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Forever In Blue Jeans: Neil Diamond Preps 3-CD "50th Anniversary Collection" For March

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Neil Diamond's debut single for Bang Records, "Solitary Man," hit shelves in April 1966, launching an internationally successful career that continues to this very day.  On March 31, Diamond (who turns 76 years young today) will look back on his 50+-years as a recording artist with the Capitol Records/UMe release of a new 3-CD collection.  Neil Diamond 50: The 50th Anniversary Collection features 50 songs compiled by Diamond, who has overseen this set for release.

The set appropriately enough begins with "Solitary Man" and continues for its first two discs in more or less chronological fashion (nothing has been included from Diamond's handful of pre-Bang recordings) with most of his chart singles for Bang, UNI and Columbia Records including "Cherry, Cherry," "Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon," "Sweet Caroline," "Cracklin' Rosie," "I Am...I Said," "Song Sung Blue,"  "Play Me," "Be," "Beautiful Noise," and "If You Know What I Mean."  Diamond has peppered his tracklist with some lesser-known songs such as "Sunday Sun" (No. 68 Pop, 1968) and "Skybird" (No. 75, 1975) and its B-side, "Lonely Looking Sky."

The third disc has the massive hit "You Don't Bring Me Flowers," although it appears to be in Diamond's original solo version rather than the smash duet with Barbra Streisand, which topped the Hot 100 in 1978.  It also has "Forever in Blue Jeans" (which inspired this collection's cover artwork) and highlights from the 1980s up through Diamond's last non-holiday studio album, 2014's Melody Road.   (A few albums aren't represented, including Primitive, The Best Years of Our Lives, Lovescape, and his 1990 series of covers albums.)  The set comes to a close with the top 10 Pop hit "America," one of three tracks from The Jazz Singer.

New liner notes are promised for this collection, hopefully by the artist; his entertaining recollections for 2011's The Bang Years earned the artist a Grammy Award nomination.  The 50th Anniversary Collection arrives just as Diamond is about to launch an extensive tour.  It begins on April 7 at the SaveMart Center in Fresno, California and concludes on August 10 with two nights at Los Angeles' Forum.  This 3-CD release is due from Capitol Records on March 31 and can be pre-ordered at the links below!

Neil Diamond, 50: The 50th Anniversary Collection (Capitol/UMe, 2017) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Links TBD)

CD 1

  1. Solitary Man
  2. Cherry, Cherry
  3. I've Got The Feeling (Oh No No)
  4. You Got To Me
  5. Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon
  6. I'm A Believer
  7. Thank The Lord For The Night Time
  8. Red, Red Wine
  9. Sunday Sun
  10. Shilo
  11. Kentucky Woman
  12. Brooklyn Roads
  13. Glory Road
  14. Holly Holy
  15. And The Grass Won't Pay No Mind
  16. Sweet Caroline
  17. Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show

CD 2

  1. Done Too Soon
  2. Soolaimon
  3. Cracklin' Rosie
  4. Crunchy Granola Suite
  5. I Am...I Said
  6. Stones
  7. Morningside
  8. Song Sung Blue
  9. Play Me
  10. Be - Recapitulation And Farewell To Fletcher
  11. Skybird
  12. Lonely Looking Sky
  13. I've Been This Way Before
  14. Longfellow Serenade
  15. Beautiful Noise
  16. Street Life
  17. If You Know What I Mean

CD 3

  1. Desirée - Single Version
  2. You Don't Bring Me Flowers
  3. Forever In Blue Jeans
  4. September Morn
  5. The Story Of My Life
  6. Yesterday's Songs
  7. I Believe In Happy Endings
  8. Hello Again
  9. Love On The Rocks
  10. Heartlight
  11. Lady-Oh
  12. Pretty Amazing Grace
  13. Hell Yeah
  14. We
  15. The Art Of Love
  16. America (From 'The Jazz Singer' Soundtrack)

