Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Song by Song
“Sweet Caroline” (1969) “If I’m forced to [name my favorite song], I‘ll say ‘Sweet Caroline’ because it’s so available to everybody. It’s not the most sophisticated song I‘ve written and maybe it’s not the best melody, but it’s the most friendly. It makes any occasion into a party.” “Heartlight” (1982) “That was a co-write with Burt Bacharach and Carole Bayer Sager. We were in New York and we went to the movie [E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial] just because everybody was talking about it at the time. I just loved the movie and said, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if we had a song?’ We hadn’t been asked to write one. But after the song was released, I did see [director] Steven
Spielberg and he said to me, ‘I really loved that song.’ It was a little late to put it in the movie. But it found a platform for itself.”
“Solitary Man” (1966)
“In looking back at [some] songs, you would think that I’m a loner. But a lot of it just has to do with what’s happening on the day I’m writing the song. For instance, I woke up cranky this morning and wrote a cranky song—that doesn’t encompass everything that I am as a person. It’s just a part of me.” “I’m a Believer” (1966) “I was just happy that [the Monkees] recorded my record. For me, it meant I could eat for another couple of weeks!” “Song Sung Blue” (1972) “I didn’t even know [that the melody mirrors a] Mozart piece until the year after
I wrote it. Then I put two and two together. I studied classical music for almost two years just because
I saw this kid in my high school playing music in the assembly. I immediately changed from what I was doing, which was studying guitar, to piano and studying the classics. All music is fascinating to me— country music, rock ’n’ roll. I wanted to have it all and do it all, and that’s basically what I’ve done.”
“America” (1981)
“It was the story of my grandparents coming to America for that freedom. My grandmother ‘Bubbe Molly’ came to America in the steerage section of a Holland America ship when she was 12, escaping Jewish oppression in Russia. My other grandparents had similar stories from Italy and Poland. It’s a musical expression of being free.” “I Am . . . I Said” (1971) º*ÀŖL>LŃÞ Ìiji ŇŖÃÌ `ĶvwVÕŃÌ song I’ve ever written. It took four months of working on it every single day, whereas ‘Heartlight,’ maybe we spent >OE ijŖÕÀ ŖOE ĶÌ° ÜÀŖÌi Ìiji wÀÃÌ verse, and when it came to writing the second, I had to use the same format, and Ìiji wÀÃÌ ÛiÀÃi Ü>Ã ÃŖ VŖŇĵ plicated that it was almost impossible to write that form when I came to the second. It had to be the exact same rhyming pattern.”
world. Besides the challenge of the show, the star also has a big birthday to get his head around. On Jan. 24, he’ll turn 80. How does he plan to celebrate? “I don’t think my wife and I can go out,” he says. “But we can FaceTime my kids and grandkids.”
It will be a crowded call. Diamond has four children: daughters Marjorie, 55, and Elyn, 52, from his first marriage to high school sweetheart Jayne Posner, and sons Jesse, 50, and Micah, 42, both born to his second wife, Marcia Murphey, to whom he was married for 25 years, until 1995. He also has eight grandchildren, ranging in age from 4 to 21.
It’s a group large enough to toast the big number in Diamond’s life. So how does he feel about entering his ninth decade? “On the whole, I feel pretty good about it,” he says with a shrug. “I didn’t think I would make it this far. It’s a lot