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Neil Diamond Biography |
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Even into modern times, Neil Diamond is a true legend. Due to his
outstanding 2005 World Tour, he boasted the #1 spot for any touring
artist on the planet for that year, bar none. His most recent album,
“12 Songs“,
was hailed as a return to his early days of song writing
…
some critics have even called it his best album ever, all the material
was from Diamonds own pen, and strips things down to the bare bones of
only his voice, acoustic guitar and a subtle backing band. Even In 2001,
for example, he achieved annual record sales of 115 million copies -
being ranked third in the world, only behind the likes of Elton John and
Barbra Streisand. As well as being one of the world most prolific song
writers, he has indeed developed himself into the most dynamic of
concert performers, and has millions upon millions upon millions of
loyal fans.
Neil Leslie Diamond was born January 24th 1941, in Brooklyn,
New York. At the age of sixteen, Neil was bought a guitar for his
birthday - that gift would change his life forever. In a career that
began in the early 1960’s
{initially as a
‘hired-gun’
songwriter}, he has become a major recording artist, an internationally
successful touring act, and an outstanding songwriter. He has recorded
over forty albums and over one hundred singles, and never once
compromised his style of music - he will forever remain a musical
prodigy! Diamond has been inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame,
and given its Lifetime Achievement Award. He was also named as the
‘Top
Solo Concert Artist of the 1990’s’
by Amusement Business Magazine. He can also cite an amazingly broad
range of performers who have themselves recorded some of Neil Diamonds
own compositions; |
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UB40, The Monkees, Barbra Streisand, Frank Sinatra, Elvis
Presley, Tom Jones,
Tina Turner, Roy Orbison, Englebert Humperdinck,
Johnny Cash, Andy Williams,
Julio Iglesias, Glen Campbell, Johnny Mathis, Bobby Darin, Deep Purple,
Cliff Richard, The Drifters, Peggy
Lee, The Spencer Davis Group, David Essex, The Four Tops, Altered
Images, Michael Ball, Shirley Bassey, Acker Bilk, Bobby Womack,
Liberace, Lulu, The
Specials, Roger Whittaker, and even the likes of Michael Crawford
….…to
quite literally name but just a few !!
During the 1980’s,
Diamond signed to Columbia records committing himself to ten more albums
at a guarantee of thirty million dollars. It was, briefly, the most
lucrative record contract in the history of the music business. Burt
Bacharach co-wrote on one of his albums named
HEARTLIGHT,
the title song had been inspired by the movie E.T. and hit No.1 spot
upon it’s
release as a single. Reportedly, Diamond worked four months on the
lyrics of the autobiographical
I AM
… I SAID.
An impassioned statement of emotional turmoil, it earned him his first
Grammy nomination for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. In his
“In
My Lifetime”
notes, he says it was one of the most satisfying - it reached a very
credible No.4 in the billboard charts. Then in 1983, UB40, preparing
their Labour of Love album of reggae covers, recorded Diamond’s 1967 moody
country ballad
RED RED WINE,
unaware that it had been written by him. Released as a single, their
upbeat cover hit No. 1 in the UK charts.
Diamond has also released two soundtracks made for the movies.
Jonathon Livingston Seagull (1973) being his first, he released a
solo album which earned him the Grammy Award for Best Album of Original
Score Written for a Motion Picture. Of course, The Jazz Singer in
1980, was by far his most famous. He sold in excess of 6,000,000
copies of the soundtrack, and It earned him yet another Grammy
nomination for Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion
Picture. He wrote, perhaps, his best works during this very time.
LOVE ON THE ROCKS
was the first remarkable hit taken from the album, and
HELLO AGAIN
and the ever popular
AMERICA
both entered the Top 10 in the singles charts.
On the strength of a string of hits, Diamond also became one of the
worlds best selling performers of the 1970’s too. His own
first UK No.1 hit single was
CRACKLIN’ ROSIE,
being inspired by his trip to an Indian reservation, and famously refers
to the cheap wine Cracklin‘
Rose.
SONG SUNG BLUE,
a simple song with a simple message, was his second No.1 hit
single, and also earned him a Grammy nomination for Record of the Year &
Song of the Year. He ended the decade with a string of hits,
FOREVER IN BLUE JEANS
which offers us the forgotten message that money isn’t
everything in life, it’s
the little things that are indeed important, and the very passionate
love song
SEPTEMBER MORN‘.
In the 1960’s,
he wrote the Monkees hit
I’M A BELIEVER
. The Monkees, of course, were a group put together for the hit TV
series - the group was a teenybopper phenomenon. The song was released
as their second single, and shot to No.1 where it stayed for longer than
any other song, it was the biggest selling single of 1967 {Reeves &
Mortimer hit the British Top Ten with it in |
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