A Country Fan Appreciates the Catalog of Neil Diamond

Neil Diamond. The Jewish Elvis Presley as some have referred to him over the years. An internationally-recognized superstar that has sold some 130 million records worldwide, making him one of the best selling artists of all time, complimenting a career many would consider as one of the greatest in music of all time. He’s a master of rock, pop, folk, and adult contemporary, and one of the greatest singers of all time.
But country? That’s probably not what you think of when you think Neil Diamond. And taking stock of his career as a whole, of course you’d be right. But what is surprising is just how many ties to the country world you can draw back to Neil Diamond, and how many of his songs would sound country with just a few tweaks, including a few that actually were country when those tweaks were made.
Born in Brooklyn, New York to a Jewish family, and spending most of his young life within the city, it’s hard to find a nexus between Neil Diamond’s upbringing and country music … except when you learn that he actually spent four years when growing up also living in the Rodeo Capital of the World—Cheyenne, Wyoming. Diamond’s father was stationed in Cheyenne while serving in the Army. And yes, Neil’s real last name is “Diamond,” which couldn’t have made transitioning to life in cowboy country easy for a kid from Brooklyn.
But Neil Diamond’s ties to country music don’t exactly express themselves via Western songs and cowboy culture. It’s his evocation of Southern geography in so many of his classic songs, some of the phrasing and approach he brings to his music, and overall, its the soul that Neil Diamond captures that you could almost mistake as “Southern” if it wasn’t coming from someone so distinctly not.
Neil Diamond was inspired to get into music when he was 16. After receiving his first guitar, Diamond saw folk singer Pete Seeger perform a small concert while attending a camp for Jewish kids. This is what inspired him to get into music and write songs. Since Neil’s original inspiration was folk as opposed to rock or pop, this created a foundation to his music with close similarities to country.
Diamond’s first label in the mid 60s was Bang Records, which was an independent label with ties to Atlantic. Though Neil had released a few non-successful singles earlier in the 60s, his first real single was “Solitary Man” in 1966 that he wrote himself. The dark chords had a distinct folky feel, and the horn accompaniment made it ripe for pop play. “Solitary Man” became a minor, but breakout hit for Neil Diamond, hitting #55 on the Billboard Hot 100.
But when country artist T.G. Sheppard heard the song, what he heard was a country hit. Recording the song in 1976, T.G.’s version went #14 in the country charts, and he also decided to make it the title track of his 1976 record. This was just the start to “Solitary Man” not becoming a standard in the pop world, but in country. Chris Isaak also cut the song in 1993. The B-side of the single was a little song called “Wicked Game.”
Then of course Johnny Cash came along in 2000 to record the song with producer Rick Rubin, and similar to T.G. Sheppard, Cash decided to make it the title track of American III: Solitary Man. Cash would go on to win the Grammy for Best Male Country Performance for the song … a country Grammy for a song written by Neil Diamond.
That was a very auspicious start for Neil Diamond in contributing to the country music canon. While he was still signed to Bang Records, another one of Diamond’s early hits was “Kentucky Woman.” Not far off from a country song, it didn’t cut near the lineage of “Solitary Man.” Rock band Deep Purple was the outfit that took “Kentucky Woman” and ran with it as a single. But Waylon Jennings also sang it on his 1968 album Only The Greatest. Try telling Waylon it wasn’t country.
Okay, so these were Neil Diamond songs that others turned country, but what about songs that Neil Diamond sung himself that could be considered country? Well, there’s quite a few you could count in that category. Unquestionably, Diamond’s most well-recognized song is “Sweet Caroline” (Bum! Bum! Bum!). Don’t take it lightly that Neil’s object of affection is named after the Southern states in Cackalacky, or that Waylon Jennings covered this song as well on his 1977 album Ol’ Waylon.
And like “Solitary Man,” if you take the horn blats out of “Sweet Caroline,” you could definitely pass the song off as something that could have been selected by Chet Atkins or Billy Sherrill to be a hit during country music’s Countrypolitan phase. How are many of Neil Diamond songs less country than, lets say, Glen Campbell’s catalog? Really, the differences almost come down completely to production choices.
The same could be said for many of Neil Diamond’s other biggest hits. The superbly-written and introspective “I Am .. I Said,” and the very folky “Cracklin’ Rosie” and “Song Sung Blue” can fall into this country-adjacent category. Lose some of the horn parts, replace them with some steel guitar, and you have Nashville Sound country hits of the 70s, and ones country could be proud of.
But the pinnacle of proving that Neil Diamond at times was a country artist in disguise is the immortal song “Forever in Blue Jeans.” Forget having to tweak this or that to consider it a country song, a country song is exactly what “Forever In Blue Jeans” is. Released in 1979, it’s not only country, the pounding half time bass drum beat is downright Outlaw. With Diamond’s raspy voice and the simple story about deciding love and blue jeans is enough, it is every bit country.
