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From the first
scratchy demo cut in 1958, it was there. From the first songs, with their
timeless doo-wop sound and youthful innocence, it was there. From the
first singles,
performed with brash confidence, it was there. The Diamond magic, present
from the
beginning, went on to become one of the overarching forces in music.
Today, nearly forty
years since the kid from Brooklyn figured out that writing songs was
a cool thing to do, Neil
Diamond is recognized as one of the pivotal figures in pop history.
To seal the deal,
Columbia/Legacy presents IN MY LIFETIME, the Neil Diamond boxed set,
featuring 37 hit
singles, 16 previously unissued early demos, alternate versions of
well-known Diamond
classics, and the newly written and recorded title track. This is the
only deluxe Diamond
collection in existence to include material covering the superstar's
tenure at Columbia, Bang,
MCA, and Capitol Records. To put it mildly, this box rocks!
Naturally, it wouldn't be a true-blue boxed set without extra goodies,
and this collection has
plenty of them. Comprised of three CDs and 70 songs, the package also
includes a full-color
72-page booklet with extensive liner notes by noted pop musicologist
David Wild, a revealing
interview with Diamond, scores of rare photos, a complete discography,
and insightful
annotations of the recorded material written by the artist himself.
Compiled and packaged
with the full involvement of Diamond every step of the way, IN MY LIFETIME
provides the
definitive retrospective on a singularly remarkable career in music.
For anyone alive during those exciting formative years of rock and roll,
this set is a full-court
press of memories. Neil kicks it off with the title track, a cleverly
and movingly engineered
soundscape which compresses the music and history-making events of
the last three
decades into a few minutes. It's followed by "Hear Them Bells," the
very first song Diamond
ever wrote, recorded live at a recent concert. Simplistic though it
is, it's easy to detect
Diamond's lifelong passion for pop music, and his gift for writing
pop tunes.
The first CD contains demos recorded long before Diamond first broke
into the Top 10 with
"Cherry, Cherry" thirty years ago; among them his 1961 debut demo for
Columbia, "At Night,"
and a 1964 track written by Diamond for Dion DiMucci titled "Straw
In The Wind." Other
songs included are: "A Million Miles Away," "A Good Kind of Lonely,"
and "Flame" (all demos
from the early 60's); "What Will I Do" (recorded when Diamond was part
of the duo Neil &
Jack); "Clown Town" (from Diamond's debut Columbia single in 1961);
chart topping hits
such as "Cherry, Cherry" (two versions included), "Solitary Man," "I
Got The Feeling (Oh No,
No)," "I'm A Believer" (#1 for the Monkees in 1966); "Kentucky Woman,"
the Top 10 "Girl,
You'll Be A Woman Soon," "You Got To Me," "Thank The Lord For The Night
Time," "Shilo,"
"Sweet Caroline," "Holly Holy," and "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation
Show."
Songs on the second CD include: Diamond's first #1 pop hit, 1970's "Cracklin'
Rosie,"
"Soolaimon," "Play Me," "I Am... I Said," "Song Sung Blue" (#1 in 1972),
"Be," "Longfellow
Serenade," a home demo of "Beautiful Noise," "Dry Your Eyes" (from
Martin Scorsese's live
concert film "The Last Waltz"), "September Morn," "Forever in Blue
Jeans," "Desiree," and
Diamond's #1 1978 hit duet with Barbra Streisand, "You Don't Bring
Me Flowers."
Included on the third CD are: "Hello Again," "America," and "Love on
the Rocks" (all from the
soundtrack to The Jazz Singer), "Scotch on the Rocks" (a demo), "Yesterday's
Songs," "I'm
Alive," "Heartlight," "If There Were No Dreams," "Headed For The Future,"
"Hooked On The
Memory of You," "You Make It Feel Like Christmas," and "Everybody."
The disc also contains
a number of recordings never before released, including "Heaven Can
Wait," "Just Need To
Love You More," "Falling," "Dancing To The Party Next Door," and "I'm
Sayin' I'm Sorry."
The happy saga of Neil Diamond is one American tale well worth repeating.
At age 16, he
received a guitar as a birthday present, and soon he focused on lessons
and, later,
songwriting. He later attended NYU as a pre-med student on a fencing
scholarship, but
songwriting remained his first love. He left college six months before
graduating to accept a
songwriter's position with a publishing company for $50 a week, and
has never regretted the
decision. Diamond eventually leased an office on Broadway for $35 a
month where he could
devote all his time to writing. After several lean years, he was approached
by producers Jeff
Barry and Ellie Greenwich. This meeting led to his eventual signing
with Bang Records.
At his first Bang session in 1966, Neil recorded what would become his
first three hit singles:
"Solitary Man," "Cherry, Cherry," and "I Got The Feeling (Oh No, No)."
He also scored his first
#1 record as a writer with the Monkees' "I'm A Believer." Diamond's
Bang Records catalog
included the albums The Feel of Neil Diamond (his 1966 debut), Just
For You (1967), Neil
Diamond's Greatest Hits (1968) and Shilo (1970).
