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Neil Diamond: Songs with Girls, Women and Ladies Names in Titles and Lyrics

Annie, Carmelita, Caroline, Cherry, Desiree, Fanny, Holly, Juliet, Louise, Magdelene, Mary, Melinda, Rosie, Rosemary, Ruby, Shilo, Sue, Suzanne

  • Annie - "Blue Highway" featuring Chet Atkins - Tennessee Moon - 1995
  • "Carmelita" - The Best Years of Our Lives - 1988
  • "Sweet Caroline" - Brother Love's Travelling Salvation Show - 1969
  • "Cherry, Cherry" - The Feel of Neil Diamond - 1966
  • "Desiree" - I'm Glad You're Here With Me Tonight - 1977
  • Fanny - "Done To Soon" - Tap Root Manuscript - 1970
  • "Holly Holy" - Touching You, Touching Me - 1969
  • "Juliet" - Brother Love's Travelling Salvation Show - 1969
  • "Hey Louise" - The Jazz Singer - 1980
  • "Lady Magdelene" - Serenade - 1974
  • "Mary’s Boy Child" - The Christmas Album, Vol. 2 CD - 1994
  • "Oh Mary" - 12 Songs - 2005
  • Melinda - "Solitary Man" - The Feel of Neil Diamond - 1966
  • "Cracklin' Rosie" - Tap Root Manuscript - 1970
  • "Rosemary's Wine" - Serenade - 1974
  • "Ruby" - The Movie Album: As Time Goes By - 1998
  • "Shilo" - The Feel of Neil Diamond - 1966
  • Sue - "Solitary Man" - The Feel of Neil Diamond - 1966
  • "Suzanne" - Stones - 1971