CD 1, Tracks 1-3 from The Feel of Neil Diamond, Bang BLPS 214, 1966
CD 1, Tracks 4-8 from Just for You, Bang BLPS 217, 1967
CD 1, Tracks 9 & 12 from Velvet Gloves and Spit, UNI 73030, 1968
CD 1, Track 10 likely from Velvet Gloves and Spit (second pressing), UNI 73030-N, 1970 or possibly one of earlier Bang recordings
CD 1, Track 11 from Bang single B-551, 1967
CD 1, Tracks 13, 15 & 17 from Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show, UNI 73047, 1969
CD 1, Track 14 from Touching You, Touching Me, UNI 73071, 1969
CD 1, Track 16 added to Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show, repress of UNI 73047, 1969
CD 2, Tracks 1-3 from Tap Root Manuscript, UNI 73092, 1970
CD 2, Tracks 4-6 from Stones, UNI 93106, 1971
CD 2, Tracks 7-9 from Moods, UNI 93136, 1972
CD 2, Tracks 10-12 from Jonathan Livingston Seagull: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, Columbia KS 32550, 1973
CD 2, Tracks 13-14 from Serenade, Columbia PC 32919, 1974
CD 2, Tracks 15-17 and CD 3, Track 11 from Beautiful Noise, Columbia PC 33965, 1976
CD 3, Track 1 from Columbia single 3-10657, 1977
CD 3, Tracks 2-3 from You Don't Bring Me Flowers, Columbia FC 35625, 1978
CD 3, Track 4 from September Morn, Columbia FC 36121, 1979
CD 3, Track 5 from Headed for the Future, Columbia CK 40368, 1986
CD 3, Track 6 from On the Way to the Sky, Columbia TC 37628, 1981
CD 3, Track 7 from Three Chord Opera, Columbia CK 85500, 2001
CD 3, Tracks 8-9 & 16 from The Jazz Singer: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, Capitol SWAV-512120, 1980
CD 3, Track 10 from Heartlight, Columbia TC 38359, 1982
CD 3, Track 12 from Home Before Dark, American/Columbia 88697 28078 2, 2008
CD 3, Tracks 13 & 14 from 12 Songs, American/Columbia 8-2876-77508-2, 2005
CD 3, Track 15 from Melody Road, Capitol B002214902, 2014

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Joe Marchese

JOE MARCHESE (Editor) joined The Second Disc shortly after its launch in early 2010, and has since penned daily news and reviews about classic music of all genres. In 2015, Joe formed the Second Disc Records label. Celebrating the great songwriters, producers and artists who created the sound of American popular song, Second Disc Records, in conjunction with Real Gone Music, has released newly-curated collections produced by Joe from iconic artists such as Johnny Mathis, Bobby Darin, Laura Nyro, Melissa Manchester, Chet Atkins, and many others. He has contributed liner notes to reissues from a diverse array of artists, among them Nat "King" Cole, Paul Williams, Lesley Gore, Dusty Springfield, B.J. Thomas, The 5th Dimension, Burt Bacharach, The Mamas and the Papas, Carpenters, Perry Como, Rod McKuen, Doris Day, Jackie DeShannon, and Andy Williams, and has compiled releases for talents including Robert Goulet and Keith Allison of Paul Revere and the Raiders. Over the past two decades, Joe has also worked in a variety of capacities on and off Broadway as well as at some of the premier theatres in the U.S., including Lincoln Center Theater, George Street Playhouse, Paper Mill Playhouse, Long Wharf Theatre, and the York Theatre Company. He has felt privileged to work on productions alongside artists such as the late Jack Klugman, Eli Wallach, Arthur Laurents, Betty Comden and Adolph Green. In 2009, Joe began contributing theatre and music reviews to the print publication The Sondheim Review, and in 2012, he joined the staff of The Digital Bits as a regular contributor writing about film and television on DVD and Blu-ray. Joe currently resides in the suburbs of New York City.

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Comments

  1. An amazing Disc 1 with, at least, one of the strongest 8 song stretches (tracks 1-8) in recorded pop history! Though I lost some interest in his recorded works represented on Discs 2 and 3, his early recordings are stuff legends are (were) made of.

    Reply

    • Disc 2 is not quite as strong as disc 1, no, but, a few quibbles aside, still pretty damned good.

      Disc 3 is mostly schlock though. They should've stopped with the songs from The Jazz Singer and skipped everything else up until the two Rick Rubin-produced albums: 12 Songs and Home Before Dark). End there. Neil's choosing to not continue with Rubin was a bad choice. In fact, the lack of representation from the Rubin albums hurts the entire collection. Would've been cool to maybe dig up an outtake or two from those sessions?

