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The human voice is the most important instrument at our disposal, yet it is one of the most difficult to understand or define. You either hear it, or you don't. It either moves you, or it leaves you cold... it is more than just a sound... it is the soul itself - Neil Diamond, 1974.
Neil Diamond was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York and decided to take up singing and playing the guitar after watching Pete Seeger perform at a teenage camp. He did enrol for a time as a pre-med student at New York University but, by all accounts, spent most of his time there writing songs! His first recordings were made with a friend of his younger brother but Neil and Jack failed to make any impact on the tough New York music scene. It was as a songwriter that Neil Diamond first made his mark and an early taste of success was with the song Sunday and Me which reached no. 18 in the US for Jay and the Americans in the Autumn of 1965. 1966 was to be the breakthrough year though when his own recording of Solitary Man reached no. 55 in the American Hot 100 with the follow up Cherry Cherry peaking at no. 6. Record producer for The Monkees heard Cherry Cherry and asked Neil for a similar up-tempo song for the band. The result was the phenomenal Im A Believer which, with advance orders of 1 million copies, went on to top the US charts for seven weeks. The song has since been successfully covered by The Four Tops, The Ventures, Robert Wyatt (UK top 40), EMF/Reeves and Mortimer (UK top 10) and Smash Mouth from the movie Shrek. I'm A Believer still guarantees to fill any dance floor regardless of the age group of the audience! Later in 1966 the B side of Neils I Got The Feeling featured
the song The Boat That I Row which was hastily recorded by Lulu and became a
top ten hit in the UK during 1967. Other more surprising cover versions that
have become hits include Deep Purples Kentucky Woman which reached No. 38 in
1968 and UB40s Red Red Wine which gained a No.1 both in the UK (1984) and in
the US (1988) bizarrely, when UB40 first recorded the song they were unaware of
the Neil Diamond connection having based their version on a reggae cover by Tony
Tribe! His first concerts saw him being a "special guest" of, or opening for, everyone from Herman's Hermits to The Who! Neil rapidly developed into a dynamic and hugely popular concert performer as demonstrated on his 1972 live double album Hot August Night which went gold within a month of its release. At the same time, however, his music became generally softer, which broadened his appeal. Millions of fans flocked to his shows and they bought his albums in big numbers. 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. As of May 2005 he has sold 120 million records worldwide, including 48 million records in the U.S." 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 jointly written and composed with The Band's Robbie Robertson, and which had appeared on what was then his most recent album, Beautiful Noise. The duet You Dont Bring Me Flowers performed alongside Barbara Streisand was nominated for a grammy in 1978 and became Record Of The Year in 1979. Interestingly the song was recorded by the pair only after solo versions by the two artistes had been spliced together by a DJ and played on his radio station Neil starred in a remake of the Al Jolson classic The Jazz Singer in 1980, opposite Sir Laurence Olivier and Lucie Arnaz. The soundtrack was a hugely successful album, spawning the Top 10 singles 'Love on the Rocks', 'Hello Again', and 'America'. Neil Diamond was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1984, and then in 2000 was given its Sammy Cahn Lifetime Achievement Award.
His album '12 Songs' (2005) was met with critical acclaim by the music press...
Rolling Stone - "The hushed 12 Songs isn't easy-listening: Diamond sings with a close-miked sincerity so disarming and lacking in his usual gruff bravado that it's almost refreshing when he lapses into overstatement. The album's bulk deals with a solitary man searching for profound love in his autumn years. He's as direct as he's ever been with his lyrics, which give them an extra poignancy: In the pained break-up ballad "Evermore," Diamond asks in a weary, world-worn voice, "Have we come this far to have gone astray/I've been lost before but not lost this way." Concluding on one track that "Men Are So Easy," Diamond pleads for mercy and understanding, attaining a simple profundity -- something that both hard-core rock fans and your great-aunt can understand". BARRY WALTERS (Nov. 2005) USA Today - "Neil Diamond, 12 Songs (* * * ) One of the year's most eagerly awaited albums pairs an oldies showman and pop balladeer with edgy producer Rick Rubin on what could have been an excruciatingly hip reclamation project. Instead, Rubin succeeds in taking Diamond away from his sparkly jumpsuits and polished stagecraft to the basic tasks of singing and song writing. This is Diamond in the rough, and he hasn't sounded this honest and powerful since I'm a Believer. While Rubin's Johnny Cash recordings found the country legend baring his soul on skeletal tracks, Diamond clings to some of his bravado and sonic trappings. In places, piano and strings buttress his acoustic guitar and vocals. But gone are the grandiose arrangements and overwrought delivery. In graceful and intimate songs, a soulful voice shares wisdom, pain, dreams and vulnerabilities, and a solitary man rediscovers his natural gifts". EDNA GUNDERSON (Nov. 2005)
The latest CD 'Home Before Dark' has stormed into the charts on both sides of the Atlantic and given Neil Diamond his first No. 1 album!...
