Neil Leslie Diamond is an American singer-songwriter, musician and occasional actor. He has sold more than 100 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling musicians of all time. He has had ten No. 1 singles on the Hot 100 and Adult Contemporary charts: "Cracklin' Rosie", "Song Sung Blue", "Longfellow Serenade", "I've Been This Way Before", "If You Know What I Mean", "Desirée", "You Don't Bring Me Flowers", "America", "Yesterday's Songs", and "Heartlight". Thirty-eight songs by Diamond have reached the top 10 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary charts. He also played in movies such as The Jazz Singer, a musical drama film.
Bang Records was created by Bert Berns in 1965 together with his partners from Atlantic Records: Ahmet Ertegun, Nesuhi Ertegun and Jerry Wexler. The first letters of their names formed the label's name.
"Red Red Wine" is a song originally written, performed and recorded by American singer Neil Diamond in 1967 that appears on his second studio album, Just for You. The lyrics are written from the perspective of a person who finds that drinking red wine is the only way to forget his woes.
"Piece of My Heart" is a romantic funk/soul love song written by Jerry Ragovoy and Bert Berns, originally recorded by Erma Franklin in 1967.
Just for You is the second album by American singer-songwriter Neil Diamond. Like his debut, it has never been released on CD, though all but two of the tracks were made available on the Classics: The Early Years compilation. All tracks are also available on the compilation album The Bang Years 1966-1968. At some point or another, every single track on it was released either as an A-side or a B-side of a single, with many of them becoming big hits: "You Got to Me" (#18), "Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon" (#10), "Thank the Lord for the Night Time" (#13), "Red Red Wine" (#62), and "Shilo". Curiously, the year-old hit "Cherry Cherry" also appears here, while the then-current hit "Kentucky Woman" (#22) does not. "Solitary Man" also re-appears in its 1966 version. This version would be re-released in 1970 and chart at #21. This was Diamond's first album consisting entirely of original material, and his final album for the Bang label.
Velvet Gloves and Spit is the third album by Neil Diamond. His first for MCA's Uni label, it included three low-charting singles: "Brooklyn Roads", "Two-Bit Manchild" and "Sunday Sun".
"Kentucky Woman" is a 1967 song written and originally recorded by Neil Diamond.
"Steamroller Blues", is a blues parody written by James Taylor, that appeared on his 1970 album Sweet Baby James. It was intended to "mock" the inauthentic blues bands of the day. The song later appeared on two of Taylor's compilation albums and has been recorded by a variety of other artists.
"Longfellow Serenade" is the title of a 1974 song by the American singer-songwriter Neil Diamond. It was written by Diamond, produced by Tom Catalano, and included on Diamond's album Serenade.
"Solitary Man" is a song that was written and composed by American musician Neil Diamond, who himself initially recorded the song for BANG Records in late January 1966. It has since been covered many times by such artists as Billy Joe Royal, B.J. Thomas, Jay and the Americans, T. G. Sheppard, Gianni Morandi, The Sidewinders, Chris Isaak, Johnny Cash, Johnny Rivers, HIM, Crooked Fingers, Cliff Richard, Ó
"Cherry, Cherry" is a 1966 song written, composed, and recorded by American musician Neil Diamond.
"Song Sung Blue" is a 1972 hit song written and recorded by Neil Diamond, inspired by the second movement of Mozart's Piano Concerto #21. It was released on Diamond's album Moods, and later appeared on many of Diamond's live and compilation albums. The song was a #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States for one week, the week of July 1, and it spent twelve weeks in the Top 40. It also made the pop chart in the United Kingdom, reaching #14 on the UK Singles Chart.
His 12 Greatest Hits is a compilation album by Neil Diamond, issued in 1974 on the MCA record label. As the title suggests, it contains twelve songs from Neil's catalogue.
"Holly Holy" is a song written and recorded by Neil Diamond with instrumental backing provided by the American Sound Studio house band in Memphis. Released as a single on October 13, 1969, it was a successful follow-on to "Sweet Caroline", reaching #6 on the U.S. pop singles chart by December. The song also reached #5 on the Easy Listening chart. It became a gold record and then eventually a platinum record.
Classics: The Early Years is a compilation album by American musician Neil Diamond released in 1983 featuring the early recordings he made for Bang Records in 1966 and 1967. After CBS acquired the Bang Records catalogue, the twelve best recordings were reissued on this album. Columbia gave Diamond control of the Bang masters of his recordings. The original copyright notice of this album read "(C) and (P)1983 Neil Diamond and CBS Inc." This compilation has a different track lineup compared to the 1968 Bang compilation album titled Neil Diamond's Greatest Hits which contains two cover songs. All the songs in this album are original Diamond compositions and substitutes "I'm A Believer" and "Shilo" in place of the Gary U.S. Bonds hit "New Orleans" and the Tommy James and the Shondells hit "Hanky Panky."
Neil Diamond's Greatest Hits is the first compilation album of songs recorded by Neil Diamond. It was released in 1968 by Bang Records after Diamond left Bang for Uni Records. Bang would eventually release four Neil Diamond compilation albums on top of the two original Diamond albums that Bang issued in 1966 and '67. Ten of the twelve songs on this album are original Diamond compositions with the remaining two cover versions of oldies.
Shilo is a compilation album of songs recorded by Neil Diamond, which was released on September 12, 1970 by Bang Records. Bang released a remixed version of "Shilo" in 1970 which became a hit and inspired this compilation of songs Diamond recorded for Bang in 1966 and 1967 before moving to Uni Records. It reached number 52 on the U.S. pop albums chart, and was the best-selling of his Bang albums.
"Two-Bit Manchild" is a song written and performed by Neil Diamond. It appears on Neil's 1968 album Velvet Gloves and Spit, and was released as an A-side with a B-side of "Broad Old Woman ". It is a "strong and interesting" song according to Robert Jamieson.
Play Me: The Complete Uni Studio Recordings...Plus! is a box set of Neil Diamond's recordings for Uni Records. This anthology contains all of the tracks from:
The Bang Years 1966-1968 is a compilation album by Neil Diamond of Diamond's 23 songs he recorded for Bang Records in mono. Originally issued in 2011 by Columbia Records, it was reissued in 2014 by Capitol Records after Diamond signed with Capitol taking his Bang catalog with him.
