Neil Diamond

Neil Leslie Diamond, born January 24, 1941, in Brooklyn, New York, is an American singer-songwriter and Broadway performer whose recording career has produced more than 56.5 million records sold in the United States. Ten of his singles reached number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and Adult Contemporary charts, and thirty-eight of his songs have reached the top ten on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart, among them "Sweet Caroline."

Diamond was raised in Brooklyn by his parents, Rose and Akeeba "Kieve" Diamond, a dry-goods merchant, in a Jewish household whose grandparents had immigrated from Poland and Russia. He grew up in multiple Brooklyn homes and spent four years in Cheyenne, Wyoming, while his father served in the army. At Erasmus Hall High School, he was a member of the Freshman Chorus and Choral Club, where his classmates included Barbra Streisand and chess grandmaster Bobby Fischer. After his family relocated to Brighton Beach in 1956, Diamond transferred to Abraham Lincoln High School, where he joined the fencing team alongside his best friend, future Olympic fencer Herb Cohen.

A performance by folk singer Pete Seeger at Surprise Lake Camp, which Diamond attended at age sixteen, prompted him to begin writing his own songs after receiving his first guitar. He continued writing through high school, composing poems for classmates, and spent a summer working as a waiter in the Catskills, where he first met Jaye Posner, who later became his wife. Diamond enrolled at New York University as a pre-med student on a fencing scholarship and was a member of the 1960 NCAA men's championship fencing team. In his senior year, Sunbeam Music Publishing offered him a sixteen-week songwriting position at fifty dollars a week, and he left college to accept it.

After Sunbeam did not renew his contract, Diamond recorded as part of a duo billed as "Neil and Jack" with high school friend Jack Packer, releasing two singles in 1962 in an Everly Brothers style. He subsequently signed with Columbia Records as a solo performer, though Columbia dropped him after his 1963 single "Clown Town" failed to chart. During the years that followed, Diamond wrote wherever he could find space, including above the Birdland Club in New York City, where he developed songs including "Cherry, Cherry" and "Solitary Man." He spent his early career in the Brill Building, and his first significant songwriting success came in November 1965 when "Sunday and Me" became a top-twenty hit for Jay and the Americans.

Diamond's profile as a songwriter grew substantially when the Monkees recorded his compositions "I'm a Believer," "A Little Bit Me, a Little Bit You," "Look Out (Here Comes Tomorrow)," and "Love to Love." "I'm a Believer" reached gold record status within two days of its release and held the top chart position for seven weeks, earning the designation of Popular Music Song of the Year in 1966. In 1966, Diamond signed with Bang Records, a subsidiary of Atlantic, and released "Solitary Man," followed by "Cherry, Cherry" and "Kentucky Woman." His early concert appearances included opening slots for Herman's Hermits and the Who. Artists including Elvis Presley, Lulu, Cliff Richard, and Deep Purple recorded his compositions during this period.

Among the ten number-one singles Diamond wrote and recorded are "Cracklin' Rosie," "Song Sung Blue," "Longfellow Serenade," "I've Been This Way Before," "If You Know What I Mean," "Desirée," "Yesterday's Songs," and "Heartlight," the last co-written with Carole Bayer Sager and Burt Bacharach. "You Don't Bring Me Flowers," co-written with Marilyn Bergman and performed as a duet with Barbra Streisand, also reached number one. Diamond made his screen debut in the 1980 musical drama film The Jazz Singer.

On Broadway, Diamond appeared in 1972 in Neil Diamond: One Man Show and later starred in A Beautiful Noise, The Neil Diamond Musical. His industry recognition includes induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1984 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011. He received the Sammy Cahn Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000, was an honoree at the Kennedy Center Honors in 2011, and received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018.