Neil Diamond

At 83 years old, Neil Diamond has this physical status:

Career

Diamond was not rehired after 16 weeks with Sunbeam, and he began writing and performing his own songs for demos. "I never really liked songwriting," he says. "It just took me and became more and more important in my life." Jack Packer's first recording deal was described as "Neil and Jack," an Everly Brothers-type duet with high school friend Jack Packer. They released "You Are My Love at Last" and "I'm Afraid" with "You Are My Love at Last," along with "You Will Know" and "I'm Afraid" on "Till You've Tried Love," both of which were released in 1962. Both the Cashbox and Billboard magazines provided excellent feedback, and Diamond signed with Columbia Records as a solo performer later in 1962. Columbia produced "At Night" on "Clown Town" in July 1963; Billboard gave an excellent review to "Clown Town," and Cashbox gave both sides solid recommendations, but it didn't make the charts. Columbia dropped him from their label, and he went back to writing songs in and out of publishing houses for the next seven years.

He wrote on buses, including on buses, and he used an upright piano above the Birdland Club in New York City. "I'd spent a lot of time on lyrics, and they were searching for hooks," the songwriter says. During those years, he was able to only sell one song a week, barely enough to survive. He discovered himself only earning 35 cents a day on food (equivalent to $3 in 2021). However, writing without interruptions was allowing him to concentrate on writing. "Something new has happened." I wasn't under the gun, but interesting songs started to happen, songs that had things none of the others did not have. "Cherry, Cherry" and "Solitary Man" were among them. The first record that Diamond released under his own name appeared on the charts was "Solitary Man." Despite the fact that he didn't know it at the time, it remains one of his personal all-time favorites. "An outgrowth of my misery," he says of the album.

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Diamond spent his early days in the Brill Building. "Sunday and Me," his first attempt as a songwriter, was a Top 20 hit for Jay and the Americans in November 1965. "I'm a Believer," "A Little Bit You," "Look Out" (Here Comes Tomorrow)," and "Love to Love" were all Monkees' hits, with "I'm a Believer," "A Little Bit You," "I'm a Believer," "A Little Bit You," and "Love to Love." He wrote and recorded the songs for himself, but no one else was given a copy until his own. Diamond's unintended result was that the singer began to be known as a songwriter. Within two days of its appearance, "I'm a Believer" became a gold record and stayed at the top of the charts for seven weeks, making it the Year's Popular Music Song of the Year in 1966. 44 dozens

Elvis Presley (who also performed "Sweet Caroline") and Mark Lindsay, former lead singer for Paul Revere & the Raiders, performed "And the Grass Won't Pay No Mind" on "And the Grass Won't Pay No Mind." The English hard-rock band Deep Purple, Lulu, and Cliff Richard were among the early performers to record their early songs.

Diamond formed a company with Bert Berns' Bang Records in 1966 and later became a Banquis subsidiary of Atlantic. "Solitary Man" was his first true hit as a solo artist, and it was his first on display on that label. "Cherry, Cherry" and "Kentucky Girl" will be followed by a diamond, as well as "Kentucky Woman." 37 years ago, he appeared opening for bands including Herman's Hermits and the Who. 45 As a guest performer with The Who, Pete Townshend was ecstatic to see him swinging his guitar like a club and then throwing it against the wall and off the stage until the instrument's neck broke.

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Diamond began to feel restricted by Bang Records because he wanted to release more experimental, reflective music, such as "Brooklyn Roads" from 1968. Berns wanted to publish "Kentucky Woman" as a single, but Diamond was no longer content writing simple pop songs, so he suggested "Shilo," which was not about the Civil War but rather an imaginary childhood friend. Bang felt that the song was not commercial enough, so it was relegated to Just for You to be an LP track. Diamond was also dissatisfied with his royalties and began to sign with another brand after finding a loophole in his deal that did not bind him specifically to either WEB IV or Tallyrand, but the end was a series of lawsuits that coincided with a series of setbacks in his career and professional growth. A magistrate denied WEB IV's request for a provisional injunction to prohibit Diamond from joining another record firm despite a court dispute, but the suits lasted until February 18, 1977, when he triumphed in court and purchased the rights to his Bang-era master tapes.

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Diamond signed a deal with Uni Records on March 18, 1968; the company was named after Universal Pictures, which was owned by MCA Inc., later consolidated its names into MCA Records (now known as Universal Music after merging with PolyGram in 1999). Velvet Gloves and Spit, Tom Catalano's creation, did not chart, but he did record the follow-up Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show at American Sound Studios in Memphis with Tommy Cogbill and Chips Moman producing.