Official site from Neil Diamond: NeilDiamond.com External Link

  • Annie
    • Annie - "Blue Highway" featuring Chet Atkins - Tennessee Moon - 1995
  • Carmelita
    • "Carmelita" - The Best Years of Our Lives - 1988
  • Caroline
    • "Sweet Caroline" - Brother Love's Travelling Salvation Show - 1969
      • "Sweet Caroline" is a pop song written and performed by Neil Diamond and officially released on September 16, 1969, as a single. There are three distinct mixes of this song. The original mono 45 mix had a loud orchestra and glockenspiel compared to the stereo version on the Brother Love's Travelling Salvation Show LP. The third version was a remix found only on the initial CD release of Neil Diamond's "His 12 Greatest Hits". This version has the orchestra mixed down very noticeably and has the background vocals mixed up. It has a longer fade as well. The song reached #4 on the Billboard chart and eventually went platinum for sales of one million singles.
      • In the fall of 1969, Diamond performed "Sweet Caroline" on several television shows. It later reached #8 on the UK singles chart in 1971. In a 2007 interview, Diamond revealed the inspiration for "Sweet Caroline" was President John F. Kennedy's daughter, Caroline Kennedy, who was eleven years old at the time. Diamond sang the song to her at her 50th birthday celebration in 2007.
      • Text Source: Sweet Caroline - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Wikipedia.com External Link
      • Brother Love's Travelling Salvation Show - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Wikipedia.com External Link
  • Cherry
    • "Cherry, Cherry" - The Feel of Neil Diamond - 1966
      • "Cherry, Cherry" is a song written and recorded by Neil Diamond. The song was arranged by Artie Butler and produced by Jeff Barry & Ellie Greenwich. It was issued as a 45 single in 1966 and became Diamond's first big hit, reaching #6 on both the Billboard Hot 100 chart, in October 1966, and the Cash Box magazine chart. Worldwide sales were said to have reached over one million copies.
      • In 1973 a live recording of "Cherry, Cherry" was issued as a 45 single from the Neil Diamond live album Hot August Night. The live version hit #24 on the Cash Box magazine chart and #31 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
      • Rolling Stone would later label "Cherry, Cherry" as "one of the greatest three-chord songs of all time."
      • Text Source: Cherry, Cherry - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Wikipedia.com External Link
      • The Feel of Neil Diamond - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Wikipedia.com External Link
  • Desiree
  • Fanny
  • Holly
    • "Holly Holy" - Touching You, Touching Me - 1969
      • "Holly Holy" is a song written and recorded by Neil Diamond. Released as a single in October 1969, it was quite successful as the follow-on to "Sweet Caroline", reaching number 6 on the U.S. pop singles chart by December. It became a gold record and then eventually platinum.
      • A work with a spiritual focus, "Holly Holy" was influenced by gospel music and was Diamond's favorites of the songs he had written to that point. It begins quietly with acoustic guitar against a bass line, with the sparse lyric stretched with elongated vowels. Gradually the arrangement builds up with a tempo shift in the bridge and a backing choir against strings lasting throughout.
      • "Holly Holy" was later included on Diamond's November 1969 album Touching You, Touching Me. It has been included in live versions on Diamond's Hot August Night (from 1972) and Greatest Hits: 1966-1992 (from 1992), as well as in various compilations.
      • A treatment of "Holly Holy" by Jr. Walker & the All Stars was a modest R&B hit in 1971.
      • "Holly Holy" was covered in 1998 by UB40.
      • "Holly Holy" was a key soundtrack song in "Holy Smoke!"
      • Text Source: Holy Holly - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Wikipedia.com External Link
      • Touching You, Touching Me - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Wikipedia.com External Link
  • Juliet
  • Louise
  • Magdelene
  • Mary
  • Melinda
    • Melinda - "Solitary Man" - The Feel of Neil Diamond - 1966
      • "Solitary Man" is a 1966 song written and recorded by Neil Diamond, that has been a hit for him and others across five decades.
      • Released in April 1966, "Solitary Man" was Diamond's debut single as a recording artist (he had already had some success as a songwriter for others), put out on Bang Records. By July it had become a minor hit in places, rising to #55 on the U.S. pop singles chart. It would then be included on Diamond's first album, The Feel of Neil Diamond, released in August.
      • While nominally about young romantic failure, parts of the lyric:
        • Don't know that I will,
          But until, I can find me
          ...
          I'll be, what I am —
          A solitary man ...
          Solitary man.
      • have been closely identified with Diamond himself, as evinced by a 2008 profile in The Daily Telegraph: "This is the Solitary Man depicted on his first hit in 1966: the literate, thoughtful and melodically adventurous composer of songs that cover a vast array of moods and emotions ..." Indeed, Diamond himself would bemusedly tell interviewers in the 2000s, "After four years of Freudian analysis I realised I had written 'Solitary Man' about myself."
      • "Solitary Man"'s dynamic melody matched with this melancholic universality would make the song an attractive target for later interpretations.
      • After Diamond had renewed commercial success with Uni Records at the end of the decade, Bang Records re-released "Solitary Man" as a single and it reached #21 on the U.S. pop charts in summer 1970.
      • A 2005 Rolling Stone retrospective would write, "'Solitary Man' remains the most brilliantly efficient song in the Diamond collection. There's not a wasted word or chord in this two-and-a-half minute anthem of heartbreak and self-affirmation, which introduced the melancholy loner persona that he's repeatedly returned to throughout his career."
      • "Melinda was mine
        'Til the time
        That I found her
        Holding Jim
        Loving Him
      • Then Sue came along
        Loved me strong
        That's what I thought
        Me and Sue
        But that died too"
      • Text Source: Solitary Man - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Wikipedia.com External Link
      • The Feel of Neil Diamond - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Wikipedia.com External Link
      • Multiple Names in Songs - "Solitary Man"
  • Rosie
    • "Cracklin' Rosie" - Tap Root Manuscript - 1970
      • "Cracklin' Rosie" is a 1970 song written and performed by Neil Diamond in 1970, from his album Tap Root Manuscript. This was Neil Diamond's first American #1 hit on the U.S. pop singles chart, reaching the top in October 1970, and his third to sell a million copies. It also become Diamond's breakthrough in the UK, reaching #3 on the UK Singles Chart in December 1970, and stayed there for four weeks.
      • Married to a catchy and dynamic melody and arrangement, the lyrics suggested to some a devotion to a woman of the night:
        • Oh, I love my Rosie child —
          You got the way to make me happy.
          You and me, we go in style ...
          Cracklin' Rose, you're a store bought woman
          You make me sing like a guitar hummin' ...
      • But in actuality, Cracklin' Rosie is a type of wine drunk by a native Canadian tribe that Diamond had visited in Canada. Apparently the tribe had more men than women. Cracklin' Rosie was the nickname they used for their homemade alcoholic brew, which the single men, who did not have dates, would sit around the fire and drink together.
      • In terms of wine itself, the title is seen to refer to (misspelled) rosé wine which is "crackling" - a U.S. term equivalent to pétillant or lightly sparkling. A Crackling Rosé is produced by, for example, Paul Masson Vineyards and Beckett's Flat.
      • The single version released by Uni Records in 1970 was in mono, while the album version from Tap Root Manuscript was in stereo.
      • Text Source: Cracklin' Rosie - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Wikipedia.com External Link
      • Tap Root Manuscript - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Wikipedia.com External Link
