Neil Diamond becomes him
Las Vegas tribute artist wows onstage, so Ron Howard puts him in film, too
By Jerry Fink
Diamond adds more dates to tour PA Entertainment Neil has added new dates to his tour Good news for fans of Neil Diamond - the Sweet Caroline singer has added some extra dates to next year's UK tour. Due to phenomenal public demand, the legendary musician - who is returning to the UK for the first time in four years - will be performing three extra shows. One will be in Manchester (June 8), one in Birmingham (June 11) and one at London's 02 Arena June 23). Diamond, who has been in the business since the 1960s, will be performing songs spanning his entire career, from classic hits including I'm A Believer, to his newes...
Neil Diamond announces an exclusive Irish Date as part of World Tour News last updated: 09-12-2007 back to news The one and only Neil Diamond announces an exclusive Irish Concert in Dublin's Croke Park on Saturday 14 June 2008. Tickets go on sale this Friday at 9am. The Man, The Legend, Neil Diamond comes back to the joy of his millions of Irish fans to play an unmissable fully seated show which has been added onto his World tour. Over the course of a career that kicked in with the adolescent rush of "Cherry Cherry" in 1966 and crescendoed more than three decades later with his most successful world tour ever, spanning 2001 ...
Neil Diamond: 'Sweet Caroline' was Caroline Kennedy By SANDY COHEN, AP Entertainment Writer Posted Tuesday, November 20, 2007 at 9:59 am LOS ANGELES – Neil Diamond held onto the secret for decades, but he has finally revealed that President Kennedy's daughter was the inspiration for his smash hit "Sweet Caroline." "I've never discussed it with anybody before - intentionally," the 66-year-old singer-songwriter told The Associated Press on Monday during a break from recording. "I thought maybe I would tell it to Caroline when I met her someday." He got his chance last week when he performed the song via satellite at Caroline Kenn...
Diamond Views of Alex Rodriguez 2007-11-12 17:39by Scott Long Recently I was contemplating the world of Alex Rodriguez. I kept coming back to the idea that he is a Solitary Man. This got me to thinking, where better to go to explain his recent Yankees past and future, than with the lyrics of one Neil Leslie Diamond? Hopefully Scott Boras will use the words of Neil to understand better what Alex has went through and what he wants in the future. I wonder what are feelings that A-Rod must have? I know I’m playing amateur psychologist here, but my guess is if Alex was to write a poem about his Yankees experience, it would resemble this. ...
Utica's Neil Diamond steals stage in Vegas: Singer once sold life insurance Sunday, September 23, 2007; Posted: 07:25 AM Sep 23, 2007 (Detroit Free Press - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) From Sunday through Thursday, Jay White transforms into his alter ego and entertains as Neil Diamond. For more than 25 years, White has fine-tuned his Neil Diamond tribute performance, which originally began at a supper club in Sterling Heights. It's now led him to the Riviera Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, where he is a headliner. White began performing as a hobby while he sold life insurance during the day. White and wife, P...
The Long Island Music Hall of Fame Announces Its Second Annual Induction Gala on October 21, 2007 at the Kupferberg Center for the Arts at Queens College The Long Island Music Hall of Fame has announced the date and location for its second annual Induction Gala - October 21, 2007 at the Colden Auditorium of the Kupferberg Center for the Arts at Queens College CUNY, 65-30 Kissena Boulevard in Flushing, Queens. The 2007 induction class will include 24 individual musicians, groups and organizations the Hall of Fame has selected for induction. The complete list for 2007 and 2006 can be seen in the enclosed attachment. LIMHoF 2007 ...
LL Cool J, Grandmaster Flash and Darryl McDaniels of Run-D.M.C. have confirmed their attendance at the Second Annual Long Island Music Hall of Fame Induction Gala, scheduled for Oct. 21. The troika of rap pioneers marks another feather in the cap of the Music Hall, which over the past few years has grown from a pipe dream into a key player in the Long Island music community. Last year's inaugural ceremony surprised skeptics by securing appearances from Billy Joel, Joan Jett, Peter Criss of Kiss and Leslie West of Mountain, among others. The strong showing by rappers may also help bring Long Island's music scene out of the classic-roc...
