Idolator: Neil Diamond

David Cook To Transform Into Bono For 90 Seconds Tonight

Maura Johnston — Tue, 20 May 2008 15:00:00 EDT

A few more spoilers have started to trickle out about tonight's American Idol pre-finale, including word that David Archuleta will reprise "Imagine" and David Cook is planning on singing U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For"—the first time a U2 song has been cleared for an Idol performance. (Perhaps this means that Bono is the big star Nigel Lythgoe was crowing about yesterday?) Also: Unlike last year, when Blake Lewis was forced to gut out "This Is My Now," the two Davids have been given leeway to pick their own coronation songs from the songwriting contest's top ten vote-getters. Their rumored picks, and other news bits, after the jump.

David Archuleta's pick is "Here I Am":

Ah, another one of those vaguely Christian-rock songs with a vaguely R & B edge that draws deliberate comparisons between fame and being saved by the Lord. The breathiness of the demo's singer must have really appealed to David's ~~dad~~ vocal coaches.

Meanwhile, David Cook's rumored pick is the song that I originally thought was sung by a Weiland clone!

Nice "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams" guitars on the pre-chorus there.

A few other notable items in the Idol universe, via MJ unless otherwise noted:

• No word on Clive Davis' picks for the two Davids yet, but I'm sure they'll both be written by Professional Songwriters. Ahem.
• Neil Diamond is allegedly going to duet on "America" with little David, while in what could be an amazing mash-up trainwreck, Mariah Carey and David Cook are planning to sing "Always Be My Baby" together. Do you think she'll get mad if he steps on her lines?
• Vote for the Worst is reporting that a cappella aficionado Luke Menard has been diagnosed with cancer. The site is saying that the cancer is inoperable, but a commenter claiming inside knowledge is saying that whatever Luke has been diagnosed with is treatable. Either way, here's hoping for a speedy recovery.
• I think we all need a pick-me-up after that news, so for those of you who were missing Danny Noriega, here he is talking about how he was too TMTH for the Idol producers on the TV Guide Channel:

Ish!

Season 7 Final 2 Song Spoilers [MJ's Big Blog]
Danny Noriega - Idol Chat (Idol Tonight) 5192008 [YouTube]

Neil Diamond Finds Temporary Shelter Atop The Album Charts

Maura Johnston — Wed, 14 May 2008 13:30:00 EDT

The Rick Rubin-produced Neil Diamond album Home Before Dark took the top spot on this week's album chart, selling 146,000 copies and easily outpacing its competition. Home is somehow the first No. 1 album of Diamond's career, which is probably more a testament to the wacky way the album charts were calibrated back in the day than it is to the fact that he's been reaching out to the MySpace generation.

Biggest Debuts: In addition to Diamond's top-selling bow, the top 10 had six debuts: Toby Keith's 35 Biggest Hits (No. 2, 103,000 sold), Clay Aiken's On My Way Here (No. 4, 94,000), Gavin DeGraw (No. 7, 66,000); a Josh Groban live album (No. 8, 58,000); Dierks Bentley's greatest-hits collection (No. 9, 43,000); and Luis Miguel's Complices (No. 10, 32,000).

Notable Jumps: Thanks to their appearance on last week's American Idol results show, Maroon 5's It Won't Be Soon Before This Album Recoups The Ridiculous Amount Of Money Universal Poured Into It (We Hope) enjoyed a 62% bounce, selling 13,000 copies and jumping to No. 58. Likewise, Rascal Flatts, who appeared in the audience on Idol and "treated" the Dancing With The Stars audience to their godawful tunes, shot up 82%, selling 17,000 copies and leaping to No. 37.

Dropping Off: Last week's No. 1, Madonna's Hard Candy, failed to break the six-figure mark in its second week on the chart; its sales were down 66% for a total of 94,000, and they were only ahead of On My Way Here's numbers by about 70 units or so. Pandering: It doesn't always work out of the gate!

Nickelback Award For Inexplicable Durability: They haven't proven their long-term durability yet, but I'd be remiss if I didn't note that Scream by the inexplicably popular Tokio Hotel sold 16,000 copies in its first week on shelves and entered the chart at No. 39. While that sales total may not seem impressive even in these low-selling times, given that they're pretty much an Internet sensation at this point, you can't deny that 16,000 sales is a much larger total than that notched by your average blog band. (And I include both Mika and Robyn in that list.)

