THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

13-Neil Diamond-Sweet Caroline (Good Times Never Seemed So Good.)

1969-It did not chart in the UK until 1971, when reaching Number 8. In 2021 the song re-entered the chart and this time made Number 20.

Best Bit-At 1.03.Forget ‘We Will Rock You,’ We are the Champions,’ Three Lions, or ‘Eye of the Tiger,’ when attending a sporting event around the world, this is the anthem you are most likely to hear.

Neil Leslie Diamond (see also best songs 536 and 426) was born on January 24th, 1941, in New York City, United States, in January 2018 he announced that he would stop touring after he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, but he would continue to make music in the studio. Neil Diamond had his first chart success as a solo artist in 1966 when ‘Cherry Cherry’ reached Number 6 on Billboard in America, and this was followed later the same year when his song ‘I’m a Believer’ made Number 1 on both sides of the Atlantic when recorded by the ‘Monkees’ (see also best songs 121.) The discography of Neil Diamond includes 32 studio Albums released between 1966-2020, and 94 singles issued between 1962-2016, there are also 35 official compilation Albums, eight live Albums and two Soundtrack Albums that have been released, for further reading see best songs 536.

‘Sweet Caroline’ was written by Neil Diamond, who also co-produced the song along with Tommy Cogbill, (1932-1982) and Tom Catalano, and was released as a stand alone single, and first appeared on an Album in 1970, as track 2 on side 2 of Diamond’s first live Album ‘Gold.’ Neil Diamond is well known for teasing interviewers as to what his songs are about.Reading between the lines Diamond appears to have taken inspiration for the songs title after seeing a magazine cover photo of President John F. Kennedy’s (1917-1963) daughter Caroline as a young child on a horse, with her parents. Diamond has said,’It was a picture of a little girl dressed to the nines in her riding gear, next to her pony. It was such an innocent, wonderful picture, I immediately felt there was a song in there.’ In 2007, Neil Diamond performed the song via satellite at Caroline Kennedy’s 50th birthday party, and said that the song was about her. He told the media, ‘I’ve never discussed it with anybody before intentionally, I thought maybe I would tell it to Caroline when I met her someday. I’m happy to have gotten it off my chest and to have expressed it to Caroline. I thought she might be embarrassed, but she seemed to be struck by it and really, really happy,’ but then in 2014 Diamond said that the song was about his then wife Marcia, but he needed a three syllable name to fit it’s melody.

Neil Diamond has said that ‘Sweet Caroline’ was one of the fastest songs he ever recorded, he was due in the studio the next day for a three hour session but he only had two songs to record, so the night before in his hotel room he quickly wrote ‘Sweet Caroline.’ The song has many cover versions but Neil Diamond has said that the ‘Big Band’ version by Frank Sinatra (1915-1998) (see also best songs 877-567-469-120 and 73) is his favourite, he explained,’He did it his way. He didn’t copy my record at all. I’ve heard that song by a lot of people, and there are a lot of good versions, but Sinatra’s swinging, big band version tops them all by far.’

‘Sweet Caroline’ reached Number 4 on the American Billboard Hot 100 singles chart when first issued in 1969, but as the years have past the song continues to build in popularity as each new generation is introduced to it, and this can be explained by it’s use at sporting events around the world. It was first used to ‘whip’ the crowd up in the mid 1990’s in America at Football and Baseball games, and grew over the next decade as more teams also jumped on board. In the UK the fans of the Northern Ireland National Football team adopted the song as an anthem after it was played in the post-match stadium celebrations after defeating England in 2005. In 2021 it was the England fans who sang the song at Wembley stadium after beating Germany, it has also since been adopted by the England Women’s football team. The song has also been heard at many other sporting events including boxing, cricket, and darts matches.

‘Look at the night and it don’t seem so lonely, we filled it up with only two, And when I hurt, hurting runs off my shoulders, how can I hurt when holding you.’