He immigrated to Los Angeles in late 1969. His popularity mellowed with such hits as "Sweet Caroline" (1969), "Concrete Rosie" (1970), and "Song Sung Blue" (1972), the last two reaching No. 1. 1 on the Hot 100. After his flop, Diamond's first big hit was "Sweet Caroline." In 2007, Diamond said he had written "Sweet Caroline" for Caroline Kennedy after seeing her on the front page of Life in an equestrian riding outfit, but he revealed that it was written for his then wife, Marcia, in an interview on Today. He could not find a good rhyme for "Marcia" so he used the word Caroline. To write and compose it, he took him just one hour in a Memphis hotel. The 1971 release of "I Am...I Said" was a Top-5 hit in both the United States and UK, as well as his most intensely personal effort to date, taking over four months to finish.

Diamond appeared at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles in 1971, playing 7 sold-out concerts. For the first time, the outdoor theater, which was known for showcasing the best of current entertainers, has installed a stereo sound system. Diamond was also sponsored by a 35-piece string orchestra and six backing singers. 86 It's been a success in Greece's history that one of the first newspapers called it "the best concert in Greek Theater history" after the first night.

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He appeared at the Greek in August 1972, this time doing ten shows. Tickets to the 5000-seat theater sold out quickly when the first show was announced. 93 He built a quadraphonic sound system for his appearance in order to produce complete surround sound. The performance of August 24, 1972 was recorded and released as the live double album Hot August Night. Diamond's abilities as a performer and showman are demonstrated on Hot August Night, as he resurrects his back catalog of hits with new enthusiasm. "Hot August Night captures a very special display for me," Diamond said. 93 Many people think this was his best work; critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine calls Hot August Night "the ultimate Neil Diamond record... [which] shows Diamond the icon in all glory." The album was remastered in 2000 with new versions. In Australia, which at the time had the most Neil Diamond followers per capita of any nation, the album reached No. 94. 1 for 29 weeks and two years ago, the one remained in their top ten best-selling books.

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Diamond appeared at the Winter Garden Theatre in New York City for 20 nights in a row. 96 Since Al Jolson's appearance in the 1930s, the theater had never staged a one-man performance. 95 The approximately 1,600-seat Broadway venue provided an intimate concert experience that was not common at the time, with every performance apparently sold out. 96 Diamond also made Diamond the first rock-era celebrity to headline on Broadway. 91 This is the latest edition of The New York Times. : 95 According to the newspaper, "it was a mistake" to publish it:

Diamond told him he needed a break, and he didn't appear in any more live performances until 1976. He spent four years on the score for Hall Bartlett's film adaptation of Richard Bach's Jonathan Livingston Seagull, as well as two albums, Serenade and Beautiful Noise. "I knew I'd come back, but I wasn't sure when." I spent one year on each of those albums...I'd been on the road for six years. I had a son 212 years old, and I think he loved me more than the audience. "I devoted myself to my son Jesse for four years." He also said he needed to get back to having a private life, but one in which he could be anonymous.

Diamond changed names in 1973, this time to Columbia Records for a million-dollar-per-album deal (roughly $6.1 million per album in 2021). Jonathan Livingston Seagull's first project, which was released as a solo album, was the soundtrack to his debut. The film received scathing feedback and performed poorly at the box office, and the album brought more money than the film did. Richard D. Bach, the author of the best-selling source story, disapproved the film and sued Bartlett, but for differing reasons; in Bach's case, it was because the film had butchered his score; in Diamond's case, it was because the film had butchered his score. "I promised never to get involved in a film again unless I had complete control," Diamond said after "Jonathan." Bartlett screamed at Diamond's court that his music had become "too slick," Bartlett blasted, "and it's not as much from his heart as it used to be." "Neil is amazingly talented," Bartlett said. Often his arrogance is just a mask for the lonely and insecure individual underneath."

Despite the uproar surrounding the film, the soundtrack was a hit, with the album debuting at No. 4 after a row. 2 on the Billboard albums chart. Diamond also received a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score and Best Score Soundtrack Album for a Moving Picture. Jonathan Livingston Seagull suites were often included in his live shows, as he did in his 1976 "Love at the Greek" recital and his show in Las Vegas the same year.

"The 'Thank You Australia' Concert,' Diamond returned to live broadcasts in 1976 with an Australian tour, which was broadcast to 36 television stations around the world. In a 1976 revival, Love at the Greek appeared at the Greek Theater. Helen Reddy and Henry Winkler, a.k.a., appear on the album and accompanying video/DVD of the show. Happy Days' Arthur "The Fonz" Fonzarelli.