The top 20, with last week's sales totals in parentheses:
1. Neil Diamond, Home Before Dark (146,000)
2. Toby Keith, 35 Biggest Hits (103,000)
3. Madonna, Hard Candy (94,000)
4. Clay Aiken, On My Way Here (94,000)
5. Mariah Carey, E=MC² (87,000)
6. Leona Lewis, Spirit (76,000)
7. Gavin DeGraw (66,000)
8. Josh Groban, Awake Live (58,000)
9. Dierks Bentley, Greatest Hits: Every Mile A Memory (43,000)
10. Luis Miguel, Complices (32,000)
11. Taylor Swift (32,000)
12. Lyfe Jennings, Lyfe Change (32,000)
13. Now 27 (29,000)
14. George Strait, Troubadour (29,000)
15. Jack Johnson, Sleep Through The Static (26,000)
16. Tye Tribbett, Stand Out (26,000)
17. Juno soundtrack (24,000)
18. Jordin Sparks (24,000)
19. Colbie Caillat, Coco (24,000)
20. Tim McGraw, Greatest Hits 1 & 2 (23,000)

The top 10 digital albums, with sales totals in parentheses:
1. Gavin DeGraw (23,000)
2. Madonna, Hard Candy (13,000)
3. Clay Aiken, On My Way Here (6,700)
4. Leona Lewis, Spirit (6,200)
5. Neil Diamond, Home Before Dark (6,100)
6. Juno soundtrack (5,900)
7. Dierks Bentley, Greatest Hits: Every Mile A Memory (5,100)
8. The Roots, Rising Down (4,700)
9. P.S. I Love You soundtrack (4,300)
10. Mariah Carey, E=MC² (4,200)

Neil Diamond To Top The Increasingly Relevant Album Chart

Dan Gibson — Fri, 09 May 2008 13:30:00 EDT

The results of this week's round of album sales are trickling in, and it looks like Neil Diamond will take the top spot, selling in the neighborhood of 125,000 copies. Diamond's previous album, 12 Songs, debuted at No. 4, which may be a sign that Matt Sweeney's acclaimed guitar work on Home Before Dark is responsible for its success. Projections have all non-Neil Diamond albums selling below the six figure benchmark; Clay Aiken slides into second place with less than half of the first-week sales of 2006's A Thousand Different Ways. What happened, Claymates? You've let your red-haired angel down. Madonna and Mariah Carey hang on desperately to the three and four spots, while Gavin DeGraw, Toby Keith, Leona Lewis, Josh Groban, Dierks Bentley, and Michael Buble round out the most depressing top ten in recent memory. [HITS]

Neil Diamond Rides The Fader

Maura Johnston — Thu, 08 May 2008 14:00:00 EDT

Thanks to the sedentary demands of blogging and the 200-person capacity of New York's Bitter End, I didn't make it to last night's MySpace-sponsored Neil Diamond show. But through current videotape and Flash video technology, I can feel like I was there while half-blindfolded and surrounded by people yelling "WOOOOOO"! Check out the clip of "Cherry Cherry" above—and if you have better vision than I do, you, like the Daily Swarm, may notice that Neil's guitarist is none other than Matt Sweeney of Chavez and Zwan. Yes, really. He's "all over" the new Neil Diamond record, too. Hey, this seems like a fine excuse to post the video for "Unreal Is Here," doesn't it?

I also like that this is one of the first YouTube search results for "chavez -cesar -hugo":

Neil Diamond rocks out with Chavez (sort of) [The Daily Swarm]
Chavez - Unreal Is Here [YouTube]
Neil Diamond On Bleecker Street, Take Three [YouTube]

Inquiry

Maura Johnston — Wed, 07 May 2008 15:00:00 EDT

Is anyone going to Neil Diamond's MySpace show in New York City tonight? I'm debating whether or not it'd be worth even trying to get in line once I'm off the blogging clock, and trying to figure out how the demographics of Neil's audience square with the MySpace demo. (The poster's really pretty. Click to enlarge it.) At least I'll get Home Before Dark, right? Wocka wocka! [MySpace]

Neil Diamond Comes To "American Idol" To-Niiiight!

