Neil Diamond remembers a very clear difference when he shifted from being a songwriter to a recording artist with his debut album, The Feel of Neil Diamond, which came out 60 years ago this month.
“There was a lapel button that said, ‘I love The Feel of Neil Diamond,’ and marketing around the album,” Diamond says in an email interview. “You don’t get that when you’re just a songwriter and other people are singing your songs! It was a new era.”
That 1966 debut album on Bang Records — with its hits “Solitary Man” and “Cherry Cherry” — set Diamond on his way as one of not only the most successful singer-songwriters in pop music history but one of the most beloved. With hits like “Holly Holy,” “Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon,” “Cracklin’ Rosie,” “I Am… I Said,” “Song Sung Blue,” “Forever in Blue Jeans,” “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers,” “America” and, of course, the cultural juggernaut “Sweet Caroline,” Diamond has charted 53 songs on the Billboard Hot 100, including 13 top 10s, and 18 top 10 albums on the Billboard 200. He is No. 2 on Billboard’s Greatest Adult Contemporary Artists of All Time list, behind only Elton John. He has sold more than 130 million albums, according to Universal Music Group, which acquired his song catalog and master recordings in 2022.
