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Neil Leslie Diamond (born 24 January 1941)
is an American singer and songwriter.
From the 1960s to the 1980s, Diamond was
one of the more successful pop music performers, scoring a number of
hits in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. As critic William Ruhlmann writes,
"as of 2001, he claimed worldwide record sales of 115 million copies,
and as of 2002 he was ranked third, behind only Elton John and Barbra
Streisand, on the list of the most successful adult contemporary artists
in the history of the Billboard chart."[1] As of May 2005 he has sold
120 million records worldwide (Source: NY Times), including 48 million
records in U.S. (Source: RIAA).
Though his record sales declined somewhat
after the 1980s, Diamond continues to tour successfully, and maintains a
very loyal following. Diamond's songs have been recorded by a vast array
of performers from many different musical genres.
Diamond was inducted into the Songwriters
Hall of Fame in 1984, and then in 2000, was given its Sammy Cahn
Lifetime Achievement Award.
****
Biography
Early life and career
Diamond was born and raised in Brooklyn,
New York in the United States attending Erasmus Hall High School where
he took part in SING! and sang in the school choir with Barbra
Streisand. He learned to play guitar after receiving one as a gift on
his 16th birthday, and has cited Pete Seeger as an early inspiration.
Diamond was awarded a fencing scholarship
to New York University, and was a pre-med student, interested in
biology, but dropped out with less than a year left, both due to his
dislike of Organic Chemistry[2] and to pursue a career in music.
(Somewhere during this time, Neil
considered changing his name to Noah Kaminsky, as reported in a New York
Times article on October 1, 1972. Some sources, including pre-2000
editions of Joel Whitburn's "Top Pop Singles" book, have incorrectly
reported that this is his real name. Neil also considered changing his
name to Eice Chary, as told to Barbara Walters in a 1985 televised
interview.)
Diamond’s first recording contract was in
1960 with Duel records, as "Neil and Jack" an Everly Brothers type duo,
with a high school friend Jack Packer. They recorded the single "What
Will I Do," but it was unsuccessful. In 1962, Diamond signed with
Columbia Records as a solo performer. He released the single "At Night"
(backed with "Clown Town".) Despite a tour of radio stations the single
failed to make the music charts, and Columbia dropped Diamond. Soon
after Diamond was back to writing songs on an upright piano above the
Birdland club.
He spent his early career as a writer in
the Brill Building, and had an early success writing the songs "I'm a
Believer" and "A Little Bit Me, a Little Bit You," which were recorded
by The Monkees. There is a popular misconception that Diamond wrote
these songs specifically for the "Pre-Fab Four." In reality, Diamond had
written and recorded these songs for release himself, but the cover
versions were released before his own. The unintended, but happy,
consequence was that Diamond began to gain fame not only as a singer and
performer, but as a songwriter. "Believer" was the Popular Music Song of
the Year in 1966.
Success
Then Diamond signed a deal with Bang!
Records in 1966. "Solitary Man" was his first hit on the music charts,
and Diamond followed it with "Kentucky Woman," "Cherry, Cherry" and
other hits. An alternate version of "Cherry, Cherry" can be found on the
"In My Lifetime" album. Diamond's Bang recordings were produced by
legendary Brill Building songwriters Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich,
both of whom can be heard singing backgrounds on many of the tracks.
His first concerts saw him open up for
everyone from Herman's Hermits to on one occasion The Who, which he
confirmed on an episode of VH1's Behind the Music: Neil Diamond.
However, Diamond began to feel restricted
by Bang Records, and wanted to record more ambitious, introspective
music. Finding a loophole in his contract with Bang, Diamond tried to
sign with a new record label, but the result was a series of lawsuits
that coincided with a dip in Diamond's professional success. Diamond
eventually triumphed in court, and secured ownership of his Bang-era
master recording in 1977.
1970s
After signing a deal with MCA Records (then
called Uni Records) in the late 1960s, he moved to Los Angeles,
California, in 1970. His sound mellowed, with such songs as "'Cracklin'
Rosie", "Sweet Caroline" and the country-and-western tinged "Song Sung
Blue." "Sweet Caroline" was Diamond's first major hit after his slump.
In 1972, Diamond played ten sold out
concerts at The Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. The performance on
Thursday August the 24th was recorded and released as the live double
album Hot August Night. This album demonstrates Diamond's skills as a
performer and showman, as he reinvigorated his back catalogue of hits
with new energy; critic Stephen Thomas Erlewin calls Hot August Night
"the ultimate Neil Diamond record ... [which] shows Diamond the icon in
full glory."[3] The album has become a classic, and in Australia, spent
a remarkable 29 weeks at number 1 on the music charts; in 2006 it was
voted #16 in a poll of favourite albums of all time in Australia. [4]
The 1977 concert Love at The Greek, a return to the Greek Theatre,
includes a version of "Song Sung Blue" with duets with Helen Reddy and
Henry Winkler a.k.a. The Fonz.
In 1973, Diamond hopped labels again, this
time to Columbia Records, where he recorded the soundtrack to Jonathan
Livingston Seagull (which grossed more than the film itself). In 1974,
he released the album Serenade (songs: "Longfellow Serenade", "I've Been
This Way Before"). In 1976, he released Beautiful Noise, produced by The
Band's Robbie Robertson.