      Really, the whole collection suffers from too many familiar hits, not enough "deep tracks" that Neil might've felt a connection to. THAT might've made this set more interesting.

      Not sure why "Lady-O" is so far out of sequence (it's from 1976's Beautful Noise). It should really should be on disc 2.

      Anyhow. Given the up and (very) down nature of Neil's career, and since I have a couple of nice collections of his stronger, early songs (The Bang Years, and the old Glory Road collection, not to mention Hot August Night), I don't see the need for this set.

      Not to mention, that cover art is REALLY cheesy.

      Reply

      • Disc 3 really doesn't look too bad, at least not to me. I do agree about there being way too many repeats from other collections. If I could win this, then maybe - otherwise I'll probably pass.

        Reply

        • Well, your mileage may vary on the latter-day Neil. I am not a super-fan, like my wife and her sisters are, but even my wife has little use for 80s and 90s Neil.

          The Jazz Singer songs are pretty good (though I could go the rest of my life without hearing "America"), but after that there's not a lot that I care for until those wonderful Rubin-produced albums. Then he took a step backward again after moving on without Rubin (in my opinion, again YMMV).

          As Sean Anglum before me commented, it's the early stuff that's really made Neil the legend he is. His Bang-era stuff, up through the Beautiful Noise album is Neil's golden-era for me. That's as strong a run as just about artist could ever hope for (and includes the underrated gem Serenade).

          Not to mention I'd put Hot August Night on the list of Best Live Albums Ever, not far behind the likes of Live at Leeds, Europe '72, the Allmans at Fillmore East, etc. Very different from those other albums, but in its own way also one of the greats.

          Reply

  3. It's odd that his post 82 pre 2000s albums get overlooked yet again. There were a few songs on the radio from that era that belong on a career spanning collection like this. It's particularly annoying when you consider some of the secondary songs that are included.

    Reply

  4. I agree with the reasoning that I fail to see any reason to buy this cash grab if you already own the previous box set. That earlier box, if you already own it, and the Bang reissue are more than enough.

    Reply

  5. His back catalogue still hasn't been remastered in full. It's about time for Caputol to start off this job in a prper way. And this anniversary year would be the perfect moment, if you'd ask me.
    For example his 1974 album 'Serenade', that one has been mastered for CD once with a lot of ugly drop outs, sometimes one channel drops for many seconds. A total disaster (and I'm not imitating Trump here).
    So let's hope for a full catalogue treatment. For now, we enjoy this compilation. Never knew that Desiree had a single version. Is that a remixed version or an edit? Anybody?

    Reply

  6. There is no real reason for any true Neil Diamond to even consider buying this set. Neil has lots of stuff yet to be released on cd (even "The Bang Years" wasn't as complete as "Double Gold") Maybe a new box set is needed. After all "In My Lifetime" is now 20 years old.

    Reply

    • I think capitol should go to the vaults, search out the original master recordings ; use the most advanced remastering techniques available, 24 bit 96k or even MQA; and recruit a competent and highly regatded engineer (bill inglot) and the original producers if available and do the job right, neil deserves it!

      All his most popular songs, overlooked gems, b sides, outtakes, should be included. Liner notes, commentary, pictures, etc should be included in a nice box set. Nothing cheesey, Start with the Bang years and go through the years in life chapters. The first hot august night should be include in its entirity.

      Reply

  8. If Neil wants to commemorate his 50 years, then film one of his upcoming concerts and release that as a Blu-ray/CD. He blew it again when he went back to the Greek Theater recently and did not film it AGAIN. Did he not learn how big of a mistake that was from the Hot August Night days? Not buying this set. Have waaaaaayyyy to many Neil hits packages already taking up room on my shelf.

    Reply

    • That would not interest me. I would rather see a concert film of his original Hot August Night show at the Greek. Him growling all of his songs live today does not appeal to me.

      Reply

  9. Worth mentioning this is practically a hybrid or half licensing/ half owned release...the Bang / Columbia stuff owned by Sony while the Uni (MCA) items and the once Capitol-owned Jazz Singer soundtrack both now controlled by Ume or Universal Music Enterprises.

    Reply

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