Though “Forever in Blue Jeans” never charted in country, country artist Tommy Overstreet recorded the song later in 1979 on his album Never Let You Down. The song was co-written with Neil Diamond’s guitar player at the time, Richard Bennett. Country fans may recognize that name since Bennett was a member of The Notorious Cherry Bombs with a few country guys named Vince Gill, Rodney Crowell, and Tony Brown. Bennett also played guitar on “Let Your Love Flow” by The Bellamy Brothers, and on country material from Emmylou Harris and Mark Knopfler.
See, it told you Neil Diamond’s ties to country music were numerous.
Then in 1996, Neil Diamond stopped beating around the bush, traveled down to Nashville to the Dark Horse Recording Studio, and cut himself a country record called Tennessee Moon with a bunch of country music A-listers behind him, including Brent Mason on guitar, steel guitarists Dan Dugmore and Bruce Bouton, bassist David Hungate, and so on. Guests on the album included Waylon Jennings, Hal Ketuchum, Raul Malo of The Mavericks, Chet Atkins, and Beth Nielsen Chapman.
Sure, Tennessee Moon is a bit schmaltzy for country, but it’s the thought that counts. Waylon and Neil Diamond even recorded a video together, with Gary Nicholson also participating. They also performed their duet “One Good Love” at the Ryman Auditorium.
And you can continue to go up and down the Neil Diamond catalog and cite other examples of his country leanings from there. In 2018, Neil Diamond announced that he would stop touring due to being diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. In March, he gave a rare interview with CBS Sunday Morning where he said he’s just now coming to terms with the disease.
Too often we wait to pay tribute to these kinds of music greats when they pass. All the more reason then as a country fans to show some appreciation to Neil Diamond now before the angels come calling. Nobody would ever mistake Neil Diamond as a country artist. But his contributions to country music were nonetheless important, and more numerous than you might think. And for that, he deserves our appreciation.
April 29, 2023 @ 8:20 am
Glen Campbell’s follow up single to Southern Nights was a Neil Diamond composition – Sunflower.
From the Wikipedia page:
” “Sunflower” is a song written by Neil Diamond and recorded by American country music singer Glen Campbell. It was released in June 1977 as the second single from Campbell’s 1977 album, Southern Nights. “Sunflower” was the last of eight number ones on the Easy Listening chart for Campbell. The single spent one week at number one and peaked at number 39 on the Billboard Hot 100.[1] “Sunflower” peaked at number four on the US country chart.[2]”
It’s an Easy listening/Adult Comtemporary hit with ringing dobro fills. Country pop, to be sure, but it’s one of the best earworm hits in Glen catalog.
April 29, 2023 @ 9:00 am
Hells yeah!! I’ve been listening to Neil before I started listening to country, and once I started listening to country, and heard Waylon covering him, I added all Neil’s albums to my country music playlists.
April 29, 2023 @ 9:09 am
Great article. The movie Saving Silverman really made me dig into Diamond’s work. The movie has pretty awful reviews but I really enjoy how fun it was and Neil was particularly funny in it. Perhaps my teenage sensibilities at the time helped me view it in a positive light. I even wrote a parody of “Hello Again” titled “Hello Lanyon” for a high school project. Nonetheless, the number of hits for other artists penned by Diamond also hides some of his ability as there are many songs I never realized were written by him until I started digging.
Also for the western PA folks, Hartwood Acres is hosting Marty Stuart and his Fabulous Superlatives for a free show on July 9.
April 29, 2023 @ 9:11 am
I like Neil as well, very good singer, didn’t real care what kind of music he sang, it was just good.
April 29, 2023 @ 9:16 am
He was fabulous in concert in Detroit.
Grateful to have been at that show.
April 29, 2023 @ 10:22 am
Another Neil Diamond connection to country is that his roadie Larry Williams wrote “Let Your Love Flow” but Neil himself turned it down and the Bellamy Brothers scored a #1 pop and a top 25 country hit with it. Had Neil decided to cut it, it might have granted him a place on the country charts, but that is only speculation on my part.
April 29, 2023 @ 10:47 am
An interesting artifact to add is his cringe-worthy parody/mockery of country music, and of the people whose stories are told in country lyrics: “You’re So Sweet (Horseflies Keep Hangin’ Round Your Face),” from his 1969 “Brother Love’s…” album.
https://youtu.be/ZeJvik8u8uk
If it’s possible, there’s an even worse recording, IMO, on his live “Hot August Night,” which he speeds through, maybe to get it over with.