  • Rosemary
  • Ruby
  • Shilo
    • "Shilo" - The Feel of Neil Diamond - 1966
      • "Shilo" is a song written and recorded by Neil Diamond.
      • It was originally recorded in 1967 for Bang Records, but Diamond and Bang founder Bert Berns disagreed over Diamond's career path. The singer wanted to move away from his early teen-oriented pop type of recordings that Berns favored, which led to Berns' refusal to release the more introspective "Shilo" as a single, even though Diamond felt it was part of his development as an artist. "Shilo" was instead relegated to an album track on 1967's Just for You. Shortly after what was said to be a "tense" confrontation with Berns, Diamond departed Bang for Uni Records in 1968.
      • Diamond went into a commercial slump, without hits. But by January 1970, his career had rebounded with "Sweet Caroline" and "Holly Holy" on Uni/MCA Records. Bang Records finally released "Shilo" as a single, albeit with a new backing track recorded to make it sound fresher and more like Diamond's current style. This reached number 24 on the U.S. pop singles chart in spring 1970, inspiring Bang to release a new Neil Diamond compilation album that year titled Shilo.
      • Following this, Diamond reissued his 1968 debut album with Uni, Velvet Gloves and Spit, in October 1970, to incorporate a completely new recording of "Shilo".
      • In any case, "Shilo" was not about the American Civil War Battle of Shiloh or the Israeli town Shilo, but was about a childhood imaginary friend:
        • Shilo, when I was young —
          I used to call your name
          When no one else would come,
          Shilo, you always came
          And we'd play ...
      • The song was Diamond's most autobiographical to date, making reference to his lonely childhood amongst turmoil. Diamond's emotional investment in the song contributed to he and Berns coming into intense conflict. Decades later, Rolling Stone would compare the song's stance to the emo style.
      • Though not one of Diamond's biggest hits, "Shilo" has become one of his best-known songs, and is a staple of his concert appearances. It was included on the Diamond's 1972 Hot August Night live album as well as all almost all of his compilation albums.
      • Text Source: Shilo (song) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Wikipedia.com External Link
      • The Feel of Neil Diamond - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Wikipedia.com External Link
  • Sue
  • Suzanne
    • "Suzanne" - Neil Diamond - Stones - 1971
      • Covered - Originally Performed by Leonard Cohen - Songs of Leonard Cohen - 1967
        • "Suzanne" is a song written by Canadian poet and musician Leonard Cohen. Its lyrics first appeared as the poem "Suzanne Takes You Down" in Cohen's 1966 book of poetry Parasites of Heaven, admittedly because of lack of new material (lyrics to a few other songs from his subsequent 1967 debut album were also printed in the book). The song was recorded by Judy Collins the same year, and by Noel Harrison and Cohen himself in 1967. It is the most-covered song in Cohen's catalogue, though "Hallelujah" has seen a surge of recordings in recent years.The song forms the theme for the final scene of Cohen's short movie I Am a Hotel released in 1983.
        • The band R.E.M. give Cohen a joint songwriting credit for their song "Hope" (on their 1998 album Up), in light of the similarity between the two songs. R.E.M. describe themselves as realising that similarity only after completing the song.
        • In 2006, Pitchfork Media listed the song #41 on their list of 'The Top Songs of the 1960s'.
        • Leonard Cohen specified, notably in a BBC interview, that the song was about encountering Suzanne Verdal, the then wife of sculptor Armand Vaillancourt, in a Montreal setting. Indeed, many lines describe different elements of the city, including its river (the Saint Lawrence) and a little chapel near the harbour, called Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours (literally Our Lady of Good Help), which sits on the side of the harbour that faces the rising sun in the morning, as it is described in the song.
        • Suzanne Verdal was interviewed by CBC News's The National in 2006 about the song. She is now homeless in Venice Beach, California, USA, where she lives in her automobile. Verdal claims that she and Cohen never had sexual relations, contrary to what some interpretations of the song suggest. Cohen himself stated in a 1994 BBC interview that he only imagined having sex with her, as there was neither the opportunity nor inclination to actually go through with it. She says she has met Cohen twice since the song's initial popularity; once after a concert Cohen performed in the 1970s and once in passing in the 1990s when she danced for him, but Cohen did not speak to her (and possibly did not recognise her).
        • Text Source: Suzanne (Leonard Cohen song) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Wikipedia.com External Link
        • Songs of Leonard Cohen - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Wikipedia.com External Link
        • The Leonard Cohen Files: LeonardCohenFiles.com External Link
        • LeonardCohen.com External Link
    • Lyrics: LeonardCohen.com - Suzanne External Link
    • Other Notable Covers:
      • Tori Amos - The Original Bootlegs - 2005
      • Covers List From Wikipedia: Suzanne (Leonard Cohen song) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Wikipedia.com External Link
        • Judy Collins on the album In My Life (1966). Collins' version was a partial inspiration for Cream's "Tales of Brave Ulysses."
        • Josh White, Jr. on the album The Josh White, Jr. Album (1967) United Artists.
        • Genesis (a 1960s US band, not to be confused with the better-known UK band) as B-side to the single "Angeline" (1968)
        • Pearls Before Swine on the album Balaklava (1968)
        • Chanteuse Françoise Hardy recorded a French translation of the song on her 1968 album Comment Te Dire Adieu
        • Harry Belafonte on his 1969 album, Homeward Bound.
        • Herman van Veen recorded a Dutch version. The Dutch lyrics were inspired by the original, but to a large extent new "Suzanne" (1969). He also recorded a German version, which slightly differs from the Dutch text
        • George Hamilton IV on the album In the 4th Dimension (1969)
        • Nina Simone on To Love Somebody (1969)
        • Fairport Convention played the song live in the late 1960s, and there is a version on the rarities album Heyday (1969) with Sandy Denny on vocals.
        • Anni-Frid Lyngstad on her 1971 debut album Frida
        • Fabrizio de André recorded an Italian translation on the single "Suzanne/Giovanna D'Arco" (1972); the B-side is another Cohen translation ("Joan of Arc")
        • Roberta Flack on the album Killing Me Softly (1973)
        • Joan Baez on three different albums, as well as in Bob Dylan's 1978 concert film Renaldo & Clara.
        • Geoffrey Oryema on the tribute album I'm Your Fan (1991)
        • Bomb on the album Hate-Fed Love (1992)
        • Peter Gabriel on the tribute album Tower of Song (1995)
        • Dianne Reeves on the album Bridges (1999)
        • Kevin Parent on the album Les vents ont changé (2001)
        • Nana Mouskouri on the album Fille du Soleil (2002)
        • Jazz vocalist René Marie on the album Live at the Jazz Standard (2003), incorporating and blending the song with an a capella rendering of Boléro by Maurice Ravel.
        • Aga Zaryan on the album Picking up the Pieces (2006)
        • James Taylor on the album Covers (2008)
        • Alain Bashung on the album Bleu Pétrole (2008) French cover
        • Aretha Franklin on the album Rare & Unreleased Recordings From The Golden Reign Of The Queen Of Soul. The album, released in 2007, features outtakes from many of Franklin's 60s sessions with Jerry Wexler.
        • Eivør Pálsdóttir, in several concerts during her summer and fall tour in Denmark (2008).
        • Singer/guitarist Bob Morley on the album Reflections (Jewel Records LPS 299)
        • Dirty Three have performed an instrumental version of the song live numerous times.
        • Finnish rock musician Hector has made the song in Finnish.
        • Graeme Allwright, using a French translation
        • The Flying Lizards on the album Top Ten (1984)

