WE MARK SINGING SENSATION’S 80 YEARS Diamond geezer!
SWEET Caroline star
Neil Diamond turns 80 today – and he’s still working on new music. The US singing sensation has sold more than a 125million records and recently released album Classic Diamonds, featuring some of his best-loved hits. Here, reveals 15 fascinating gems about the legendary performer…
Born in 1941 to Jewish Polish immigrants in New York, he went to school with Barbra Streisand. She later had a hit with his song You Don’t Bring Me Flowers.
Diamond used to write poems to woo girls he fancied. He was so successful other kids began asking him to write ditties for them too. He got his first guitar aged 16.
His fencing skills earned him a university scholarship to study medicine – he longed to find a cure for cancer after his grandmother died from the disease. After dropping out of college to take a songwriting contract he struggled to making a living at first, once getting by on just 35 cents a day for food.
Before hitting the big time as a singer, he wrote hits such as I’m A Believer for The Monkees. Elvis, Lulu, Cliff Richard and Johnny Cash all covered his songs.
For a stage name he considered the monikers Ice Charry and Noah Kaminsky before deciding to stick with Neil Diamond. His middle name is Leslie.
The 1969 hit Sweet Caroline took him under an hour to write. He needed a threesyllable name for the music and was inspired by seeing JFK’s daughter Caroline on the cover of a magazine. Diamond has had more than
30 chart hits and recorded 32 albums. Top songs include Cracklin’ Rosie, Solitary Man, Song Sung Blue, America and I Am…I Said.
UB40 had a No1 with a cover of his song Red Red Wine, while a version of Girl, You’ll Be A Woman Soon appeared in the scene in the film Pulp Fiction where Uma Thurman lip syncs the lyrics. Diamond has dabbled in acting and
10 was even considered for the lead role Robert De Niro landed in Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver. But he picked up a Worst Actor Razzie for his appearance in The Jazz Singer movie.
Known for wearing
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colourful shirts at concerts, Diamond played Glastonbury Festival in 2008 to a crowd of more than
100,000 people.
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A father of four, he has been married three times – first to high school sweetheart Jaye Posner, then Marcia Murphey. He wed Katie McNeil, who is
29 years his junior, in 2012.
His 1995 divorce from Marcia after 25
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years was one of the most expensive in history, costing £92million. He is still estimated to be worth around £150m.
In 2018, Diamond said he would quit
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touring after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.
Last year he
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filmed himself singing Sweet
Caroline with Covid lyrics, saying:
“I’m just happy to be around.”