Hot September night Neil Diamond tribute artist brings his act to Vista By Pat Sherman | pat.sherman@tlnews.net Friday, September 14, 2007 Born and raised in the Motor City, David J. Sherry was exposed to a cornucopia of rapidly evolving music styles during the late 1960s - from turbo-charged Detroit rock bands such as the Amboy Dukes and Bob Seger to Motown soul and sugary Top 40. Sitting in his bedroom, with the glow of a radio dial as his guide, Sherry took it all in. "I'm getting the blues. I'm getting Hendrix. I'm getting the Archies and the Partridge Family," said Sherry, now 50 and a resident of Escondido. ...
Gem of a tunesmith MUSIC, MYTHS & LEGENDS By MARTIN VENGADESAN There was a time when Neil Diamond, the king of catchy singalongs, bared his soul to churn out some profoundly poignant music. EXISTENTIAL angst is as old as the hills. For which one of us doesn?t have doubts about who we are and what our life is really for? Needless to say, this idea has been expressed countless times through music and while I grew up on a grim diet of Black Sabbath nihilism, many of my contemporaries felt that Senor Cobain was best at articulating such sentiments. But one song of despair and confusion that speaks directly from the heart eme...
The Music Man By LYNN HIRSCHBERG Published: September 2, 2007 Rick Rubin is listening. A song by a new band called the Gossip is playing, and he is concentrating. He appears to be in a trance. His eyes are tightly closed and he is swaying back and forth to the beat, trying at once to hear what is right and wrong about the music. Rubin, who resembles a medium-size bear with a long, gray beard, is curled into the corner of a tufted velvet couch in the library of a house he owns but where he no longer lives. This three-story 1923 Spanish villa steeped in music history - Johnny Cash recorded in the basement studio; Jakob Dylan is reco...
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Rarely seen performances by Bob Dylan, Neil Diamond, Roy Orbison, Joni Mitchell and a slew of other superstar acts have been unearthed for "The Best of the Johnny Cash TV Show," a two-disc DVD set due in stores September 18. The series, which ran from the summer of 1969 to March 1971, captured Cash at the height of his popularity, and provided an invaluable national showcase for an astonishing array of singer/songwriters of all genres. Other performers on the Sony release include Neil Young, Stevie Wonder, Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard, Linda Ronstadt, Ray Charles, Glen Campbell, Derek and the Dominos, Pe...
Fantasy Trade: Gordon Lightfoot for Neil Diamond, The Last Waltz Canadian songwriter passed on the night-of invitation, much to this author's regret. By Mike Seely Aside from being held in high esteem as possibly the finest rock documentary (or concert, for that matter) ever made, The Last Waltz is regarded as the mid-'70s straw that broke a golden era's back, the aftermath of which saw American music plunge into a regrettable gutter of disco, synthesizers, and guyliner. For every peak performance in the Martin Scorsese–helmed film, there's a simultaneous valley: Neil Young's gorgeous version of "Helpless" is punctuated by a giant c...
35 years ago this Friday, Neil Diamond recorded one of the landmarks of his career - Hot August Night. The double album was a massive hit in Australia, staying at number one on the charts for 29 weeks. In the ABC's My Favourite Album poll earlier this year, it came in at number 16, ahead of Carole King's Tapestry, Fleetwood Mac's Rumours, Queen's A Night at the Opera, and Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks. And it's been observed that you can't go into an op shop without finding a copy of it! To mark the 35th anniversary of one of the biggest albums of the 1970s, we're going to dust off the vinyl and give Hot August Night a spin on the ...
Paying tribute to music legends By: JEFF FRANK - Staff Writer You can go back in time this weekend without going beyond Escondido's city limits. A pair of fundraising events for the Plays in the Park summer theater series feature tributes to The Andrews Sisters and Neil Diamond on back-to-back nights. The popular Andrews Sisters salute has been one of Patio Playhouse's most successful productions, selling out several shows at the playhouse and entertaining large crowds at retirement residences around the city. The revue, featuring three separate trios representing the sisters from childhood through their adult stard...
Fans rock while Red Sox roll By Bob Stern, Enterprise staff writer Major League Baseball games used to be peaceful affairs. An organist would play relaxing music between innings, maybe a little ditty when a player came to bat. The most rousing moment at a home Red Sox game would come during the seventh-inning stretch, when he'd play "Take Me Out To The Ball Game." Well, those days are over. Today's baseball experience is high-tech sound systems, videos on the scoreboard and plenty of pop music to enhance the Fenway Park experience. There's ?Sweet Caroline? during the eighth inning, "Wild Thing" whenever Jonathan Pape...