Annie, Carmelita, Caroline, Cherry, Desiree, Fanny, Holly, Juliet, Louise, Magdelene, Mary, Melinda, Rosie, Rosemary, Ruby, Shilo, Sue, Suzanne

  • Annie - "Blue Highway" featuring Chet Atkins - Tennessee Moon - 1995
  • "Carmelita" - The Best Years of Our Lives - 1988
  • "Sweet Caroline" - Brother Love's Travelling Salvation Show - 1969
  • "Cherry, Cherry" - The Feel of Neil Diamond - 1966
  • "Desiree" - I'm Glad You're Here With Me Tonight - 1977
  • Fanny - "Done To Soon" - Tap Root Manuscript - 1970
  • "Holly Holy" - Touching You, Touching Me - 1969
  • "Juliet" - Brother Love's Travelling Salvation Show - 1969
  • "Hey Louise" - The Jazz Singer - 1980
  • "Lady Magdelene" - Serenade - 1974
  • "Mary’s Boy Child" - The Christmas Album, Vol. 2 CD - 1994
  • "Oh Mary" - 12 Songs - 2005
  • Melinda - "Solitary Man" - The Feel of Neil Diamond - 1966
  • "Cracklin' Rosie" - Tap Root Manuscript - 1970
  • "Rosemary's Wine" - Serenade - 1974
  • "Ruby" - The Movie Album: As Time Goes By - 1998
  • "Shilo" - The Feel of Neil Diamond - 1966
  • Sue - "Solitary Man" - The Feel of Neil Diamond - 1966
  • "Suzanne" - Stones - 1971

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