I'm sure everybody reading this blog has heard "Sweet Caroline" played somewhere. People who have followed Neil Diamond's career the past four decades have wondered who this elusive Caroline is. Six months ago, in November 2007, all was revealed when Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, the daughter of former US president John F. Kennedy, celebrated her 50th birthday. Diamond admitted that she was the inspiration behind this hit many years ago.
I first heard it around 1985 on a TV ad for a CD compilation of Diamond's hits. In 2003, I participated in reciting the song's choral chants with others at the wedding reception for two of my friends. It wasn't until then that I started appreciating the song's appeal.
These days Diamond (b. 1941) is regarded as an American icon, but when he wrote "Sweet Caroline" he was just another poor, struggling songwriter in desperate need of a hit. One day when he saw a photo of the president's daughter in a news magazine, "dressed in riding gear, next to her pony," as Diamond recalls, he immediately felt that there was a song waiting to be heard. Years later, Diamond composed it in less than an hour in a Memphis hotel room.
Diamond released "Sweet Caroline" as a single in September 1969, when Caroline was 11 years old. It went to no. 3 on the Billboard pop chart and no. 4 on the Adult Contemporary chart. It was also released as part of his Brother Love's Travelling Salvation Show album.
"Sweet Caroline" is also a staple of many sporting events around the world. One of these is at baseball games played at Boston's Fenway Park. The Boston Red Sox started playing it in 1998, when the ballpark's music director at the time recalled hearing it at other sporting events. This became a tradition in 2002 when the team's new owner requested that this "good luck charm" be played during the eighth inning of every game. People unable to attend a Red Sox game can watch this ritual played out in the 2005 Drew Barrymore/Jimmy Fallon comedy film Fever Pitch.
"Sweet Caroline" has been covered by other singers such as Elvis Presley, Andy Williams, Bobby Goldsboro, Waylon Jennings and Frank Sinatra. It was recently performed on live TV by American Idol finalist David Archuleta when Diamond came on as a guest mentor. Diamond's original recording, however, remains the most popular.
"[It] probably is the biggest, most important song of my career," Diamond told the Associated Press. When the real Caroline learned about the song's roots, she was reportedly very flattered and happy.
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