Maura Johnston — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 15:30:00 EDT

Not only is tonight's American Idol Neil Diamond Night—way to keep on keeping up with your target demographic, Nigel Lythgoe!—it also represents the first evening where each of the hopefuls will warble two tracks instead of just one. Spoilers have Jason Castro singing "Forever In Blue Jeans" and "September Morn," while rumor has it that David Archuleta is going to sing "America" and "I'm A Believer." (You know that he's going to pull some sort of Smashmouthy Shrek bullshit out of the air on that second one, right?)

Anyway, as Neil Diamond's catalog of beloved compositions is fairly vast, there are many possibilities for what other songs will be trotted out this evening. I'm hoping that David Cook takes "Cherry, Cherry" and doesn't grunge it up, because I think showing that he has some sort of versatility in the wide chasm between Puddle Of Mudd and Phantom Of The Opera would make me feel at least a little better about rooting for him once Jason Castro gets dispatched of. And as one reader said last week, he'll probably also do "the Pulp Fiction version" of "Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon," which, at the very least, could mark the first and last time Urge Overkill gets props on American Idol.

I can see Brooke singing "Shilo," or "Lady Magdalene," or most of Neil's other slow-burn tracks—this week seems particularly suited to her as long as she keeps it together. Syesha, though, is the wild card: it's not crazy to think that she's currently at work turning "I Am, I Said" into a big, belty number, but beyond that song choice I'm pretty clueless. Any ideas?

While The Sox Are Away, Neil Diamond Will Take The Field At Fenway Park

Maura Johnston — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 09:50:00 EDT

During yesterday's Red Sox home opener, the visage of Neil Diamond appeared on the Fenway Park Jumobtron—not just to lead the traditional eighth-inning singalong of "Sweet Caroline," but to let Red Sox Nation know that he'd be playing a show on Fenway Park's field later this summer. Perhaps sensing that diehard fans of both the Sox and Diamond would have to face a huge choice between watching their favorite team gut out August's dog days and experiencing the greatest communal "ba, ba, baaaaaa" ever, the powers that be at Fenway scheduled the show for Aug. 23, a Saturday when the Red Sox are playing in the afternoon. [The Boston Channel]

Neil Diamond To World: "Sweet Caroline" Was A Kennedy

mjohnston — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 11:00:51 EST

At this point, "Sweet Caroline" is probably intractably associated with the Boston Red Sox (two World Series wins = they finally supplanted that scene in Beautiful Girls that forever added the "ba-ba-baaaa" to its chorus), and the wave of publicity afforded by the team's latest World Series win has prompted Neil Diamond to reveal his muse for the track: a 10-year-old Caroline Kennedy, whose hand was apparently touching hand and reaching out with .. a pony. Wait, what?

Diamond was a "young, broke songwriter" when a photo of the president's daughter in a news magazine caught his eye.

"It was a picture of a little girl dressed to the nines in her riding gear, next to her pony," Diamond recalled. "It was such an innocent, wonderful picture, I immediately felt there was a song in there."

Years later, holed up in a hotel in Memphis, he would write the words and music in less an hour.

"It was a No. 1 record and probably is the biggest, most important song of my career, and I have to thank her for the inspiration," he said. "I'm happy to have gotten it off my chest and to have expressed it to Caroline. I thought she might be embarrassed, but she seemed to be struck by it and really, really happy."

The enduring hit recently reappeared on the singles chart, thanks in part to the Boston Red Sox. "Sweet Caroline" is played at every home game.

"I think they consider it good luck," Diamond said, adding that the Red Sox have become his favorite baseball team.

Hooray, she was touched. (Ha ha, get it?) Happy endings all around! Actually, a really happy ending for me would result from the revelation that the Red Sox are now Diamond's favorite team: Maybe this means "Caroline" will no longer get played during the eighth inning of Mets games. Sloppy seconds are so unappealing, am I right?

'Sweet Caroline' Was Caroline Kennedy [AP]