He began wearing beaded shirts in concerts, mainly so that everyone in the audience could see him without binoculars. Bill Whitten designed and made Diamond shirts from the 1970s to about 2007.

Diamond unveiled the album Serenade in 1974, in which "Longfellow Serenade" and "I've Been This Way Before" were released as singles. The latter had been designed for the Jonathan Livingston Seagull score, but Diamond had completed it too late for inclusion. He appeared on a television special for Shirley Bassey and performed a duet with her that year.

Beautiful Noise, a film by Robbie Robertson of The Band, was released in 1976. Diamond appeared at The Last Waltz, which he wrote jointly with Robertson and which had appeared on Beautiful Noise on Thanksgiving 1976, on Thanksgiving 1976. In a version of Bob Dylan's "I Shall Be Freed," he appeared alongside the rest of the performers onstage at the end.

Diamond received $500,000 (roughly $3.1 million) from the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, in 2021, to open its new $10 million Theater For the Performing Arts on July 2, 1976. The performance ran from July 5 to sold-out audiences at the 7,500-seat theater. From Elizabeth Taylor to Chevy Chase, to Diamond walked out on stage to a standing ovation, a "who's who" of Hollywood attended opening night. He began the program with a tale about an ex-girlfriend who dumped him before he became popular. "You may have dumped me a little too soon, baby," the lead-in line to the evening's first song was "look, who's here tonight."

On July 2, 1977, he appeared at Woburn Abbey to a packed audience of 55,000 British supporters. William Friedkin, a film director who used six cameras to film the show, taped the concert and interviews.

Diamond released "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" in 1977, one of his writings and writings for which he collaborated with Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman. Barbra Streisand performed the song on her album Songbird, and later, a Diamond-Streisand duet was recorded, owing to the success of radio mash-ups. The first version of the No. 1 hit No. 1. In 1978, he became the third artist to debut in the Hot 100, and his third song to debut on the Hot 100. They were unannounced at the 1980 Grammy awards ceremony, where they performed the song to a stunned and raptious audience.

"I'm a Believer" was his last 1970s record, as well as a new version. His best-known original songs, "Red Red Wine," are his most well-known originals that have been made more popular by other artists. The uptempo "Forever in Blue Jeans," co-written and jointly composed with Richard Bennett, was released as a single from Diamond's album "Don't Bring Me Flowers" in February 1979.

Diamond collapsed on stage in San Francisco in 1979 and was admitted to the hospital, where he underwent a 12-hour surgery to reveal what turned out to be a tumor on his spine. He said he had been losing sensation in his right leg for a number of years but decided against it." He had no energy in either leg when he died. He underwent a lengthy recuperation process right before beginning principal photography on his film The Jazz Singer (1980). He was so sure he was going to die that he wrote farewell letters to his family.

Diamond and Streisand's planned film version of "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" fell apart when Diamond instead appeared in a 1980 reimagination of Al Jolson's "The Jazz Singer" starring Laurence Olivier and Lucie Arnaz. Despite poor reviews, the soundtrack released three top-ten hits, "Love on the Rocks," "Hello Again," and "America," the last of which had emotional sensitivity for Diamond. "I'm from America" was the tale of my grandparents," he told an interviewer. "It's my gift to them, and it's very true for me." It refers to the immigrant in each of us in a certain sense. 89 "During the film's premiere, Diamond performed the song in full." An abbreviated version of the film's opening titles was used.

The song was also the one he was most proud of when it was later revealed: national news shows played it when the hostages returned home after the Iran hostage crisis; and during the 100th anniversary of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.'s execution, as well as the Vietnam Vets Welcome Home concert, he was invited to perform it live. More than "God Bless America" came in at number one in a national poll at the time, more than "God Bless America." "They're coming to America," it became the anthem of his world tour two weeks after the September 11, 2001 attacks in America, when the lyric went from "They're coming to America" to "Stand up for America." He did it earlier this year after receiving a call from former heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali.

Diamond's failure was due in large part to the fact that he had never performed professionally before. Later, he said, "I didn't think I could handle it," he described himself as "a fish out of water." 85 — 86 And though Diamond was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for the same role, he became the first-ever winner of a Worst Actor Razzie Award. "Who else but this Jewish Elvis" could go multi-platinum with an album that featured a 'the Kol Nidre,'" critic David Wild said on the film. "For me, this was the greatest bar mitzvah," Diamond later told the Los Angeles Times.

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"Heartlight," another Top 10 pick, was influenced by Blockbuster 1982 film E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial is a fictional character from the film The Extraordinary Prisoner. Although the film's title character is never mentioned in the lyrics, Universal Pictures, which had never released E.T., The Extra-Terrestrial and the Uni Records label's parent company (now MCA Records), for which Diamond had played for years, were briefly threatened with court action against Diamond and Columbia Records.

