Neil Diamond began his career in the Sixties. He started as a songwriter. He grew his career from songwriter to singer to major recording artist to international star. He has withstood the changes in the music industry, starting as a teen idol and growing into a performer that is listened to and enjoyed by all ages. His albums still chart on the Billboard Charts even to this day, and his tours still sell out. Neil Diamond is as good as it gets.

Just like his character in “The Jazz Singer,” Neil was born and raised in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn, New York to a Jewish family. He was born Neil Leslie Diamond on July 24, 1941, the son of Akeeba “Kieve” and Rose Diamond. He was the first of two sons. His brother Harvey was born just a year and a half later on January 19, 1943. His family is descended from Russian and Polish immigrants. His father was not a cantor as the father was in the movie; instead, he was a dry-goods merchant and owned several stores. World War II was going strong when he was born and after America entered the war, his father served in the military in Cheyenne, Wyoming for a short time.

It was while he was in Wyoming that he watched a lot of western movies at the local cinema. He especially liked the “singing cowboy” movies and when they returned to Brooklyn, he asked his parents for a guitar. They gave him a $9 acoustic guitar for his birthday, and this was the start of his musical career.

He began writing songs in 1965 and his first hit was a song he wrote for someone else, Jay and the Americans. The song was “Sunday and Me” and it hit number eighteen on the charts. His first hit singing his own work was “Cherry, Cherry” which hit number six in 1966. It took him five more years and a record label change to finally hit number one in 1971 with “Cracklin’ Rosie.” When I first heard the song, I believed, like a lot of others, that he was singing to a girl, Rosie but as you listen to it, you realize it’s not a girl he’s singing to but a bottle of liquor. Cracklin’ Rosie is a type of wine that is drunk by native Canadian tribes. It is a homemade brew that the men who did not have dates would drink as they sat around the fire at night. Rosie kept them warm during the cold Canadian nights.
Neil only had three number ones in his career, but he is recognized as one of the legends of rock and roll in this country and the world. We’ll get to his other number ones, “Song Sung Blue” in 1972 and “You Don’t Bring me Flowers,” a duet with Barbra Streisand in 1978. This isn’t the only song he’s written about wine. He also wrote “Red Red Wine,” a song recorded by the English group UB40. It went to number one both in the United States and England.

“Cracklin’ Rosie” entered the pop charts on August 29, 1970 and spent just one week at number one.