THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

426-Neil Diamond-Cracklin’ Rosie.

1970-Number 3 single.

Best Bit-At 2.33. I am confident that from this point onward in this song, even I could do a karaoke performance justice.

Neil Leslie Diamond was born on January 24th, 1941, in Brooklyn, New York, United States, with record sales in excess of 100 million he is one of the worlds best selling artists. In 2018 he announced that he would retire from touring due to having been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, but added that he would continue to write and record.To date Diamond has recorded 34 studio Albums, between 1966-2018.

‘Cracklin’ Rosie’ was written by Neil Diamond,(see also best songs 536 and 13) and was taken from his sixth studio Album ‘Tap Root Manuscript.’ In America it gave him the first of his three Billboard Number 1 singles, while in the UK the song is his highest charting, when reaching Number 3 in 1970. Many rumours have circulated over the years as to the true meaning of the lyrics, but Diamond has confirmed that his inspiration for writing the song came after hearing a story about a native Indian Canadian tribe who had more men than women in their flock, and that the lonely men of the tribe, who couldn’t get a partner would sit around the camp fire and drink their wine together.’Crackling Rose’ is the name of an inexpensive sparkling wine once produced by Andres Wines of British Columbia, and it is said that while on tour in the early days, Diamond may have purchased the product.

It is also rumoured that in a piece of very clever marketing in order to get his song played on the radio, Diamond directed the lyrics ‘Play it now, Play it now my baby’ directly at Rosalie Trombley who was the music director at the Canadian radio station ‘CKLW’ at that time. Trombley had the final say as to what got played, and what didn’t, and could make or brake a song, the 1973 song ‘Rosalie’ by Bob Seger, and later covered by Thin Lizzy (see also best songs 125) in 1975 is about her.

The session musicians who played on this song were members of the Los Angeles based ‘The Wrecking Crew’ who were employed for thousands of studio recordings during the 1960’s and 1970’s. Members of the ‘Crew’ who appear on this track, and it’s parent Album include Hal Blaine (1929-2019) (drums) Larry Knechtel (1940-2009) (keyboards) Joe Osborn (1937-2018) (bass) Al Casey (1936-2006) (guitar) Tony Terran (1926-2017) (trumpet) and Gene Estes (1931-1996) (percussion.) At a later date I will list all the songs in this countdown that The Wrecking Crew appeared on.

‘Cracklin’ Rose you’re a store bought woman, you make me sing like a guitar hummin,’ so hang on to me girl, our song keeps runnin’ on.’