Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley also had a go at “Song Sung Blue” for “The Neil Diamond Special,” but NBC snipped him from the tape as he was seeking re-election and his opponents might have demanded equal time to assualt the song. Ledger-Star – February 21, 1977
Three times he went through the preliminaries of doing a TV special and three times he stopped, at a cost of about $300,000 to himself, because he didn’t feel it was right. The Indianapolis News – February 19, 1977
Neil prefers to write between the hours of midnight and 5 a.m. when it is most tranquil and there are no disturbances. Billboard – February 19, 1977
The final concert, parts of which were shown in the TV special, ran for two hours. Billboard – February 19, 1977
The concert show was an outgrowth of Neil’s own desire to tape his performance. He had failed to tape his critically acclaimed Greek engagement in 1972 which resulted in the smash LP “Hot August Night.” So Neil was covering himself in hiring the tv crew to tape the show for his own use and possibly to be used as part of a special. Billboard – February 19, 1977
The TV Special was Neil’s first American home screen appearance in nine years, or since he sang “Holly Holy” on the “Ed Sullivan Show.” Billboard – February 19, 1977
The special was videotaped on the final night of Neil’s triumphant return to the Greek Theatre. Billboard – February 19, 1977
The show was taped during the Greek Theater engagement before a special audience that included Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, Henry (Fonzie) Winkler, Helen Reddy and Olivia Newton-John. The Winnipeg Free Press – February 19, 1977
Neil was offered the chance to try his acting wings opposite Barbra Streisand in “A Star Is Born.” He turned down the part of the screwed-up, burned-out singer [played by Kris Kristofferson] who meets Streisand while he’s on the way down and she’s on the way up. Neil didn’t want to be identified with that kind of destructive person. Chicago Tribune – February 13, 1977
In 1972, on the eve of retirement, Neil and the concert promoters turned over $18,000 from his opening night on Broadway–at the Winter Garden–to the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial and the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation, an urban renewal project started by RFK in 1967. Rolling Stone – September 23, 1976