Thom Jurek ('Allmusic') "Home Before Dark contains some beautiful love songs, too. "If I Don't See You Again," the album's opener, reflects the bittersweet aftertaste of lost love. It's classic Diamond. His character converses with a reflection, a ghost. The gorgeously crafted instrumental bridge and the sense of loneliness in the protagonist's voice combine seamlessly. The album's first single is "Pretty Amazing Grace." Diamond sings a prayer of gratitude for rescue and restoration, whether to Divine Providence, his lover, or both; we don't know. His infectious, haunting melody is jarring, played in minor chords by fingerpicked steel-string guitars and anchored by a standup bass. Tench's piano adds tension just before the refrain where the guitars get punchy flamenco-style and break it wide open. Strings decorate the backdrop, as the lyric juxtaposes the present against the past, not as contrast but as progression. The duet with Maines, "Another Day (That Time Forgot)," has shadowy traces of the gentle but brooding intensity of the intro to "Holly Holy" in the chord progression. It's a joint confession between lovers who are lost to one another; the tragedy is they have no idea how they grew apart. Tench's piano improv fills the space between verses; he underscores the melancholy gorgeously. "The Power of Two," with multi-tracked, entwining acoustic guitar lines by Campbell, is an artful framework for one of Diamond's protagonists to realize that he finally has the ability and courage to embrace another fully, and to allow himself to become a part of love instead of remaining apart from it. Home Before Dark is a less "civilized" album than anything Diamond's done before. It is a stark and moving portrait of what an accepted artist found when he reached all the way down to face his fear, doubt, and knowledge, and brought the discovery into his work. Diamond proves not only that can he still write great songs, but also that he can deliver them with toughness and grit as an expression of real beauty". Anyone who has performed Neil Diamond's songs will know of the timeless nature of their appeal. Audiences young and old rock to the beat of 'Desiree' and 'Cracklin Rosie', feel warmly sentimental to the strains of 'HelloAgain' and 'September Morn' and sing along at the tops of their voices with the memorable anthem 'Sweet Caroline'...
Interesting Links; Official Neil Diamond Site http://neildiamond.com Discography http://www.angelfire.com/mo2/iris/ Neil Diamonds backing band site http://www.diamondville.com Excellent fan-site run by Henk Weitering www.fond.startbewijs.nl Other Artistes who have successfully recorded Neil Diamond songs include; Altered Images, Andy Williams, Gene Ammons, Chet Atkins, Michael
Ball, Shirley Bassey, Les Baxter, Harry Belafonte, Acker Bilk, the Box Tops, the
Brothers Four, Glen Campbell, Vikki Carr, Johnny Cash, Petula Clark, Ray
Conniff, Floyd Cramer, Michael Crawford, Bobby Darin, the Spencer Davis Group,
Joey Dee & the Starliters, Deep Purple, the Drifters, Bob Drury, David
Essex, Percy Faith, Jos Feliciano, Ferrante & Teicher, the Four Tops, Dizzy
Gillespie, Bobby Goldsboro, Marcia Griffiths, the Heptones, Engelbert
Humperdinck, Julio Iglesias, Chris Isaak, Millie Jackson, Wanda Jackson, Jay
& the Americans, Waylon Jennings, Tom Jones, Bert Kaempfert, Andr
Kostelanetz, Patti LaBelle, David Lanz, James Last, Peggy Lee, Liberace, Enoch
Light, Mark Lindsay, Lulu, Arthur Lyman, Mantovani, Johnny Mathis, Ronnie
Milsap, the Monkees, the Music Machine, Wayne Newton, Jane Olivor, Roy Orbison,
Johnny Paycheck, Elvis Presley, Boots Randolph, Cliff Richard, Billy Joe Royal,
Frank Sinatra, Smash Mouth, the Specials, Barbra Streisand, Third World, B.J.
Thomas, Tin Huey, Tina Turner, UB40, Gary Puckett & the Union Gap, Urge
Overkill, Billy Vaughn, the Ventures, Bobby Vinton, Junior Walker & the
All-Stars, Scott Walker, Roger Whittaker, Bobby Womack, and Robert
Wyatt. Email: robertmdrury@aol.com Telephone: 01303 267509 Mobile: 07788 497921
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Bob Drury 2010 |