hot august night

Neil Diamond captured his traveling salvation show in all of its glory for this legendary live album and had one of the biggest successes of his career.  Recorded on August 24, 1972 during a sold out ten show run at The Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, 'Hot August Night' finds Diamond at the top of his game.  He had had twenty top forty hits by this point in his career, not to mention the versions of his songs that other acts took to the charts while he was a songwriter at the Brill Building.  

'Hot August Night'  features Neil Diamond on vocals and guitar; Richard Bennett and Danny Nicholson on guitar; Emory Gordy, Jr. on guitar and vibraphone; Alan Lindgren on keyboards; Reinie Press on bass; Dennis St. John on drums; and Jefferson Kewley on percussion; with an orchestra conducted by Lee Holdridge:    string section of Sidney Sharp, Philip Candreva, Paulo Alencar, Baldassare Ferlazzo, Robert Lipsett, Haim Shtrum, Ron Folsom, Henry Ferber, Hyman Goodman, William Henderson, John DeVoogdt, Wilbert Nuttycombe, Jay Rosen, Walter Wiemeyer, Shari Zippert, Ralph Schaeffer, Tibor Zelig, Walter Rower, Salvatore Crimi, Richard Kaufman, David Turner (violins), Linn Subotnick, Philip Goldberg, Sven Reher, Myron Sandler, Marilyn Baker, Samuel Boghossian (violas), Jesse Ehrlich, Jerome Kessler, Raymond Kelley, Nathan Gershman, Alice Ober, Giacinto Nardulli (violoncelli), Timothy Barr, Jess Bourgeois, Don Bagley (bass violins).  

'Hot August Night' hit number twenty one in the UK, number five in the US, and in Australia became one of the best selling albums of all time, spending twenty-nine weeks at number one and still charting years later.  






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'Hot August Night' 
full album:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3sEauiatoM





"Prologue"
"Crunchy Granola Suite"
"Done Too Soon"
"Dialogue"
"Solitary Man"
"Cherry, Cherry"
"Sweet Caroline"
"Porcupine Pie"
"You're So Sweet"
"Red, Red Wine"
"Soggy Pretzels"
"And The Grass Won't Pay No Mind"
"Shilo"
"Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon"
"Walk On Water"
"Kentucky Woman"
"Stones"
"Play Me"
"Canta Libre"
"Morningside"
"Song Sung Blue"
"Cracklin' Rosie"
"Holly Holy"
"I Am... I Said"
"Soolaimon" / "Brother Love's Travelling Salvation Show"

song sung blue

Neil Diamond adapted the melody for this moody pop song from Mozart's Piano Concerto no. 21 and took it to number one. Diamond says: "This is one to which I never paid too much attention. A very basic message, unadorned.  I didn't even write a bridge to it. I never expected anyone to react to 'Song Sung Blue' the way they did. I just like it, the message and the way a few words said so many things. I had no idea that it would be a huge hit or that people would want to sing along with it."  He didn't think it would be a hit; but UNI president Russ Regan told him the copyright would be huge. Diamond listened and 'Song Sung Blue' became the leadoff single for his album 'Moods' and his second number one.  Diamond admits: "Although the lyric says everything I wanted it to say, there's not much meat to it, but it turned out to be a major, major copyright."  'Song Sung Blue' went to seventeen in Ireland; fourteen in the UK; six in Germany; five in Australia; three in Belgium and New Zealand; and number one in Switzerland and on the US Hot 100 and Adult Contemporary charts. It spent seven weeks at the top of the Adult Contemporary chart and was nominated for Grammys for Record of the Year and Song of the Year. 









http://www.neildiamond.com/












Song sung blue
Everybody knows one
Song sung blue
Every garden grows one
Me and you are subject to the blues now and then
But when you take the blues and make a song
You sing them out again
Sing 'em out again
Song sung blue
Weeping like a willow
Song sung blue
Sleeping on my pillow
Funny thing, but you can sing it with a cry in your voice
And before you know it, get to feeling good
You simply got no choice
Me and you are subject to the blues now and then
But when you take the blues and make a song
You sing them out again
Song sung blue
Weeping like a willow
Song sung blue
Sleeping on my pillow
Funny thing, but you can sing it with a cry in your voice
And before you know it, start to feeling good
You simply got no choice
Song sung blue
(Song sung blue)
Song sung blue
(Song sung blue)
Funny thing, but you can sing it with a cry in your voice...