1969 brought him his biggest record of the early years, "Sweet Caroline,"
from the album
Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show/Sweet Caroline, an album that
combined gospel
themes with pop formats. The following year, he released the albums
Touching You Touching
Me, which included the hit single "Holly Holy," and Tap Root Manuscript
(1970), which
experimented with African-inspired arrangements. Other albums from
this period include
Velvet Gloves and Spit (1968), Stones (1971) and Moods (1972), with
hits like the #1
"Cracklin' Rosie," "Song Sung Blue" (also #1), and "I Am...I Said."
Hot August Night, a
double-album recorded live at the Greek Theater in 1972 is another
immortal Diamond album
of the period.
Diamond's reputation as a charismatic performer grew steadily in the
70s. In 1972, the
Schubert Organization presented him in concert for a record-setting
20 performances of a
one-man show at the Winter Garden Theater, making Neil the first rock-era
superstar to
headline on Broadway. At the height of his touring popularity, Diamond
announced a
sabbatical from the stage to devote more time to his family, but in
1976, he resumed
performing with record- breaking tours of Australia and New Zealand.
In 1973, Neil signed with Columbia, with which he has enjoyed his greatest
successes. His
first release for the label, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, became his
#2 all-time best-seller and
earned him Grammy and Golden Globe awards. In 1974 he released Serenade,
which yielded
the hit, "Longfellow Serenade." In 1976 he recorded the platinum Beautiful
Noise with
producer Robbie Robertson.
The late 70s found Diamond on both the radio and TV airwaves. In 1976,
he returned to the
Greek Theater for eight SRO shows, resulting in his first TV special
and his second live LP,
1977's platinum Love At The Greek. On the singles charts, his 1978
duet ballad with Barbra
Streisand, "You Don't Bring Me Flowers," reached #1. I'm Glad You're
Here With Me Tonight
(1977), You Don't Bring Me Flowers (1978), and September Morn (1980)
continued his streak
of RIAA-certified platinum albums.
Diamond achieved another breakthrough starring in the 1980 remake of
"The Jazz Singer."
Besides sharing the screen with Sir Laurence Olivier, he composed and
performed the film's
soundtrack. The multi-platinum soundtrack album was the source of "Love
On The Rocks,"
"America," and "Hello Again," all Top 10 singles.
On The Way To The Sky, Heartlight (containing the title track, a Top
Five hit in 1982) and
Primitive demonstrated Diamond's artistic vitality in the 80's, while
Classics/The Early Years
re-released Diamond's great early hits for a new generation to discover.
1986's Headed For
The Future showcased an innovative modern sound. His 1987 live LP,
Hot August Night II,
was a potent reminder why Diamond has consistently been one of the
biggest draws in
America, and 1988's The Best Years Of Our Lives proved to be a songwriting
showcase for
Diamond. Following the 1991 release of Lovescape, Diamond embarked
on the critically
acclaimed "Love In The Round" World Tour, performed on a 360-degree
stage in the middle
of every arena.
His 1992 release, Neil Diamond - The Greatest Hits 1966-1992, has been
certified platinum,
and the "Love In The Round" Tour was one of the highest-grossing tours
in the world for two
years running. The Christmas Album became a Top 10 platinum best-seller,
and "Neil
Diamond's Christmas Special," which premiered on HBO in 1992, and aired
on ABC-TV in
1993, has been made available to home video on Columbia Music Video.
The one-hour
special features Diamond performing many of the favorites heard on
The Christmas Album
while joined by such diverse vocal ensembles as a doo-wop group, children's
choir and
mixed chorale. Neil followed this up in 1994 with a second volume of
holiday favorites, The
Christmas Album Vol. II, which duplicated the success of the first
edition.
In 1993, Neil recorded Up On The Roof - Songs From The Brill Building,
which paid homage
to the songs and songwriters from the Golden Age of pop in the 50s
and 60s. It featured
sixteen of Neil's favorites from the era by such top songwriting teams
as Goffin & King, Mann
& Weill, Leiber & Stoller, and Bacharach & David. The album
explored Diamond's musical
roots and cast new light on these immortal hits. Then in 1994, he released
Live In America, a
remarkable set recorded live on Diamond's heralded two-year-long record-breaking
"Love In
The Round" world tour.
He followed that album with one earlier this year, the critically acclaimed
RIAA gold- certified
Tennessee Moon, recorded in Nashville with some of the city's top musicians,
and featuring
an astonishingly vibrant collection of new Diamond songs. This fall,
Columbia Music Video
releases an exciting new home video, Neil Diamond... Under A Tennessee
Moon, culled from
the TV special aired as a companion to the CD. Among other highlights,
it contains the video
Neil made with Waylon Jennings for "One Good Love," as well as the
"Marry Me" video
featuring Buffy Lawson and wedding footage sent in by fans. The numbers
speak for
themselves: over his career, Diamond has sold 110 million records and
set box office
records at major venues across the U.S and around the world.
In his own commentary on IN MY LIFETIME, Diamond reveals, "There's something
inside me
that's released when I'm able to write music... Listening to this compilation
is like having my
life pass before my ears: personal moments, aspirations, things I was
sure nobody would
ever hear, all returning to trigger memories." David Wild described
Diamond in his liner notes
as "a songwriter's songwriter... a symbol of evolving manhood, both
solitary and otherwise."
Actually, solitude is something Neil Diamond doesn't need to worry
about. After thirty years of
unparalleled affection from fans around the world, it's obvious that
in his lifetime, Neil
Diamond will never have to go it alone.
