He was a brand-new performer, not a star. A club hired him for a full weekend of shows, but his song list was almost empty.
We are talking about Neil Diamond!
He had just released “Solitary Man.” It was getting a little radio play, just enough for a promoter to think, “Let’s book this guy.” So they flew him down and gave him a serious job: six shows in one weekend, two shows a night, 30 to 40 minutes each.
There was only one problem. Neil Diamond did not have 30 minutes of music.
To survive the weekend, he reached back to whatever he could remember. He filled his set with “camp songs” from his youth: “If I Had a Hammer.” “La Bamba.” And that was pretty much it. Three songs, looped again and again, while he hoped nobody noticed how thin his set really was.
If you think legends are “born that way,” you need to hear what really happened that first weekend.
We meet Neil Diamond as a young, nervous singer in Florida, trying to survive a whole weekend of shows with only one real song: “Solitary Man.” He jokes about faking his way through the set and hoping nobody notices how little music he actually has.
In Florida, “Solitary Man” was the one song he could lean on. In this 1972 live show, it has turned into his calling card.
Neil Diamond – Solitary Man (Live)
Right after “Solitary Man,” he really did go into the studio and record “La Bamba” for his first album, The Feel of Neil Diamond, in 1966. He needed more songs to fill the record, just like he needed more songs to fill that weekend in Florida. So he reached for the same simple tune he knew from camp.
When you listen, it sounds nothing like the famous Ritchie Valens hit. Neil’s version is slower, softer, almost like a folk song played in a coffee shop. You can hear a young singer still finding his voice, turning a campfire favorite into something intense and personal.