25. You Baby from Neil Diamond, The Jazz Singer Soundtrack, 1980. Neil Diamond has a bulging catalog of great music, most of the best stuff we know. From his early successes of I'm a Believer and A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You (recorded by The Monkees) to his duet with Barbara Streisand, You Don't Bring Me Flowers, and of course bar room classics like Sweet Caroline, Neil is a living legend, yet it seems that his music over the years became a guilty pleasure instead of overt enjoyment. In 1980, he released his most successful and memorable work, the soundtrack to The Jazz Singer, a movie where he starred along with Lucie Arnez and L...
Cracklin' ros?s and a top-notch Scotch BEPPI CROSARIOL June 9, 2007 Pick of the week Peninsula Ridge Beal Vineyard Cabernet Ros? 2006 ($15.15, No. 008581). This rose' is juicy, crisp and concentrated, with excellent length. It's beautifully balanced and satisfying. My favourite song in Grade 5 was Cracklin' Rosie. Anybody else out there old enough to remember it? Frankly, I am not embarrassed to admit that I once ranked this Neil Diamond tune at the top of my hit list, and not just because I was a mere 10 years old when it vaulted to No. 1. I liked it because I had a crush on my teacher. It happened to be her favour...
The Best-Paid Men In Entertainment Lacey Rose, 04.30.07, 6:00 AM ET In Pictures: The 25 Best-Paid Men In Entertainment http://www.forbes.com/2007/04/26/hollywood-celebrity-earnings-biz-media-cx_lr_0430earningmen_slide_2.html?thisSpeed=20000 Hollywood's leading ladies may be better at grabbing glossy ink, but when it comes to earning top dollar, the men still have them beat. Fair or not, men are bigger earners both in front of and behind the camera. In fact, the male entertainers, excluding athletes, on Forbes' annual listing of the World's Most Powerful Celebrities earned on average nearly twice as much as the list'...
Miracles spring from rocky soil When I was a student at Utah State University, a winsome young woman named Mary asked me to explain the lyrics of a Neil Diamond song to her. Back then I fancied myself a brooding poet - and I fancied Mary - so I gave it a shot. The song was "Stones." It begins: Stones would play inside her head And where she slept They made her bed. It ends: Every prayer ever prayed For just two wild flowers that grow On stones. I had no clue what it meant, so I made something up ? something that seemed to drip with deep thoughts. Years later, of cou...
May 14, 2007 Sold American. It's finally a done deal. Rick Rubin has joined Columbia Records to, in the words of the press release, "form a dynamic and creative executive partnership with Steve Barnett." Devised with Sony Music N.A. head Rob Stringer, the pairing "will enable Columbia to be at the forefront of artist development while building a new business model." Now Rick can get back to producing the next Neil Diamond album. Upon making the announcement, Barnett commented: "Rick is a fantastic producer, tremendous with artists and has total respect within the industry as an honest man and a creative genius. It is a great ...
Neil Diamond Signs With Irving Azoff May 11, 2007 By Mitchell Peters, L.A. Neil Diamond has signed with Irving Azoff for management. Sources tell Billboard.biz that Diamond is currently in the studio recording his next album with producer Rick Rubin, who collaborated on Diamond's 2005 offering "12 Songs" (Columbia Records). That album has sold 563,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. "I'm very happy and excited about my new management association with Irving Azoff," Diamond, who previously had no manager, said in a statement. Along with Diamond, Azoff's management client roster includes Eagles...
Neil Diamond Really Is More Than A Solitary Man Michael Richman Tue Mar 13, 7:00 PM ET Neil Diamond takes his songs personally. Because if they don't mirror his feelings and emotions, he says, they won't be any good. "The main objective in any song I write has always been that it reflects the way I feel," he told IBD. "That it touches me when I'm finished with it, that it moves me along with it and involves me in what it's saying. And that's really the only rule that I use when writing." Consider some of the pop singer-songwriter's greatest hits: "Solitary Man" and "I Am ... I Said." Diamond said he was feeling lonely when...
Sunday, March 11, 2007 TLRHB's Annual Plea To The Rock and Roll Hall of Shame: Yes, it's that time of year again. Another worthy crop of inductees, including R.E.M., Grandmaster Flash, Van Halen, The Ronettes and Patti Smith, are going to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Monday. Already, we have been treated to the usual entertaining spats: Phil Spector apparently has time enough between visits with his criminal defense team to knock ex-wife Ronnie's induction as unworthy. The man really has control issues with women, doesn't he? And, of course, we have watched Van Halen implode again — the reunion tour with Diamon...
