Neil Diamond
A brief biography
Neil Leslie Diamond was born January 24, 1941, to Kieve and Rose Diamond. He spent most of his childhood in Brooklyn, except for a few years in Cheyenne Wyoming. Neil Diamond attended two high schools, first Erasmus, and then he attended and graduated from Lincoln. Both high schools were found in Brooklyn.
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Neil Diamond received a guitar on his 16th birthday, and furthered his great love for music. He was not a stranger to music while in high school where he once sung a duet with Barbra Streisand, to be repeated much later in their respective careers. Neil Diamond and Jack Packer worked together to try to break into the music industry. They didn't receive much success or recognition. Neil wrote his first song for his girlfriend when he was still a teenager. It was titled "Hear Them Bells" and was like a lot of other songs. In fact at first most of Diamond's songs did not have any unique qualities in them. In fact, they sounded very similar to other songs and artists. But that would change, in time.
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Well, Neil tried 2 attempts at recording for a label. "Clown Town" and "At Night." Both of which received no attention. "Clown Town" was obviously inspired by Elvis Presley's hit song "Heartbreak Hotel" so much, that it loses any appeal it would have had. "At Night" is another song Neil wrote that sounds too much like the popular music of the day. Diamond was following the path of other singers, instead of blazing a path for himself. In the late 50's Neil landed a fencing scholarship to New York University. He was majoring in Pre-med, but he decided to drop out less then a year before he was due to graduate. He landed a job as a songwriter with Sunbeam Music. The job paid little ($50 dollars a week). However, it was quite a learning experience for Diamond. Neil has said that he did not think he had a realistic chance to make it in the record business as an artist. He was just trying to get what would come his way and make the best of it, well that's exactly what he did, make the best of it! Neil Diamond was becoming discouraged, as his attempts at "clever" songwriting with puns and rhymes were not being accepted. He even thought about acquiring a stage name.
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He then tried a new approach to songwriting, and it worked. Instead of spending so much time pondering what his song would be, he just wrote what came to him, and tried to make a beautiful noise out of the words and to write words to a good tune. This approach paid off. In 1966, Neil Diamond composed his first song to receive any kind of recognition.
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The song was entitled "Solitary Man." This was his first song to hit the charts as well, getting all the way up to the 20's. The song was composed in a minor key, and opened the eyes of some of the music business. Then came the song "Cherry, Cherry" which became an enormous success on the radio, and rose to the top 10 on the billboard. The song can be heard even this day in sporting arena's and in the movie "How To Make An American Quilt." But Diamond would not limit himself to simply recording music, he would accomplish great things in other ways too.
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When he broke into the music industry, the "Monkees" were just starting off. They had recorded some songs, but like Diamond weren't a household name quite yet. Well, Neil was meeting with the manager of the Monkees, and he started to play a new song for him. Diamond intended to record it for his next album, well the manager fell in love with it, and asked if the Monkees could sing it. Neil agreed, and the song "I'm A Believer" was recorded shortly thereafter. Why he let the Monkees sing this song I will never understand, as "I'm A Believer" was firmly in the top spot on the Billboard for 7 weeks straight. To this day it is one of the most popular songs of all time. Neil would continue to write songs for the Monkees, and in that way his musical influence was greater then most would realize.
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About this time he also founded his own production company. The year 1967 rolled around, and Neil took off on his first tour of the country. It wasn't a complete tour, it was a tour basically of the Southwest part of the land, he toured with Dick Clark's group. Diamond got a lot out of this trip, not just a rise in fame, but he wrote 2 hit songs on the trip as well. Those songs were "Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon" and "Kentucky Woman."
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1967 also marked a significant year in Diamond's history, as he would change record labels because of a dispute over the song "Shilo." His present record company didn't think it would go anywhere, and since he didn't yet have enough clout, he was "forced" to change labels. Well, he did record Shilo, the story of a boy who lives a life alone, and it became a hit. Not only did it rise to the 20's on the charts, but it has remained one of his fans' most loved songs.
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Neil Diamond's biggest song up to the day was written in 1969. He was in a hotel in Memphis at the time. He proceeded to write "Sweet Caroline." This song would give him national recognition. The song became so popular, Elvis Presley recorded it and gave it even more popularity. This was the most successful song he had written since he had decided to write meaningful music, and not "Hip-hop" like in the early years. Well, he reached the top 10 again that year first with the song "Holly Holy" and later with "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show" which became the more popular of the two. In this song Neil Diamond showed his ability to entertain.
