Neil Diamond

Singer

• Born: January 24, 1941
• Place of Birth: Brooklyn, New York

SINGER, ENTERTAINER, AND WRITER

Diamond wrote and sang hit songs in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. His concerts during the 1990s attracted millions of fans, ranking him as one of the five top concert artists of the decade.

AREAS OF ACHIEVEMENT: Music; entertainment

Early Life

Neil Diamond was born in Brooklyn, New York, the first of two sons of Akeeba and Rose Rapoport Diamond. Akeeba was a dry-goods merchant of Russian Jewish origins who owned a continually expanding number of neighborhood stores in Brooklyn, and Rose descended from Polish Jewish immigrants. Although he grew up in Brooklyn, Diamond changed schools frequently because his father moved the family to new locations in order to be closer to newly opened stores. Diamond had attended nine schools by the time he was in twelfth grade, and he had had trouble adjusting.

As a teenager, Diamond was sent to Surprise Lake Camp, a large Jewish sleep-away camp in Cold Spring, New York. It was here that a performance by the activist folksinger Pete Seeger stimulated Diamond to take up the guitar and practice singing. He joined the school choir at Erasmus High School where he sang alongside another student named Barbra Streisand. Another family move caused Diamond to transfer to Lincoln High School, where he received his diploma. At Lincoln he participated in the varsity fencing team. His fencing skills earned Diamond a scholarship to attend New York University (NYU). Although undertaking the difficult curriculum of a pre-med student, Diamond devoted most of his efforts to writing songs and trying to get them published. He dropped out of NYU in 1960 and reenrolled a year later in the commerce program. In 1963, he married a schoolteacher, Jaye Posner. The marriage lasted six years and produced two daughters.

Diamond’s first job was with a small music-publishing firm where he earned a commission for any song he wrote. He leased his own tiny office nearby in the Brill Building for $35 a month.

Neil remained at NYU until 1965 when he achieved his first hit as a songwriter: the popular music group Jay and the Americans performed his song “Sunday and Me.” This was followed by four of Diamond’s songs performed and released by the Monkees, including “I’m a Believer” (which was his first number-one chart single) and “A Little Bit Me, a Little Bit You.” This began a career-long trend: Over one hundred major singers and groups have recorded Diamond’s songs.

Life’s Work

National recognition gained Diamond a contract with Bang Records and his first single, “Solitary Man,” became a hit. This was followed in rapid succession by other hits, including “Cherry, Cherry” and “Kentucky Woman.” Having signed a contract with Universal Music Group's MCA record label in the late 1960s, Diamond moved to Los Angeles in 1970. He brought with him Marcia Murphy, his production assistant and new wife. The marriage lasted twenty-six years and produced two sons. It also produced history’s twelfth-highest divorce settlement as of 2012, with Murphy being awarded $150 million.

The three years following the move to Los Angeles were booming for Diamond. Hits such as “Sweet Caroline” and “Cracklin’ Rosie” catapulted him to fame. Two years later in 1972, Diamond again hit the top of the charts with "Song Sung Blue." Also in 1972 Diamond released his new album, Hot August Night, which was recorded live at a series of ten sold-out performances at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. The album became an international success and remains a classic. The album also gained Diamond a contract with Columbia Records, which was then a subsidiary of Atlantic Records and which agreed to pay him $1 million in advance for each album produced. His soundtrack to the film adaptation (1973) of the book Jonathan Livingston Seagull hit number two on the Billboard album chart and won him a Grammy Award. Three years later, a new association with producer Robbie Robertson from the group The Band resulted in the album Beautiful Noise, the first for Diamond to reach platinum status.

Diamond released a major album every year from 1977 to 1979, producing major hits such as “Forever in Blue Jeans” and “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers.” Barbra Streisand heard the song and loved it so much that she recorded it herself. Columbia Records encouraged Diamond and Streisand to record a duet version, which became an instant and long-lasting hit. The duet spent two weeks in the number-one spot on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart. Diamond also starred in the film The Jazz Singer (1980), a remake of the 1927 original starring Al Jolson. While critics were not kind in regard to Diamond’s acting ability, the film’s soundtrack was a great success, selling more than six million copies. Three songs—“Love on the Rocks,” “Hello Again,” and “America”—became top-ten singles. “America” went on to be used on national news programs to add drama to the return of the American Embassy hostages from Iran in 1981 and also served as Democratic Party candidate Michael Dukakis’s theme song during his 1988 presidential election campaign. It was also used in promotional advertisements for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

During the 1980s, Diamond’s popularity began to decline. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1984, but his last hit single during the decade was in 1986. It was at this juncture in his career, however, that Diamond began a series of highly profitable concert tours, both national and international, capitalizing on the millions of devoted fans he had accumulated in the previous decades. In 1996, he released his first country album, Tennessee Moon, and critics and fans alike applauded the album and Diamond's comeback.