Esky The Hall of Fame Worthy Icons Still Kicking Ass 3/ 9/2007, 12:00 AM THE PRETENDERS Try this: Go to a bar, find the jukebox, and pick any one of the seemingly endless string of hits that have come from the Pretenders. Look around and you will notice that everyone in the bar -- the drunks, the frat boys, the working girls, even the bartenders who have heard the tune a million times -- will nod in agreement. Such ubiquitous appeal is not earned easily, and the Pretenders have certainly put in thirty years of elbow grease. They've survived breakups, overdoses, a few different lineups, and the rise and fall of rock 'n' r...
Alertness needed to stay king of your domain Neglected internet domain names are vulnerable to takeover - and once they're gone you might never get them back, writes Eamon McGrane. Ambrose O'Shea is one of Ireland's biggest Neil Diamond enthusiasts. In fact he has a dedicated room devoted to all things "Neil": vinyl, CDs, tapes, tour programmes, DVDs, videos and even a framed picture of him meeting his idol. While on a reskilling Fás course a few years ago, O'Shea inquired about how to go about setting up a website devoted to Diamond and to helping other fans swap and exchange memorabilia. His class, which was studying web design, ...
Reviews: Music Album: 12 Songs Label: Columbia Artist: Neil Diamond Our Call: At a Glance: Neil Diamond: a living legend of music to say the least. He is third most successful contemporary artist in the history of the Billboard chart, behind only Elton John and Barbara Streisand. He's already been inducted to the Songwriters Hall of Fame and has had his songs performed by a huge number of artists. If all that doesn't tell you who he is, he wrote "Sweet Caroline." 12 Songs is a heavily acoustic album, kind of similar to Jack Johnson. The music is very structured with easy beats, with a soft listening sound ...
Veteran Tour Producer Bonafede Dies February 16, 2007 - Touring by Ray Waddell, Nashville Music industry veteran Sal Bonafede passed away late Wednesday (Feb. 14) night at his home in Los Angeles. He is survived by his wife, Suzanne, sons Jeff and Chris, and his four grandchildren. With a career spanning more than 30 years, Bonafede worked with such legendary acts as the Doors, Michael Jackson and Neil Diamond. He produced Diamond's tours for more than 20 years, the last several in partnership with Jeff Apregan, who calls Bonafede a "friend and mentor." AEG Live CEO Randy Phillips worked with Bonafede on Diamond's North Am...
Andy Vajna, who produced the first "Terminator" movie, wants to remake "Jonathan Livingston Seagull." The book by Richard Bach spawned a long, long film in the '70s that inspired Neil Diamond to sing about a lonely looking sky. Vajna wants to apply "Shrek"-like computer-generated tricks to the update.
Super-producer is connected to 15 nominations, including three of five Album of the Year contenders. By Corey Moss Send Print You Tell Us If you could put a face to this year's eclectic crop of Grammy nominees, it would have an overgrown beard and black shades. Rick Rubin not only produced, or had in a hand in producing, three of the five Album of the Year contenders, but for the fifth time in his esteemed career, he earned a Producer of the Year nomination (see "Mary J. Blige, Chili Peppers Top Grammy Nominations List"). Between his work with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Dixie Chicks, Justin Timberlake, System of a D...
Sunday, December 31, 2006 Neil McKay's top 10 Albums of 2006 LILY ALLEN - Alright, Still (Regal/EMI): The freshest new star of 2006, Allen packed a lyrical bite that was on a par with those other sparkling new arrivals, Arctic Monkeys. Her stream of sarky, withering putdowns about hapless boyfriends was matched to a bunch of ska-influenced tunes that were frothy, fun and packed with hooks. ARCTIC MONKEYS - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not (Domino): Arctic Monkeys captured the zeitgeist like The Jam and Oasis before them on this undisputedly classic, and record-breaking debut. Fantastic words, only marginally le...
Dec. 29, 2006, 11:06AM End of the year brings tasty musical leftovers By ANDREW DANSBY Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle TOOLS Email Get section feed Print Subscribe NOW December isn't exactly a gold mine of new music. Most stuff the labels want you to buy gets released before November ends to ensure prime holiday retail runs. That said, the doldrums provide a nice bit of time to catch up. Who could resist the opportunity to cover Neil Diamond, Sonic Youth and Ghostface Killah in one review? Each has a recently released, odds-and-ends-type collection. Diamond's back-to-basics 2005 release gains a bonus disc full...