Diamond's chart peaked in the 1980s and 1990s, his last single to make the Billboard Pop Singles chart debuting in 1986, but his concert tours continued to be big draws. Diamond was named as the most profitable solo performer of 1986 by a Billboard magazine. He produced Headed for the Future, his 17th studio album, which debuted at number 20 on the Billboard 200 in 1986. He appeared in Hello Again, his first television special in nine years, doing parody sketches and a duo medley with Carol Burnett three weeks later.

Diamond sang the national anthem at the Super Bowl in January 1987. Michael Dukakis' 1988 presidential bid featured his "America." The British band UB40's reggae interpretation of Diamond's ballad "Red Red Wine" topped the Billboard Pop Singles chart last year, and, along with Monkee's version of "I'm a Believer," became more popular than Diamond's original version.

Diamond released six studio albums in the 1990s. He covered several classic songs from the films as well as those from well-known Brill Building-era songwriters. He has since released two Christmas albums, the first of which reached No. 78. Billboard's album chart has 8 positions. During this time, Diamond also released two albums of mainly new music. In 1992, he appeared in President George H. Bush's final Christmas in a Washington NBC special. Diamond opened the Mark of the Quad Cities (now the iWireless Center) in 1993 with two shows on May 27 and 28 to a crowd of 27,000 people.

Diamond's resurgence in popularity in the 1990s. At sporting performances, "Sweet Caroline" became a hit sing-along. It was used in Boston College football and basketball games. Other colleges in other nations also participated in athletic events, such as a Hong Kong Sevens rugby tournament or a soccer match in Northern Ireland. Every home game of the Sydney Swans of the Australian Football League is played. It's now Red Sox Nation, the Boston Red Sox's supporters.

The New York Rangers also adapted it as their own and played it as often as they were winning at the end of their third period of their games. After the third quarter of all home games, the Pittsburgh Panthers football team also participated, with the audience screaming, "Let's go Pitt." The Carolina Panthers reached the end of every home game they won. In the second half of any Davidson Wildcats men's basketball home game, the Davidson College pep band participated.

12 Songs, Rick Rubin's most stripped-down-to-basics collection, was released in two versions on November 8, 2005: a standard 12-song release and a special edition with two bonus tracks, one of which featured backing vocals by Brian Wilson. At No. 2, the album debuted at No. 1. Earliwine's album is rated as "arguably Neil Diamond's best set of songs in a long, long time," according to the Billboard chart, which has received generally favorable feedback; 12 Songs became also one of Sony BMG's last albums to be printed and released with the extended Copy Protection software embedded in the disc. (See the 2005 Sony BMG CD copy copy protection case.)

Diamond was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame in 2007.

Diamond will be a guest mentor to the remaining Idol contestants, who will perform Diamond songs on the television shows between April 29 and 30, 2008. Diamond premiered "Pretty Amazing Grace" from his then-released album Home Before Dark on April 30. Sirius Satellite Radio launched Neil Diamond Radio on May 2, 2008. Diamond revealed in a big-screen broadcast at Fenway Park on April 8, 2008 that he would appear "live in concert" on August 23, 2008 as part of his world tour. The news, which came as the first official announcement of any 2008 concert dates in the United States, came during the traditional eighth-inning singalong of "Sweet Caroline," which had by that time become a anthem for Boston fans.

After Kimmel was jokingly arrested for singing "Sweet Caroline" disguised as a Diamond impersonator, Diamond appeared on the roof of the Jimmy Kimmel building on April 28, 2008.

Home Before Dark was released on May 6, 2008, and it topped the album charts in New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Diamond performed to an estimated 108,000 viewers at the Glastonbury Festival in Somerset, England, on the Concert of a Lifetime Tour; technical difficulties marred the performance. Diamond allowed cameras to film his entire four-night run at Madison Square Garden in New York in August; he later released the resulting DVD in the United States, one year to the day of the first performance. At No. 1 on Hot August Night/NYC, they were unveiled at No. 1. 2 on the charts. CBS aired an edited version of the DVD, which attracted 13 million viewers on the same day as the original was introduced. The DVD's sales increased the next day, prompting Sony to order more copies to satisfy the high demand.

Diamond attended The Ohio State University on August 25, 2008, though laryngitis was present. The result stung him as well as his followers, and he refused to anyone who applied by September 5 on August 26, as well as his followers.

On February 6, 2009, two nights before the 51st Annual Grammy Awards were announced, Diamond was named as the MusiCares Person of the Year.

Diamond, a long-time Bostonite, was invited to perform at the Independence Day celebration in July 4, 2009.

