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Early life and career Diamond was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York in the United States attending Erasmus Hall High School where he took part in SING! and sang in the school choir with Barbra Streisand. He learned to play guitar after receiving one as a gift on his 16th birthday, and has cited Pete Seeger as an early inspiration. Diamond was awarded a fencing scholarship to New York University, and was a pre-med student, interested in biology, but dropped out with less than a year left, both due to his dislike of Organic Chemistry and to pursue a career in music. Diamond’s first recording contract was in 1960 with Duel records, as "Neil and Jack" an Everly Brothers type duo, with a high school friend Jack Packer. They recorded the single "What Will I Do," but it was unsuccessful. In 1962, Diamond signed with Columbia Records as a solo performer. He released the single "At Night" (backed with "Clown Town".) Despite a tour of radio stations the single failed to make the music charts, and Columbia dropped Diamond. Soon after Diamond was back to writing songs on an upright piano above the Birdland club. He spent his early career as a writer in the Brill Building, and had an early success writing the songs "I'm a Believer" and "A Little Bit Me, a Little Bit You," which were recorded by The Monkees. There is a popular misconception that Diamond wrote these songs specifically for the "Pre-Fab Four." In reality, Diamond had written and recorded these songs for release himself, but the cover versions were released before his own. The unintended, but happy, consequence was that Diamond began to gain fame not only as a singer and performer, but as a songwriter. "Believer" was the Popular Music Song of the Year in 1966. Success Then Diamond signed a deal with Bang! Records in 1966. "Solitary Man" was his first hit on the music charts, and Diamond followed it with "Kentucky Woman," "Cherry, Cherry" and other hits. Diamond's Bang recordings were produced by legendary Brill Building songwriters Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich, both of whom can be heard singing backgrounds on many of the tracks. His first concerts saw him open up for everyone from Herman's Hermits and on one occasion The Who, which he confirmed on an episode of VH1's Behind the Music: Neil Diamond. However, Diamond began to feel restricted by Bang Records, and wanted to record more ambitious, introspective music. Finding a loophole in his contract with Bang, Diamond tried to sign with a new record label, but the result was a series of lawsuits that coincided with a dip in Diamond's professional success. Diamond eventually triumphed in court, and secured ownership of his Bang-era master recording in 1977. 1970s He moved to Los Angeles, California, in 1970, and signed a deal with MCA Records (then called Uni Records). His sound mellowed, with such songs as "Cracklin' Rosie", "Sweet Caroline" and the country-and-western tinged "Song Sung Blue." "Sweet Caroline" was Diamond's first major hit after his slump. In 1972, Diamond played ten sold out concerts at The Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. The performance on Thursday August the 24th was recorded and released as the live double album Hot August Night. This album demonstrates Diamond's skills as a performer and showman, as he reinvigorated his back catalogue of hits with new energy; critic Stephen Thomas Erlewin calls Hot August Night "the ultimate Neil Diamond record ... which shows Diamond the icon in full glory."* The album has become a classic, and in Australia, spent a remarkable 29 weeks at number 1 on the music charts. The 1977 concert Love at The Greek, a return to the Greek Theatre, includes a version of "Song Sung Blue" with duets with Helen Reddy and Henry Winkler a.k.a. The Fonz. In 1973, Diamond hopped labels again, this time to Columbia Records, where he recorded the soundtrack to Jonathan Livingston Seagull (which grossed more than the film itself). In 1974, he released the album Serenade (songs: "Longfellow Serenade", "I've Been This Way Before"). In 1976, he released Beautiful Noise, produced by The Band's Robbie Robertson. On Thanksgiving night, 1976 Neil made an appearance at The Band's farwell concert The Last Waltz. He preformed one song "Dry Your Eyes" In 1977, he released an album I'm Glad You're Here With Me Tonight, which included the track "You Don't Bring Me Flowers". The song was covered by Barbra Streisand on her album Songbird, which led Gary Guthrie, then Program Director at WAKY Radio (Louisville) to combine the two in a virtual duet. The popularity of the virtual duet motivated Diamond and Streisand to record the real thing, which became a very large hit in 1978. 1980s and later
Personal life Diamond married school teacher Jaye Posner in 1963, and they had two children, (Marjorie and Elyn), but divorced in 1969. That same year, Diamond married Marcia Murphey; they also had two children (Jesse Michael Diamond born in 1970 and Micah Joseph Diamond, born February 14, 1978), but divorced in 1995. Diamond paid a divorce settlement to Marcia of around US$150,000,000, the fourth-most expensive divorce in history. * Diamond is a fan of Australian Rules Football team the Brisbane Lions. Diamond is one of a small number of performers such as Paul Simon, Pink Floyd (1975 onward) and Johnny Rivers who have their name as the copyright owner on their recordings. (Most records have the recording company as the named owner of the recording.) Discography Quotes | ||||||||||||
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