i'm a believer

The Monkees' second single became their second chart-topper, although none of them actually played any instruments on the song. 'I'm a Believer' was written by Neil Diamond: "I was thrilled, because at heart I was still a songwriter and I wanted my songs on the charts. It was one of the songs that was going to be on my first album, but Donny Kirshner, who was their music maven, hears 'Cherry, Cherry' on the radio and said, 'Wow, I want one like that for The Monkees!' He called my producers, Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich - 'Hey, does this kid have any more?' And they played him the things I had cut for the next album and he picked 'I'm A Believer,' 'A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You' and 'Look Out (Here Comes Tomorrow),' and they had some huge hits. But the head of my record company freaked. He went through the roof because he felt that I had given #1 records away to another group. I couldn't have cared less because I had to pay the rent and The Monkees were selling records and I wasn't being paid for my records."

Diamond actually played guitar on the Monkees version; but none of the Monkees were allowed to do so, since their producers didn't think they could play together. Micky Dolenz did the lead vocal while Davy Jones and Peter Tork helped with backup. Michael Nesmith insisted the song would not be a hit and was banned from the studio during the sessions. The song hit number one the last week of 1966 and stayed there for seven weeks, becoming the best selling record of 1967. It has sold more than ten million copies worldwide.

Diamond made a deal where he could record his own version.

Robert Wyatt had a hit in the UK with Fred Frith on violin, Andy Summers on guitar, and Nick Mason on drums.

Robert Wyatt with Nick Mason- I'm A Believer... by doleho

I thought love was only true in fairy tales

Meant for someone else but not for me.

Love was out to get me

That's the way it seemed.

Disappointment haunted all my dreams.

Then I saw her face, now I'm a believer

Not a trace of doubt in my mind.

I'm in love, I'm a believer!

I couldn't leave her if I tried.

I thought love was more or less a given thing,

Seems the more I gave the less I got.

What's the use in tryin'?

All you get is pain.

When I needed sunshine I got rain.

Then I saw her face, now I'm a believer

Not a trace of doubt in my mind.

I'm in love, I'm a believer!

I couldn't leave her if I tried.

'Steppin' Stone' was the B-side of the Monkees' hit version.

cracklin' rosie

whether you think it's a lady of the evening or a crackling rosé wine, this song keeps you warm at night. forty years ago it became his first number one hit (the monkees took his song 'i'm a believer' there in 1966). he was inspired by his visit to a reservation in northern canada where the men without female companionship would get a bottle of cheap wine that they called cracklin' rosie. the wine became their women for the weekend.

http://www.neildiamond.com/

cracklin' rosie, get on board
we're gonna ride till there ain't no more to go
taking it slow
lord, don't you know
have me a time with a poor man's lady
hitchin' on a twilight train
ain't nothing there that i care to take along
maybe a song
to sing when i want
don't need to say please to no man for a happy tune

oh, i love my rosie child
she got the way to make me happy
you and me, we go in style
cracklin' rosie you're a store-bought woman
you make me sing like a guitar hummin'
so hang on to me, girl
our song keeps runnin' on

play it now
play it now
play it now, my baby

cracklin' rosie, make me a smile
god if it lasts for an hour, that's all right
we got all night
to set the world right
find us a dream that don't asks no questions, yeah

oh, i love my rosie child
you got the way to make me happy
you and me, we go in style
cracklin' rosie, you're a store-bought woman
you make me sing like a guitar hummin'
so hang on to me, girl
our song keeps runnin' on

play it now
play it now
play it now, my baby

cracklin' rosie, make me a smile
god if it lasts for an hour, that's all right
we got all night
to set the world right
find us a dream that don't asks no questions, yeah