THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

536-Neil Diamond-Forever in Blue Jeans.

1979-Number 16 single.

Best Bit-At 1.28. As two other songwriters of great renown once wrote, ‘Money Can’t Buy Me Love.’

Neil Leslie Diamond (see also best songs 426 and 13) was born on January 24th, 1941, in New York City, United States, with record sales in excess of 130 million sold worldwide, he is one of the best selling artists of all time. It was at the age of 16, that he realised that he wanted to be a songwriter, after watching the Folk singer Pete Seeger (1919-2014) (see also best songs 159) perform at the ‘Surprise Lake Camp,’ in upstate New York, Neil Diamond has recalled, ‘And the next thing, I got a guitar when we got back to Brooklyn, started to take lessons, and almost immediately began to write songs.’ Prior to his breakthrough as a performer in 1966 with his fifth overall single release ‘Cherry Cherry,’ (Billboard Number 5) Neil Diamond had found success with his songs being performed by other artists, notably with ‘Sunday and Me,’ which made Number 18 on Billboard in 1965 for the American Rock group ‘Jay and the Americans,’ and ‘I’m a Believer,’ a Billboard, and UK Number 1 single for the American ‘Pop/Rock’ band the ‘Monkees’ in 1966.

The discography of Neil Diamond includes 32 studio Albums released between 1966-2020, and 96 singles released between 1962-2021, there are also two soundtrack Albums, 35 official compilation Albums, and eight live Albums available. In America on the Billboard Hot 100, 37 of his singles have reached the top 40, with three of those tracks, ‘Cracklin’ Rosie,’ (1970) Song Sung Blue,’ (1972) and ‘You Don’t Bring Me Flowers,’ a duet with Barbra Streisand, (1978) all making the Number 1 position, while in the UK, Neil Diamond has had 11 top 40 hits, with ‘Cracklin’ Rosie’ (1970) peaking the highest at Number 3. When recorded by others, two of his songs, ‘I’m a Believer,’ (Monkees-1966) and ‘Red Red Wine,’ (UB40-1983) have both reached Number 1 on both Billboard, and in the UK.

‘Forever in Blue Jeans,’ which can be filed under ‘Rock,’ ‘Country Pop,’ and ‘Soft Rock,’ was the second of three singles released from Neil Diamond’s 12th studio Album ‘You Don’t Bring Me Flowers,’ from November 1978, the song was co-written by Neil Diamond, and Richard Bennett, with the production being by the legendary American songwriter, singer, musician, and record producer, Bob Gaudio (see also best songs 1007-914-863-739-499-393-284-164 and 112.) Richard Bennett was born on July 22nd, 1951, in Chicago, Illinois, United States, he is best known as a guitarist, and music producer. Bennett was a long term collaborator with Neil Diamond, playing on everyone of his Albums between 1971-1987, and also touring with him throughout that time period. The other song that Richard Bennett is best remembered for, is his guitar playing on the 1975 Billboard Number 1, and UK Number 7 single ‘Let Your Love Flow,’ by ‘The Bellamy Brothers,’ (see also best songs 923) ‘Let Your Love Flow’ had been written by Larry E. Williams, who was a member of Neil Diamond’s road crew. Since 1994 Bennett has worked as a touring sideman for Mark Knopfler, (see also best songs 829 and 298) and he has also produced Albums for artists including Emmylou Harris, and Steve Earle. He was a member of ‘The Notorious Cherry Bombs’ who recorded an Album in 1994, and he has performed on dozens of tracks for other artists, as well as releasing six solo Albums between 2004-2018. He has played on nine Mark Knopfler Albums between 1996-2018, with Knopfler writing the liner notes for Bennett’s debut solo Album ‘Themes From A Rainy Decade,’ in 2004. The liner notes read,’For almost ten years now I’ve felt very lucky having Richard Bennett as a pal and as a member of the band. His quiet, self-effacing manner hides an encyclopedic knowledge of all kinds of roots and rock music, from Hillbilly to Hawaiian, played effortlessly on a variety of instruments which appear out of a flight case as big as an Airstream trailer… May his cracking guitar playing find a place in your life as it has in mine.’

‘Forever in Blue Jeans’ tells us that it is better to be loved by that special person, rather than have all the money in the world, and not know real happiness. The ‘Blue Jeans’ are a symbol of a manual worker, who would not have lots of money. Neil Diamond has said of the songs meaning, ‘The simple things are really the important things.’

‘Money talks, but it can’t sing and dance and it can’t walk, and long as I can have you here with me, I’d much rather be forever in blue jeans. babe.’