He released A Cherry Cherry Christmas, his third album of holiday music, on October 13, 2009.

Diamond unveiled the album Dreams, a series of 14 interpretations of his favorite songs by artists of the rock era. "I'm a Believer" was also on the album in a new slow-tempo version. On NBC's The Sing-Off with Committed and Street Corner Symphony, two a cappella groups on the program, he performed a track from the album "Ain't No Sunshine" in December. On the Sony Legacy label, The Very Best of Neil Diamond, a compilation CD of Diamond's 23 studio recordings from the Bang, UNI/MCA, & Columbia catalogs, was released on December 6, 2011.

Several milestones in Diamond's career were marked in the years 2011 and 2012. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at a dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City on March 14, 2011. At the 2011 Kennedy Center Honors in December, he received a lifetime achievement award from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Diamond was a celebrity on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on August 10, 2012. He topped the bill at the centennial edition of the Royal Variety Performance in the United Kingdom, which was broadcast on December 3. He was also in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

During the 8th innings, Diamond made an unannounced appearance at Fenway Park to perform "Sweet Caroline" for the first time. It was the first game at Fenway since the Boston Marathon bombings. On July 2, he released the single "Freedom Song" (They'll Never Take Us Down) with a 100% profit to One Fund Boston and the Wounded Warrior Project. Diamond, sporting a beard, appeared on the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol as part of A Capitol Fourth, a nationally broadcast by PBS on July 4, 2013.

Diamond had signed with Universal Music Group's Capitol Music Group, which also owned Diamond's Uni/MCA catalog, in January 2014. For the first time, UMG also took over Diamond's Columbia and Bang catalogues, ensuring that all of his recorded output would be consolidated.

Capitol Records announced on July 8, 2014, that Melody Road, Don Was and Jacknife Lee's latest hits compilations, which charted at 15 in the Billboard 200, would be released on September 30, 2014. The publication date was changed to October 21 in August.

Diamond gave a surprise concert at his alma mater, Erasmus High School in Brooklyn, in September 2014. The show was confirmed via Twitter the afternoon. On the same day, he announced a 2015 "Melody Road" World Tour. On February 27, the North American leg of the World Tour 2015 began in Allentown, PA, at the PPL Center in Allentown, PA, and ended at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado, on May 31, 2015. During the tour, Diamond used social media platforms and social media extensively, streamed several shows live on Periscope and posting tweets from fans who used the hashtag #tweetcaroline on two large screens. "This, my friends, wasn't your grandfather's Neil Diamond concert," the San Diego Union-Tribune said. It was a multimedia extravaganza. Twitter is a social media platform that uses Twitter. Periscope...It was a social media blitzkrieg that, on all accounts, was an inventive way to broaden his fan base.

In October 2016, Diamond released Acoustic Christmas, a folk-inspired Christmas album of original songs as well as a acoustic interpretations of holiday classics. The album was created by Was and Lee, who had produced Melody Road, as the Melody Road sessions ended. Diamond produced Acoustic Christmas with a handful of musicians, seated around a circle of microphones, wires, and, of course, Christmas lights," describing the intimate atmosphere of '60s folk.

The career-spanning anthology collection Neil Diamond 50th Anniversary Collection was released in March 2017. In April, he began his final concert tour, the 50th Anniversary World Tour in Fresno, California.

The Library of Congress selected "Sweet Caroline" as one of "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" in his 1969 debut in the National Recording Registry for preservation in the National Recording Registry in 2019.

Diamond performed at the Keep Memory Alive Power of Love Gala in Las Vegas on March 7, 2020, where he was being honoured.

Diamond released a video on YouTube playing "Sweet Caroline" with slightly altered lyrics ("... washing hands, don't touch me, I won't touch you" in reaction to the widespread social distancing policies introduced due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.

In April 2021, the New York Times announced that A Beautiful Noise, a musical based on Diamond's life and starring his songs, would open at the Emerson Colonial Theater in Boston in the summer of 2022. Following the month-long run in Boston, the musical was supposed to open in Boston on Broadway.

In February 2022, Universal Music Group purchased Diamond's songwriting catalog and the rights to his Bang Records, Columbia Records, and Capitol recordings (Universal, who owns Capitol and, wholly controls the majority of his publications, also owned the Uni/MCA master tapes). The transaction also included 110 unreleased tracks, an unreleased album, and archived videos.

During the eighth inning stretch of a Red Sox game at Fenway Park on June 18, 2022 Diamond sang "Sweet Caroline." Will Swenson, who portrays Diamond in the musical A Beautiful Noise, made a surprise appearance.

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