diff --git a/solr/CHANGES.txt b/solr/CHANGES.txt
index 8b85c313611..f246c1691f6 100644
--- a/solr/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/solr/CHANGES.txt
@@ -562,6 +562,9 @@ Bug Fixes
 
 * SOLR-4303: On replication, if the generation of the master is lower than the
   slave we need to force a full copy of the index. (Mark Miller, Gregg Donovan)
+  
+* SOLR-4266: HttpSolrServer does not release connection properly on exception
+  when no response parser is used. (Steve Molloy via Mark Miller)
 
 Other Changes
 ----------------------
diff --git a/solr/solrj/src/java/org/apache/solr/client/solrj/impl/HttpSolrServer.java b/solr/solrj/src/java/org/apache/solr/client/solrj/impl/HttpSolrServer.java
index 8ed828742a8..3806cfce323 100644
--- a/solr/solrj/src/java/org/apache/solr/client/solrj/impl/HttpSolrServer.java
+++ b/solr/solrj/src/java/org/apache/solr/client/solrj/impl/HttpSolrServer.java
@@ -346,6 +346,7 @@ public class HttpSolrServer extends SolrServer {
     method.addHeader("User-Agent", AGENT);
     
     InputStream respBody = null;
+    boolean shouldClose = true;
     
     try {
       // Execute the method.
@@ -378,6 +379,8 @@ public class HttpSolrServer extends SolrServer {
         // no processor specified, return raw stream
         NamedList<Object> rsp = new NamedList<Object>();
         rsp.add("stream", respBody);
+        // Only case where stream should not be closed
+        shouldClose = false;
         return rsp;
       }
       String charset = EntityUtils.getContentCharSet(response.getEntity());
@@ -413,7 +416,7 @@ public class HttpSolrServer extends SolrServer {
       throw new SolrServerException(
           "IOException occured when talking to server at: " + getBaseURL(), e);
     } finally {
-      if (respBody != null && processor!=null) {
+      if (respBody != null && shouldClose) {
         try {
           respBody.close();
         } catch (Throwable t) {} // ignore