36,6 +36,9 @@ Release 2.0.5-beta - UNRELEASED
     HADOOP-9401. CodecPool: Add counters for number of (de)compressors 
     leased out. (kkambatl via tucu)
 
+    HADOOP-9450. HADOOP_USER_CLASSPATH_FIRST is not honored; CLASSPATH
+    is PREpended instead of APpended. (Chris Nauroth and harsh via harsh)
+
   OPTIMIZATIONS
 
     HADOOP-9150. Avoid unnecessary DNS resolution attempts for logical URIs
diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/bin/hadoop-config.sh b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/bin/hadoop-config.sh
index fff3d5cc616..647901d49a9 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/bin/hadoop-config.sh
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/bin/hadoop-config.sh
@@ -163,10 +163,6 @@ fi
 # CLASSPATH initially contains $HADOOP_CONF_DIR
 CLASSPATH="${HADOOP_CONF_DIR}"
 
-if [ "$HADOOP_USER_CLASSPATH_FIRST" != "" ] && [ "$HADOOP_CLASSPATH" != "" ] ; then
-  CLASSPATH=${CLASSPATH}:${HADOOP_CLASSPATH}
-fi
-
 # so that filenames w/ spaces are handled correctly in loops below
 IFS=
 
@@ -187,11 +183,6 @@ fi
 
 CLASSPATH=${CLASSPATH}:$HADOOP_COMMON_HOME/$HADOOP_COMMON_DIR'/*'
 
-# add user-specified CLASSPATH last
-if [ "$HADOOP_USER_CLASSPATH_FIRST" = "" ] && [ "$HADOOP_CLASSPATH" != "" ]; then
-  CLASSPATH=${CLASSPATH}:${HADOOP_CLASSPATH}
-fi
-
 # default log directory & file
 if [ "$HADOOP_LOG_DIR" = "" ]; then
   HADOOP_LOG_DIR="$HADOOP_PREFIX/logs"