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Some may say that he did not have had the charisma of Elvis Presley, but his live concert performances would belie that view and are legendary. To this day, a span of some 30 years, his concerts are still a momentous event.
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To say that 1970 was a year of great diversity for Neil Diamond, is an understatement. He released "The African Trilogy" from which the hit song "Soolaimon" came from and "He Ain't Heavy...He's My Brother," one of the only songs Neil had success with that he didn't write. He proves in the song that he could succeed as a singer as well as a songwriter. Then there was the #1 hit "Cracklin' Rosie." A song that tells the story of Indian wine. These were definitely diverse songs, but Neil was still hot.
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In 1971, Neil wrote one of his most famous songs. "I Am I Said" took him over a quarter of a year to write. Neil Diamond instantly became associated with the song. It sounds like it is him speaking in the song, which may be the reason why. The hit song "Song Sung Blue" was released in 1972 and became the top song on the charts. Its success is surprising, as their is nothing fancy about the song, its just a simple song with a basic message, but that didn't stop its success.
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1972 was the year of "Hot August Night" the biggest concert Neil Diamond has ever given. He recorded an album then that went gold in its first month of being released. Neil Diamond undertook one of his greatest and lengthiest projects in 1973, the soundtrack for the movie "Jonathan Livingston Seagull." The movie was adapted from the book about a seagull, and it required uncharacteristic music from Diamond. First of all, he needed a prologue for the movie, that required just plain orchestra music, no singing or guitars included. He finished the project, and did a wonderful job. 2 of the songs on the soundtrack, "Be" and "Skybird" even made an appearance on the charts. Neil Diamond had shown his versatility once again. But he was not finished.
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The 1970s rolled on, and he made more hit songs like "I've Been This Way Before," "Longfellow Serenade" the rhythmic song "Desiree" and others. But the song that symbolized his "comeback" of sorts was the song "If You Know What I Mean." This was a very powerful song, that showed frustration over not accomplishing all he wanted, and also showed triumph. The song was a hit, but just writing it may have been more of a blessing to Neil then the success it received. Diamond wrote the song "September Morn" while in Paris. Fittingly, it was one of the more romantic of his songs. He also composed "Forever In Blue Jeans" with his guitarist Richard Bennett in the close of 1979. That song has a message not told enough of how the most important things in life are not money.
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The most successful song of the 1970s for Neil came toward the close of the decade. He had written the song "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" with Alan and Marilyn Bergman. The song was a romantic song about what happens when the romance has left, it was intended to be a reversal of roles with Neil singing it. However, Barbra Streisand heard the song, and recorded it herself......in the same key. This was an opportunity no DJ could pass up. They began to mix the songs together all across the country, inspiring Neil and Streisand to record the song as a duet. They did so, and the song rose to #1 on the charts, and gave him the popularity to land the starring role of the remake of "The Jazz Singer."
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The Jazz Singer was received with mixed attitudes, but the soundtrack sold over 6 million copies. The reason was for 3 hit songs, each of which would crack into the top 10. One of them would become the most played on the radio of any song he ever sang. That song was "Love On The Rocks." It was originally written as a dummy lyric with the name Scotch On The Rocks, but Diamond saw the possibilities for a serious lyric. The Jazz singer also inspired the song "America" which is perhaps the greatest example of Neil Diamond's talent. The song was inspired by the story of his grandparents trip to America, and it in itself has become a famous song. "Hello Again" was a ballad he wrote for the movie, and it received great success as well.
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Neil wrote more billboard songs, the most memorable of them all being "Heartlight," inspired from the movie ET. "Yesterday's Songs," "Im Alive" and "Headed For The Future" would also receive billboard recognition. In retrospect, Neil's career as a force in the musical world ended in the early 80's, but his contributions have kept coming through the years. In 1996 he recorded the album "Tennessee Moon" which included a song he wrote with his song Jesse.
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Neil recently released an album of the very best songs from the silver screen and the beautifully crafted 3 Chord Opera. His contribution to music is incredible, but even more incredible is the fact that he has risen to such fame and still has a humble spirit about it all. Unlike some artists, Neil Diamond has not let fame go to his head. But whether you like him or not, you can't deny the impact he has had, and will hopefully continue to have on the music field.