On Thanksgiving night, 1976, Neil made an
appearance at The Band's farewell concert, The Last Waltz. He performed
one song, "Dry Your Eyes", which he had written with The Band's Robbie
Robertson and which had appeared on what was then his most recent album,
Beautiful Noise. In addition, he joined the rest of the performers
onstage at the end in a rendition of Bob Dylan's "I Shall Be Released".
In 1977, he released an album I'm Glad
You're Here With Me Tonight, which included the track "You Don't Bring
Me Flowers". The song was covered by Barbra Streisand on her album
Songbird, which led Gary Guthrie, then Program Director at WAKY Radio
(Louisville) to combine the two in a virtual duet. The popularity of the
virtual duet motivated Diamond and Streisand to record the real thing,
which was a number one hit in 1978 and became his third song to hit the
top of the Billboard chart to date.
1980s and later
A movie version of "You Don't Bring Me
Flowers" was planned to star Diamond and Streisand, but plans fell
through when Diamond starred in a remake of the Al Jolson classic The
Jazz Singer in 1980, opposite Sir Laurence Olivier and Lucie Arnaz.
Though the movie was not a blockbuster hit at the box office, the
soundtrack was a hugely successful album, spawning the Top 10 singles
"Love on the Rocks", "Hello Again", and "America". For his role in the
film itself, Diamond became the first ever "Winner" of a Worst Actor
Razzie Award, yet he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for the same
role.
Another Top 10 hit, "Heartlight", was
inspired by the blockbuster 1982 movie E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.
As noted above, Diamond's record sales
slumped somewhat in the 1980s and 1990s (and his last single to make the
Billboard charts was released in 1986), but he continued to make
profitable tours.
In the 1990s and 2000s, there has been a
resurgence in Diamond's popularity. His song "America" was a theme song
for Michael Dukakis's 1988 Presidential campaign, and later used in
promotional advertisements for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake
City. "Sweet Caroline" is a popular sing-along at sporting events, most
notably being the theme song for the Red Sox Nation and at Boston
College Football and Basketball games. Urge Overkill recorded a
memorable version of Diamond's "Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon" for
Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction (1994). In the 2001 comedy film Saving
Silverman the main characters play in a Neil Diamond cover band, and
Diamond made an extended cameo appearance as himself. During this
period, Will Ferrell did a recurring impersonation of Neil on Saturday
Night Live, with Diamond himself appearing alongside Ferrell on his
final show as a cast member in May 2002. The Finnish band HIM covered
"Solitary Man" on their album And Love Said No: The Greatest Hits
1997-2004. Other notable artists who have covered Neil Diamond songs are
Elvis Presley, "Sweet Caroline" (live version), Deep Purple, "Kentucky
Woman", Lulu, "The Boat That I Row", and Cliff Richard, "I'll Come
Running".
Diamond has always had a somewhat
polarizing effect, best exemplified by the 1991 film What About Bob?.
There the protagonist posits, "There are two types of people in the
world: those who like Neil Diamond and those who don't." He attributes
the failure of his marriage to his ex-wife's fondness for Neil Diamond.
Today, Diamond continues to tour and
record. 12 Songs, recorded with producer Rick Rubin was released on
November 8, 2005 in two editions: a standard 12-song release, and a
special edition with two bonus tracks, including one featuring backing
vocals by Brian Wilson.The album debuted at #4 on the Billboard album
chart, and has received generally positive reviews; Earliwine describes
the album as "inarguably Neil Diamond's best set of songs in a long,
long time." [5] 12 Songs also ended up being infamous for being one of
the last albums to be pressed and released by Sony BMG with the infamous
XCP digital rights management software embedded onto the disc (see 2005
Sony BMG CD copy protection scandal).
On December 31, 2005 Diamond appeared on
Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin Eve 2006. He will be inducted into the
Long Island Music Hall of Fame (www.limusichalloffame.org) in 2007
Personal life
Diamond married school teacher Jaye Posner
in 1963, and they had two children, (Marjorie and Elyn), but divorced in
1969. That same year, Diamond married Marcia Murphey; they also had two
children (Jesse Michael Diamond born in 1970 and Micah Joseph Diamond,
born February 14, 1978), but divorced in 1995. Diamond paid a divorce
settlement to Marcia of around US$150,000,000, the fourth-most expensive
divorce in history. [6]
Diamond is a fan of Australian Rules
Football team the Brisbane Lions. He stated this in newspaper interviews
that appeared leading up to and during his March 2005 tour of Australia
("Dinkum Diamond barracks for Lions", Paul Stewart reporting from Los
Angeles in The Sunday Mail, August 22, 2004; "Diamond lustre", The
Courier Mail, March 11, 2005).
Diamond is one of a small number of
performers such as Paul Simon, Billy Joel, Pink Floyd (1975 onward),
Queen and Johnny Rivers who have their name as the copyright owner on
their recordings. (Most records have the recording company as the named
owner of the recording.)
Discography
Main article: Neil Diamond discography
Quotes
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations
related to:
Neil Diamond"It's very difficult for me to
say 'I love you' but to sing 'I love you' for me is easier."
"My voice is unadorned. I don't try for
perfection. I try to be honest and truthful and soulful with the voice I
have. If I make mistakes in notes, or there are cracks in notes, I don't
fix them. That's the way it is."
****
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