In 1999, Diamond was named one of the top-five concert artists of the decade by Amusement Business Magazine, a status that contributed to his receiving the following year the Sammy Cahn Lifetime Achievement Award. While continuing tours in the early 2000s, Diamond released a new album, Twelve Songs, in 2005, which rapidly rose to number four on the Billboard album chart. Before launching a new US and world tour, Diamond released a new album in May 2008. Home Before Dark rapidly rose to be the number one-selling album in the United States and United Kingdom. The album helped make his 2008 tour a tremendous economic success. In addition, the four nights he performed at New York’s Madison Square Garden in August 2008 were recorded on DVD and released a year later. Copies were sold out as quickly as they could be produced. The concert was also edited for network television and topped the ratings the night it aired with more than thirteen million viewers. Although a performing artist with a retinue of loyal fans, Diamond remained a consummate businessman. Diamond was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011 and also received a Kennedy Center Honor that same year.

Diamond wed Katie McNeil, his co-manager and third wife, in April 2012.

Diamond released another album, Melody Road, in 2014 and went on tour to promote the album. Also in 2014, Diamond left Columbia Records and signed with Capitol Records, a subsidiary of Universal Music Group, where he first began as a professional singer/songwriter. This move was significant because it meant that Diamond's entire catalog of music would be under one record label.

The artist hit a stumbling block in 2018 when he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. He later said he was in denial for a year or two, and went on with making plans for tours and other work. However, Diamond announced he was retiring from touring and cut his fiftieth anniversary tour short.

The Library of Congress chose Diamond's "Sweet Caroline" for preservation in the National Recording Registry in 2019. The recording was deemed culturally significant.

In December 2022, a musical about Diamond's life opened on Broadway. At the opening of A Beautiful Noise, Diamond surprised the audience by stepping onto the stage to sing along with "Sweet Caroline." It was a rare public appearance, though Diamond said his singing voice was still in good form.

Significance

Diamond’s songs have stood the test of time. The broad range of human emotions he addresses is familiar to all ages and genders and appeals to all levels of sophistication. His lyrics are magnified by the power of his tunes. For concert audiences, brilliant showmanship adds an additional dimension. On the national and international level, Diamond’s large fan base has spanned two generations and shows no signs of declining. As of 2044, fifty-three of his hit songs have been logged on to the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, with thirteen of those reaching the top ten and three number-one hits. Eight of Diamond’s Adult Contemporary hit songs have reached number one on the Billboard charts.

Bibliography

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"Fourteen SHOF Inductees Honored by Library of Congress in National Registry Class of 2018." Songwriters Hall of Fame, 20 Mar. 2019, www.songhall.org/news/view/fourteen‗shof‗inductees‗honored‗by‗library‗of‗congress‗in‗national‗registry‗class‗of‗2018. Accessed 3 Sept. 2024.

Jackson, Laura. Neil Diamond: His Life, His Music, His Passion. Toronto: ECW, 2005. Print.

Langley, William. "Neil Diamond: The Loves of a Lifelong Mr. Lonely." Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, 11 Sept. 2011. Web. 10 Apr. 2016.

"Neil Diamond." Billboard Chart History, 2024, www.billboard.com/artist/neil-diamond/chart-history/hsi/. Accessed 3 Sept. 2024.

Sun, Michael. "Neil Diamond on Living with Parkinson's Disease: 'I Was Just Not Ready to Accept It.'" The Guardian, 2 Apr. 2023, www.theguardian.com/music/2023/apr/03/neil-diamond-on-living-with-parkinsons-disease-i-was-just-not-ready-to-accept-it. Accessed 3 Sept. 2024.

Wild, David. He Is . . . I Say: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Neil Diamond. Cambridge: Da Capo, 2009. Print.

Yablon, Elise. "Neil Diamond: Top 7 Most Inspiring Lyrics." PPcorn. PPcorn, 31 Mar. 2016. Web. 5 Apr. 2016.