April 29, 2023 @ 12:14 pm
I sang this to my wife a few months back and she did not appreciate it haha. I never took it as a serious parody or mockery. Thought it was just a fun song. Maybe he did have elitist intentions while writing it though.
April 29, 2023 @ 10:54 am
Some of your paragraphs posted twice. I’m not sure if you noticed that.
I’ve always liked Neil a great deal.
April 29, 2023 @ 6:19 pm
Good songwriting is good songwriting regardless of genre. Neil Diamond’s a *great* songwriter.
April 29, 2023 @ 11:20 pm
This is interesting. I YouTubed “Tom Jones Country” and sure enough he had country songs too. I remember That 70’s Show making fun of Tom Jones and when I finally looked up his videos on YouTube (a decade later) I was blown away.
May 1, 2023 @ 10:09 pm
Jones had an international #1 hit (and near top-10 in the U.S.) with Curley Putnam’s country standard “Green Green Grass of Home” in 1966. And a short time later, his one-time compadre Engelbert had an even bigger smash it with “Release Me,” which had earlier been a major country hit for Ray Price. Engelbert’s version went to #4 in the Billboard pop chart. In fact, anywhere outside of country music circles, “Release Me” is viewed as an Engelbert Humperdinck song, one of his signatures.
April 30, 2023 @ 1:52 am
“The human voice is the most important instrument at our disposal, yet it is one of the most difficult to understand or define. You either hear it, or you don’t. It either moves you, or it leaves you cold. It has never been successfully reproduced by an electronic synthesizer because it is more that just a sound … it is the soul itself.”
“When I listen to this album I hear the soul of Waylon Jennings, an I am moved by what I hear. It is a beautiful soul … one that reflects the joy and the pain of a man who has seen lots of both.”
Neil Diamond
The liner notes on of waylon Jennings album Dreaming My Dreams
April 30, 2023 @ 3:02 am
in 2005, Neil Diamond teamed up with Rick Rubin to see if Rick could work his Johnny Cash-type magic on Neil. They came out with an a CD called “12 Songs,” with a back-to-the basics feel. At the time (as in many times) piracy was a big issue in the music business, so Sony records came up with a new coding techonlogy designed to make CD’s harder to pirate, and the very first release that they embedded the coding in was Neil’s “12 Songs” disc.
The coding presumably worked, somewhat, but it made the CD hard to play at all on many machines, or to upload. It wound up being a major disaster, Sony had to recall the first run of the disc and replace it with a new pressing.
But you can only launch a new album once and the confusion kind of killed the album before it could get properly off the ground. Neil was extremely pissed, to say the least, as his anticipated CD became a flop.
April 30, 2023 @ 3:45 am
He also wrote liner notes on Waylon’s Dreaming My Dreams album (remember those) .
April 30, 2023 @ 8:12 am
Neil’s contributions to the Monkees were first-rate as well.
“I’m a Believer” (#1 for 7 weeks)
“Look Out (Here Comes Tomorrow)”
“A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You” (#2)
April 30, 2023 @ 8:13 am
I was standing in line to get in to the Fogerty concert the other night. The guy in front of me had a Neil Diamond tour t-shirt on. On my left was a gal with a MAGA hat. And I’m posting here. God I love America.
April 30, 2023 @ 9:36 am
It seems I’ve always listened to Neil Diamond. He, like Waylon, are my go to choice when I am undecided on what to put on the turntable. As a kid in the ’70’s I would go to the Waterfront bar with my dad some afternoons. It was a slow bar during the day. Dad would drink and talk to the owner Frankie. She would fill the jukebox with free plays and I would play every Neil Diamond song she had. Which was quite alot. I would sing and listen to Neil while I played shuffleboard until dad was ready to go.
Love Neil Diamond.
April 30, 2023 @ 5:24 pm
You want to hear a great jam? Listen to the Sidewinders Cover of Solitary Man.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZnnOw3J3d4
April 30, 2023 @ 7:16 pm
I’ve had Neil’s music mixed in with my country stuff for forever. Never had a problem considering him to be a country (okay, very near country) artist. “12 Songs” only reinforced that my decision was a good one.
April 30, 2023 @ 8:17 pm
One of my most played CDs is one of Neil’s 60s songs all in mono… THE BANG YEARS. ❤
May 1, 2023 @ 4:36 am
His version of The Last Thing on My Mind is fantastic and made it onto my playlist. He’s got a great voice. Il have to look into some more of his stuff mentioned in these comments. I was not aware of how close the Waylon connection was which is neat.
May 1, 2023 @ 4:41 am
Mr. Bojangles as well he does a good version.
May 5, 2023 @ 10:27 am
I love his version of Suzanne.
May 1, 2023 @ 9:02 pm
What about Red Red Wine and Glory Road ?